When teaching US History or European History, educators usually include a study of the Cold War period, which spanned the years from 1947 to 1991. Such a study inevitably includes a discussion of the Berlin Wall, a twelve-foot concrete barrier erected by Russian authorities to prevent those living in the Soviet-dominated Eastern sector of the city from defecting to the more democratic sectors governed by the United States, Great Britain, and France. To aid the teaching of this important period in international relations, I recommend the teacher make a personal visit to Berlin to view the Wall and related sites.

On a recent visit to Berlin, author Terry Lee Marzell stands beside a section of the Berlin Wall, erected during the Cold War to prevent citizens from defecting from the Soviet-dominated Eastern sector of the city.

Before the Wall was erected, approximately 3.5 million East German citizens fled the highly-restrictive Soviet rule by simply crossing into more democratic West Berlin. Then they were free to emigrate to other cities within the German Democratic Republic or move on to other countries. The mass defection was embarrassing to Soviet leaders, who wanted the world to believe their Communist regime was preferred by their people. To stem further flight, the Soviets constructed the twelve-foot concrete barrier that became known as the Berlin Wall. Behind the Wall on the East German side was the area that came to be called the “Death Strip.” The Soviets equipped this area with a number of features intended to betray the presence of defectors. Among these were soft sand that allowed for easy detection of footprints, barbed wire, floodlights, vicious dogs, trip-wire machine guns, and patrolling soldiers with orders to shoot escapees on sight.

By the time the Wall came down on November 9, 1989, more than 100,000 people had attempted to circumvent the obstruction and escape to freedom in the West. They used incredibly creative methods to achieve their goal, including jumping out of windows adjacent to the wall, climbing over the barbed wire, flying over it in hot air balloons, crawling under it through the sewers, driving through unfortified parts of the wall at high speeds, disguising their bodies in inhumanly-shaped suitcases, or hiding in tiny secret compartments in cars. Although more than 5,000 people were able to achieve their goal, at least 171 individuals were killed during their attempts to reach freedom.

On a recent trip to Berlin, I was able to see and touch first-hand a remaining standing portion of the Wall. A memorial with a photograph of each individual who died trying to reach freedom humanizes the number of dead. The spot evokes conflicting emotions: Grief for the loss of life, sadness for the families who were torn apart when the Wall separated them from loved ones living on the other side, and joy for when the Wall finally came down.

While visiting Berlin, the author visits a reconstruction of Checkpoint Charlie, the well-known Cold War border crossing between the East and West sectors of the city.

I was also able to visit the well-known crossing that marks the border of East and West Berlin known as Checkpoint Charlie. It is important to note that what the tourist sees at Checkpoint Charlie today is a reconstruction of the original checkpoint. The famous photos of the American and Russian soldiers are fictional; the guard shack is from the period, but is not the original guard house; and the uniformed men posing for pictures are just actors trying to collect tips from tourists. The reconstruction offers a degree of physicality to a study of the Cold War, but the teacher will doubtless want to share authentic photos from the period with students.

Although it has been nearly three decades since the Berlin Wall was felled, the lobotomized city of Berlin is still trying to knit its two halves back together. You can’t really get a sense of this unless you visit the place in person. And that’s why I recommend a visit to the capital of Germany to anyone who teaches the Cold War.