Basics
Name of the 40-year standoff between the 2 superpowers of the 20th C
What is the Cold War?
The initial material used to build the barrier on August 13, 1961.
What is barbed wire?
The Economic Structure of East Germany
What is communism? (centrally planned economy)
Approx. number of people who escaped East Berlin
What's 5,000?
The year the Berlin Wall fell.
What is 1989?
The two main powers that controlled East and West Berlin, respectively, during the Cold War.
What are the Soviet Union and the Western Allies (US, UK, France)?
One of the obstacles placed between the inner & outer Walls
What are landmines, guard dogs, sand traps, armed guard towers, barbed fences, and/or concrete barriers?
The East German secret police organization that spied on citizens and maintained strict control.
What is the Stasi?
Some common methods of escape, particularly in the early days.
What is tunneling/digging tunnels or jumping out of apartment windows?
The neighboring country whose decision to open its border with Austria in May 1989 created a large escape route for East Germans.
What is Hungary?
The year the Berlin Wall was first erected, shocking the world.
What is 1961?
The official name of the heavily guarded inner zone separating the two walls, often filled with obstacles.
What is the Death Strip or Todesstreifen?
The college located in East Berlin, founded in 1809
What is Humboldt University?
The first known casualty of the Berlin Wall, shot dead just over a year after its construction.
Who is Peter Fechter?
The date in 1990 when East and West Germany were officially reunified into a single country.
What is October 3rd, 1990?
The primary reason East Germany gave for building the wall, though the real reason was to stop the "brain drain."
What is to keep out Western spies/fascists?
The name of the famous border crossing between East and West Berlin where American and Soviet tanks faced off in 1961.
What is Checkpoint Charlie?
The German term for the large-scale demonstrations in 1989 that started in Leipzig and demanded political reform and freedom.
What are the Monday Demonstrations or Montagsdemonstrationen?
This East German border guard became famous for defecting to the West by leaping over the barbed wire on the first day of construction.
Who is Conrad Schumann?
Günter Schabowski's career-ending mistake
What's announcing the immediate opening of the border during a press conference on November 9, 1989?
The name of the government of East Germany (German Democratic Republic) in German.
What is the Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR?
The name of the Berlin river that formed part of the border
What's the Spree?
The East German car company, known for its 2-stroke engine (diesel & leaded gasoline)
Trabant (nickname Trabbi)
The form of transportation that East Germans famously used to fly over the wall to the West.
What is a hot air balloon?
The German term for the citizens who chipped away at the wall for souvenirs after its fall.
What are Mauerspechte or Wall Peckers?