1989: when the wall came tumbling down: the Berlin Wall's fall signaled the end of the Cold War and the division of Europe.

• Author: Cohen, Roger
• Position: Times Past

TEACHING OBJECTIVES

To help students understand the history behind the Berlin Wall, which divided East and West Germany and the city of Berlin for 28 years and served as a symbol of East-West tensions during the Cold War.

CRITICAL THINKING: East German border guard Harold Jaeger seemed confused and somewhat wistful about the disappearance of the Berlin Wall he guarded for so long. What does his mood suggest about the nature of East German society? Is it likely that citizens of that country had access to much information about the world outside?

Note that East German authorities referred to the Wall as the "Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart." Is this term an example of how governments can use language to manipulate thinking about important issues? Does this euphemism conflict with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's defense of the Wall as an economic measure?

Ask students to write two views of the Wall, one from a West German perspective and one from the East German governments's perspective. Remind students that the Wall, though a real barrier, also served as a symbol of the division between East and West.

WRITING EXERCISE: Refer again to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's defense of the decision to build the Berlin Wall. Have students write a brief rebuttal to Khrushchev. What would they recommend as a better way to have kept East Germans from fleeing to the West? What incentives might East Germany have given its people to reduce the likelihood that they would flee?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

* Would you have punished border guards who followed orders to shoot people fleeing to the West?

* What evidence does the article provide that helps explain why Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev decided not to use force to prevent the unification of East and West Germany?

WEB WATCH: www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/provides photos, history, and detailed facts about the design and structure of the Berlin Wall. www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1945YALTA.html provides the text of the Yalta Conference that divided Germany and Europe into Western-and Soviet-controlled zones.

For several hours on the night of Nov. 9, 1989, Harold Jaeger, an East German border guard, hesitated. With some astonishment, he had watched a Communist official declare on television that East Germans were now free to travel without getting special permission and could do so immediately.

What was going on? Ever since the Berlin Wall went up in the summer of 1961, Jaeger had defended the "Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart," as the East German authorities called it. "That wall was my life," Jaeger recalled in an interview. "I'd defended it for 28 years."

But shortly...