Publication

Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall

Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall

Cold War International History Project

Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall

The Origins of the Berlin Wall

Documents

14 June 1948, CIA Report on Effect of Soviet Restrictions on the U.S. Position in Berlin

28 September 1948, Consequences of a Breakdown in Four-Power Negotiations on Germany

10 December 1948, CIA Memoradum for the President on the Situation in Berlin

2 January 1953, CPSU CC Resolution Approving the Deployment of Border Guards along the Eastern Border of the GDR

18 March 1953, Draft Instructions for General Vasilii Chuikov and Vladimir Semyonov Regarding the GDR Control of Borders

15 May 1953, Memorandum from the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs to V. Semyonov, "On the Question of Preventing the Defection of Inhabitants from the GDR to West Germany"

18 May 1953, Memorandum from Gen. Vasilii Chuikov, Pavel Yudin, and Ivan Il'ichev to Georgii Malenkov Critically Assessing the Situation in the GDR

17 June 1953, Radio Telegram from Vladimir Semyonov Providing Situation Report to Vyacheslav Molotov and Nikolai Bulganin as of 2:00 p.m. CET

19 June 1953, NSC 158: United States Objectives and Actions to Exploit the Unrest in the Satellite States

4 July 1953, Memorandum from Vladimir Semyonov and Pavel Yudin to Vyacheslav Molotov Regarding Inter-Zonal Movement in Berlin

The East German Uprising of 1953

Publications

The Soviet Occupation: Moscow's Man in (East) Berlin

Stalin and the SED Leadership, 7 April 1952: "You Must Organize Your Own State"

Reexamining Soviet Policy Towards Germany During the Beria Interregnum

“This Is Not A Politburo, But A Madhouse” The Post-Stalin Succession Struggle, Soviet Deutschlandpolitik and the SED: New Evidence from Russian, German, and Hungarian Archives

Malenkov on the German Question, 2 June 1953

The United States, the East German Uprising of 1953, and the Limits of Rollback

Western Intelligence and the Division of German Science

The Berlin Crisis of 1958-1961

Documents

30 November 1960, Record of Meeting of Comrade N.S. Khrushchev with Comrade W. Ulbricht

15 September 1961, Letter from [Walter] Ulbricht to [Nikita] Khrushchev

28 September 1961, Letter from [Nikita] Khrushchev to [Walter] Ulbricht,

Publications

New Evidence on Khrushchev's 1958 Berlin Ultimatum

Khrushchev's November 1958 Berlin Ultimatum: New Evidence from the Polish Archives

“Operation Atom” The Soviet Union’s Stationing of Nuclear Missiles in the German Democratic Republic, 1959

The Berlin Crisis and the Khrushchev-Ulbricht Summits in Moscow, 9 and 18 June 1959

Exploiting and Securing the Open Border in Berlin: The Western Secret Services, the Stasi, and the Second Berlin Crisis, 1958-1961

Ulbricht and the Concete 'Rose': New Archival Evidence on the Dynamics of Soviet-East German Relations and the Berlin Crisis, 1958-1961

Khrushchev's Secret Speech on the Berlin Crisis, August 1961 [Document]

New Sources on the Berlin Crisis 1958-1962

Khrushchev and the Berlin Crisis

The End of the Berlin Crisis, 1961-1962: New Evidence From the Polish and East German Archives

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

Documents

26 November 1980, Letter from [Erich] Honecker to [Leonid] Brezhnev

9 October 1989, Telegram from the Romanian Embassy in Berlin to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

1 November 1989, Memorandum of Conversation Between Egon Krenz, Secretary general of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) and Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU)

6 November 1989, Note of Conversation on GDR-FRG Economic Cooperation

7 November 1989, Minutes No. 49 of the Meeting of the SED Politburo

9 November 1989, Draft Transit Rules

9 November 1989, Transcript of the Tenth Session of the SED Central Committee

9 November 1989, Press Conference Announcing the New Transit Rules

10 November 1989, Verbal Message from Mikhail Gorbachev to Helmut Kohl

10 November 1989, Verbal Message from Mikhail Gorbachev to Francois Mitterand, Margaret Thatcher and George Bush

Publications

East German Spying Reveals NATO War Plans

Negotiating One's Own Demise? The GDR's Foreign Ministry and the CSCE Negotiations, Plans, Preparations, Tactics, and Presumptions

The Fall of the Wall: The Unintended Dissolution of East Germany’s Ruling Regime

New Evidence on the "Soviet Factor" in the Peaceful Revolutions of 1989

Tagged

Related Program

Cold War International History Project

The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War. Through an award winning Digital Archive, the Project allows scholars, journalists, students, and the interested public to reassess the Cold War and its many contemporary legacies. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. Read more

Explore More

Browse Insights & Analysis

Photograph of John Kennedy and Arturo Frondizi

John F. Kennedy, Arturo Frondizi, and a "Hopping Mad" US Ambassador

By James G. Hershberg

An Inside Look at Soviet Counterintelligence in the mid-1950s

By Filip Kovacevic

CWHRC Conference

The 12th Annual Cold War History Research Center International Student Conference at Corvinus University of Budapest

12th Annual Cold War History Research Center International Student Conference at Corvinus University of Budapest

Call for Papers - Methodologies of Working in Cold War Archives: Facts, Values and Archival Ecologies

February 25, 2021

Chinese negotiators at the Sino-American Ambassadorial talks in Geneva in 1955.

Negotiating the Return of Civilians: Chinese Perception, Tactics and Objectives at the First Fourteen Meetings of the Sino-American Ambassadorial Talks

Book cover of Between Containment and Rollback

Between Containment and Rollback: The United States and the Cold War in Germany

By Christian F. Ostermann

Soviet Soldier in Afghanistan

The Transfer of Soviet Prisoners of War from Afghanistan to Switzerland, 1982-1984

By Liliane Stadler

President Ford and daughter Susan watch as Secretary of State Henry Kissinger shakes hands with Mao Tse-Tung; Chairman of Chinese Communist Party, during a visit to the Chairman’s residence.

Less Revolution, More Realpolitik: China’s Foreign Policy in the Early and Middle 1970s

From Mao to Deng: China’s Changing Relations with the United States

From Mao to Deng: China’s Changing Relations with the United States

AP images

Fall of the Wall at 30

Share