Pearson Edexcel International GCSE History · 4HI1 · Free · no account needed
East Germany, 1958–90 — exam questions
15 original Incandio exam-style questions on East Germany, 1958–90, 150 marks, about 225 minutes of writing. Each one carries the command word, the tariff and the specification statement it assesses, exactly as a paper presents them. This is an original Incandio practice question, written to reflect the structure and demands of the qualification. It is not an official Pearson Edexcel past-paper question.
This is the practice set for East Germany, 1958–90 — the option that teaches it. Read the option first if the idea is new; come here when you want to find out whether you can turn it into marks. Completely free, no account needed to read.
What these questions ask of you
2 command words run through this set, and on Pearson Edexcel International GCSE History each one means something precise. Answering the wrong command is the commonest way a candidate who understands the option still loses the mark.
- Describe (6 marks)
- TWO features, each with supporting detail. Recall only; explanation earns nothing here Misread as: explaining why the feature mattered, which is a different objective on a different question
- How (8–16 marks)
- a judgement on the EXTENT, built from both sides — agreement and disagreement, or three aspects and a criterion Misread as: agreement only on the source question (capped at 4), or the two printed bullets and nothing else on the sixteen-marker (held at 10)
Assessed on Paper 1 (4HI1/01) and Paper 2 (4HI1/02), against AO1, AO3, AO4.
Where these sit in the specification
Pearson Edexcel International GCSE History (4HI1) — statements 4HI1 A5.5 AO1 · 4HI1 A5.3 AO1 · 4HI1 A5.4 AO1 · 4HI1 A5.2 AO1 · 4HI1 A5.1 AO1 · 4HI1 A5.5 AO3 · 4HI1 A5.3 AO3 · 4HI1 A5.4 AO3 · 4HI1 A5.2 AO3 · 4HI1 A5.1 AO3 · 4HI1 A5.5 AO4 · 4HI1 A5.3 AO4 · 4HI1 A5.4 AO4 · 4HI1 A5.2 AO4 · 4HI1 A5.1 AO4. Incandio is aligned to this specification; it is not published by, endorsed by or affiliated with Pearson, and it reproduces none of Pearson's wording.
The 15 questions
Answer them on paper, then open the option's exam practice to have them marked. The mark scheme, the accepted and rejected answers and the annotated model answer are in Incandio and are not printed here — an answer beside its question is not practice.
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(6)Describe
Describe TWO features of the events in the GDR during 1989.
(Total for Question 1 = 6 marks)
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(6)Describe
Describe TWO features of daily life in the GDR.
(Total for Question 2 = 6 marks)
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(6)Describe
Describe TWO features of relations between the GDR and West Germany after 1969.
(Total for Question 3 = 6 marks)
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(6)Describe
Describe TWO features of state control in the GDR.
(Total for Question 4 = 6 marks)
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(6)Describe
Describe TWO features of the refugee problem faced by the GDR before 1961.
(Total for Question 5 = 6 marks)
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(8)How
How far does Source A support the evidence of Source B about the opening of the Berlin border on 9 November 1989? Explain your answer.
Source A: At 21.20 approximately two hundred citizens were present at the crossing, increasing thereafter. They stated that permission had been granted with immediate effect and referred to a television broadcast. The duty officer sought instructions from the district and from the ministry and obtained none. At 23.30, the crowd having reached a size at which control by the detachment present could not be assured, the barrier was raised and identity checks were discontinued. From an East German border service duty log, 9 November 1989. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source B: We had watched it on the television and my husband said the man does not know what he has just said. We went down anyway because everybody in the block was going. The soldiers were as confused as we were, which was the thing nobody expected, and one of them asked us what had been on the news. Then somebody at the front simply walked and the rest of us walked after him. From an interview with an East Berlin couple, recorded in 1999. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 6 = 8 marks)
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(8)How
How far does Source A support the evidence of Source B about living conditions in the GDR? Explain your answer.
Source A: We had the flat in nine months because the works allocated it, and the rent was less than my mother had paid before the war in real terms. The crèche took the baby at eleven weeks and I went back to the drawing office. I did not queue for a washing machine because there were none to queue for, and I waited eleven years for the car. Both of those things are true and people now want me to pick one. From an interview with a woman from Halle, recorded in 2004. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source B: The district reports the completion of four hundred and twelve units this quarter, exceeding the plan. It must also be recorded that repairs to the older stock in the inner districts have again been deferred, that eleven buildings have been closed as unsafe, and that the sums allocated to maintenance do not cover the works identified in the survey of the previous year. From an East German municipal housing report, 1984. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 7 = 8 marks)
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(8)How
How far does Source A support the evidence of Source B about the GDR's position in the late 1980s? Explain your answer.
Source A: The delegation was received with the honours accorded to a head of state, the flag was flown along the route and the anthem was played. Twenty years ago this Republic was not admitted to be a country at all. Whatever is said in the Western press this week, the ceremony is the fact, and the ceremony took place. From an East German official's note on the Bonn visit, September 1987. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source B: The working group is obliged to report that the servicing of external obligations in convertible currency now requires either a reduction in imports affecting supply to the population or further borrowing on terms which cannot be sustained beyond the medium term. No third course has been identified. The group requests instruction. From an internal East German economic assessment, 1988. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 8 = 8 marks)
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(8)How
How far does Source A support the evidence of Source B about the methods of the Stasi? Explain your answer.
Source A: The measures against the subject are to proceed without any action attributable to the service. It is proposed that the doctoral supervision be reallocated on academic grounds, that the rumour concerning the subject's second application be allowed to circulate in the institute, and that the wife receive the anonymous communication already prepared. No detention is envisaged. The objective is that the subject should conclude that the difficulty originates with colleagues. From an internal East German security service operational plan, 1981. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source B: It was never anything you could point at. The supervisor changed, then the second application was refused without a reason anybody would put in writing, and then my wife had a letter. For four years I believed a colleague had done it and I said so to people, which I imagine was the object. I only understood when I read the file, and by then the friendship I had ruined was twenty years old. From an interview with a former East German academic, recorded in 1997. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 9 = 8 marks)
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(8)How
How far does Source A support the evidence of Source B about the pressures on the East German state in 1961? Explain your answer.
Source A: The district reports that of the eleven physicians on its establishment, four have not presented themselves since March and two have given notice of transfer within the Republic which the ministry has been unable to confirm. The polyclinic operates on a reduced list. It is respectfully submitted that the position cannot be held through another winter by administrative means alone. From an internal East German health administration report, early 1961. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source B: My aunt telephoned on the Saturday to say she would come for the christening and by the Sunday there was wire across the end of the street and a boy with a rifle who had been at school with my brother. Nobody had said anything. They told us afterwards it was to keep the fascists out. The wire faced the wrong way for that and everyone standing there could see it. From an interview with an East Berlin woman, recorded in 1992. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 10 = 8 marks)
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(16)How
Extract C suggests that the collapse of 1989 was an accident. How far do you agree with this interpretation? Use Extract C, Sources A and B and your own knowledge to explain your answer.
Extract C: The most closely watched population in history was released by a man reading a note he had not been given time to understand. Had the sentence been delivered as written, the border would have opened on the following morning, in an orderly fashion, with stamps and forms and officials, and the Republic might have survived its own concession by months. Instead a state that had planned everything for forty years lost its frontier in ninety minutes to a misplaced adverb. From a study of the events of November 1989, written by a British journalist in 2009. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source A: They stated that permission had been granted with immediate effect and referred to a television broadcast. The duty officer sought instructions from the district and from the ministry and obtained none. At 23.30 the barrier was raised and identity checks were discontinued. From an East German border service duty log, 9 November 1989. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source B: We went down anyway because everybody in the block was going. The soldiers were as confused as we were, which was the thing nobody expected. Then somebody at the front simply walked and the rest of us walked after him. From an interview with an East Berlin couple, recorded in 1999. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 11 = 16 marks)
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(16)How
Extract C suggests that the GDR's welfare provision bought the regime the acceptance of its population. How far do you agree with this interpretation? Use Extract C, Sources A and B and your own knowledge to explain your answer.
Extract C: Honecker's bargain was stated openly and understood on both sides: rent, work, bread and a crèche place, in exchange for staying quiet. For fifteen years it held, because for most households it was a better offer than their parents had received from any German government. The Republic did not need to be loved. It needed to be liveable, and until the money ran out it was. From a history of the two Germanies, written by a German historian in 2010. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source A: We had the flat in nine months because the works allocated it, and the crèche took the baby at eleven weeks. I did not queue for a washing machine because there were none to queue for, and I waited eleven years for the car. Both of those things are true and people now want me to pick one. From an interview with a woman from Halle, recorded in 2004. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source B: The district reports the completion of four hundred and twelve units this quarter, exceeding the plan. It must also be recorded that repairs to the older stock have again been deferred and that eleven buildings have been closed as unsafe. From an East German municipal housing report, 1984. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 12 = 16 marks)
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(16)How
Extract C suggests that Ostpolitik weakened the GDR. How far do you agree with this interpretation? Use Extract C, Sources A and B and your own knowledge to explain your answer.
Extract C: Bonn gave the Republic everything it had asked for since 1949 and, in the same treaties, everything that would destroy it. Recognition came with visitors, visitors came with currency and comparison, and a state whose only claim to exist was that it was a better Germany found itself being measured against the other one in every kitchen in the country. Honecker signed for the status and did not read the price. From a study of the German question, written by a British historian in 2007. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source A: The delegation was received with the honours accorded to a head of state. Twenty years ago this Republic was not admitted to be a country at all. Whatever is said in the Western press this week, the ceremony is the fact. From an East German official's note on the Bonn visit, September 1987. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source B: The servicing of external obligations in convertible currency now requires either a reduction in imports affecting supply to the population or further borrowing on terms which cannot be sustained beyond the medium term. No third course has been identified. From an internal East German economic assessment, 1988. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 13 = 16 marks)
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(16)How
Extract C suggests that surveillance was what kept the GDR in power. How far do you agree with this interpretation? Use Extract C, Sources A and B and your own knowledge to explain your answer.
Extract C: Ninety-one thousand officers and a hundred and seventy-three thousand informers is not a security service; it is a substitute for a population's consent. The Republic could not hold an election, so it held a file on everybody instead, and by the 1980s it had reached inside marriages. Every other prop of the state — the subsidies, the barrier, the Soviet guarantee — was secondary to this. The German Democratic Republic was governed by knowing. From a study of surveillance states, written by an American historian in 2015. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source A: The measures against the subject are to proceed without any action attributable to the service. No detention is envisaged. The objective is that the subject should conclude that the difficulty originates with colleagues. From an internal East German security service operational plan, 1981. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source B: It was never anything you could point at. For four years I believed a colleague had done it and I said so to people, which I imagine was the object. I only understood when I read the file. From an interview with a former East German academic, recorded in 1997. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 14 = 16 marks)
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(16)How
Extract C suggests that the Berlin Wall was built out of necessity. How far do you agree with this interpretation? Use Extract C, Sources A and B and your own knowledge to explain your answer.
Extract C: No government in Europe would have watched a sixth of its population leave through a single city, and the ones who left were the trained sixth. The Republic paid to educate a doctor and the Federal Republic employed her. Judged as an answer to that problem the border of 1961 was a complete success: the haemorrhage stopped, the labour force stabilised, and the growth of the following decade rests entirely upon it. It was a monstrous solution to a real emergency, and historians who name only the first half have explained nothing. From a study of the German Democratic Republic, written by a British historian in 2012. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source A: Of the eleven physicians on its establishment, four have not presented themselves since March. The polyclinic operates on a reduced list. It is respectfully submitted that the position cannot be held through another winter by administrative means alone. From an internal East German health administration report, early 1961. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source B: By the Sunday there was wire across the end of the street and a boy with a rifle who had been at school with my brother. They told us afterwards it was to keep the fascists out. The wire faced the wrong way for that. From an interview with an East Berlin woman, recorded in 1992. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 15 = 16 marks)
Have them marked, then defend the answer
Practice tells you the mark; teaching it back tells you whether you understand it. On Incandio a topic counts as mastered only once you have taught it and defended it.
- Mark these questions — 15 questions, marked on Incandio against the authored scheme, with the mistake you actually made named.
- Teach it — explain East Germany, 1958–90 to Ember, an AI pupil who does not have it yet and asks the awkward question.
- Defend it — three rounds against the mind with the strongest claim on it, marked against descriptors you can read first.
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Back to the option
- East Germany, 1958–90 — Option A5: the Berlin Wall crisis, 1958–63; stabilisation and control: the GDR, 1962–87; life in the GDR – social change, 1962–87; ostpolitik – relations with the Federal Republic, 1969–87; the Peaceful Revolution, 1987–90.
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