New
New
Year 11
Edexcel

The fall of the Berlin Wall

I can explain the events that led to the end of Soviet control of Eastern Europe and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

New
New
Year 11
Edexcel

The fall of the Berlin Wall

I can explain the events that led to the end of Soviet control of Eastern Europe and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Under Gorbachev, the USSR gave its satellite states in Eastern Europe the freedom to choose how they were governed.
  2. Between 1989 and 1991, the USSR lost control of its Eastern European satellite states.
  3. In East Germany, there were widespread popular protests demanding democracy and the destruction of the Berlin Wall.
  4. On the 9th November 1989, the East German government were forced to open the border with West Germany.
  5. On 9th November 1989, people from East Berlin and West Berlin crossed the border and began to destroy the Berlin Wall.

Common misconception

Gorbachev's reforms were intended to bring an end to communism and end Soviet control over Eastern Europe.

Gorbachev intended his reforms to strengthen communism both within the Soviet Union and its satellite states in Eastern Europe, however, once reform started in Eastern Europe, Gorbachev was unable to contain it.

Keywords

  • Doctrine - a set of beliefs or principles

  • Satellite state - a country that is dominated by another country

  • Reform - a change introduced to improve something, often a system or law

  • Reunification - bringing things or people back together after they have been separated

Ask students to create a Cold War timeline that includes the key events between the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 and its fall in November 1989. The events could be positioned on the timeline to show whether they increased or decreased Cold War tensions.
Teacher tip

Content guidance

  • Depiction or discussion of violence or suffering

Supervision

Adult supervision recommended

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2024), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

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6 Questions

Q1.
Which one of the following did Gorbachev succeed as Soviet leader in 1985?
Yuri Andropov
Leonid Brezhnev
Correct answer: Konstantin Chernenko
Boris Yeltsin
Q2.
In which Eastern European country did Lech Wałęsa lead a trade union called Solidarity?
Correct Answer: Poland
Q3.
Which of these Russian words means 'reconstruction'?
peredishka
pereloska
perepryazhka
Correct answer: perestroika
pereshivka
Q4.
What does 'glasnost' mean in Russian?
change
foolishness
independence
Correct answer: openness
reform
Q5.
Discussions between Reagan and Gorbachev focused on nuclear...
Correct Answer: disarmament, dis-armament
Q6.
Which of the following was the first summit between Reagan and Gorbachev?
Correct answer: Geneva Summit
Moscow Summit
Reykjavik Summit
Washington Summit

6 Questions

Q1.
In December 1988, Gorbachev announced that the Soviet Union was rejecting the Brezhnev...
Correct Answer: Doctrine
Q2.
In which of these Eastern European countries did the end of communist rule not happen peacefully?
Czechoslovakia
Hungary
East Germany
Poland
Correct answer: Romania
Q3.
The phrase ‘Die Mauer muss weg!’ (‘The Wall must go!’) became a rallying cry among demonstrators in which Eastern European city?
Correct answer: Berlin
Bucharest
Budapest
Prague
Warsaw
Q4.
In 1989, which Eastern European country decided to remove the border fence between it and Austria, which then meant East Germans began to cross this border into West Europe?
Austria
Czechoslovakia
East Germany
Correct answer: Hungary
USSR
Q5.
In the evening of which of these days did guards open the gates in the Berlin Wall, allowing people from East and West to cross freely?
7th December 1988
27th June 1989
6th October 1989
Correct answer: 9th November 1989
Q6.
Put these events in chronological order.
1 - The end of the Brezhnev Doctrine
2 - Solidarity win elections in Poland
3 - Fall of the Berlin Wall
4 - End of Ceaușescu's regime in Romania

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