Cabudare Kids

The wall that split a city

A grandmother in Berlin tells her granddaughter how a wall kept her family apart for 28 years. She also tells her how it ended.

Hi! I'm Cardi. This is Greta. She lives in Berlin, the capital of Germany.
Her grandma Anna is going to tell her something that really happened in their city.
At the end of a big war, in 1945, Germany was divided. By 1949 there were two countries: the West and the East.
In the East a single party was in charge, with communist ideas. The government controlled the economy and there were no free elections.
Many people in the East didn't agree with those rules. They wanted to work, speak and live freely.
That's why millions of people left for the West: about 4 million between 1949 and 1990.
On August 13, 1961, the government of the East began to close the border in Berlin. First it used wire and, a few days later, a wall.
It wanted people to stop leaving.
Anna, who was a little girl, ended up in the East. Her big brother, Karl, ended up in the West.
The wall kept families and friends apart for 28 years. Anna and Karl missed each other terribly.
Crossing was very dangerous, and many people lost their lives trying.
In the East, many things were also hard to get.
A tour guide in Berlin told a newspaper about a small car, the Trabant. According to the guide, to get one you had to put your name on a list and wait more than 10 years.
There were many protests in the East. And on November 9, 1989, people reached the border and crossed it.
It was a celebration! Anna, now grown up, crossed and hugged Karl after 28 years.
Less than a year later, in 1990, Germany became one country again. Today Greta walks where the wall used to be.
"If a country has to lock its people in so they won't leave, something isn't working," Grandma Anna tells her.
What did you learn?
- If a country has to stop its people from leaving, something isn't working.
- The wall kept families apart for 28 years, but people never stopped wanting to be free.
- Things can change: in 1989 the wall opened, and in 1990 Germany came together again.
This really happened
This is where we checked every fact in the story:
1. 1.Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, East Germany (German Democratic Republic), accessed September 28, 2026.
2. 2.Encyclopaedia Britannica, Communism, accessed September 28, 2026.
3. 3.Berlin Wall Foundation (Stiftung Berliner Mauer), The Berlin Wall, accessed September 28, 2026.
4. 4.Berlin Wall Foundation (Stiftung Berliner Mauer), Marienfelde Refugee Center Museum, accessed September 28, 2026.
5. 5.Chronik der Mauer, Victims at the Wall, accessed September 28, 2026.
6. 6.Deutsche Welle (Internet Archive copy), Go, Trabi, Go! East Germany's Darling Car Turns 50, May 19, 2007.
7. 7.Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State, Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, 1989, accessed September 28, 2026.
For grown-ups: notes and links to sources
For grown-ups: Greta, Grandma Anna and Karl are made up; the facts are not. The wait for a Trabant is one tour guide's account (11 to 15 years in Berlin), not a rule for everyone. At least 140 people died at the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989.

The story

What did you learn?

This really happened