Printable ScholarCold War Map
A free printable map of Europe during the Cold War, in 1961: NATO, the Warsaw Pact and the neutral countries, the Iron Curtain between East and West, and an inset of divided Berlin showing the real route of the Berlin Wall. It comes in color, black and white, and blank.
Choose your version
Black and white, color or blank.
All three are free PDFs sized for US Letter paper.
Black and white
Everything named on a plain outline map with no terrain. No color ink needed.
downloadBlack and white PDF
Color
NATO, the Warsaw Pact and the neutral countries in color, with the Iron Curtain and a Berlin inset.
downloadColor PDF
Blank
The black-and-white map with its routes and markers but no names, for labeling practice.
downloadBlank PDFEurope in the Cold War
After World War II, Europe split into two camps. The United States and its allies in Western Europe formed NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in 1949, promising to defend each other if attacked. The Soviet Union and the communist governments of Eastern Europe formed the Warsaw Pact in 1955. The line between them was called the Iron Curtain, a name Winston Churchill made famous in 1946. It ran from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, and its border was fenced and guarded, mostly to stop people from leaving the East. A few countries, such as Switzerland, Austria, Sweden and Finland, stayed neutral, and Yugoslavia was communist but joined neither side. Germany was divided into West Germany and East Germany. Its old capital, Berlin, lay deep inside East Germany and was divided too: West Berlin was held by the United States, Britain and France, and East Berlin was the capital of East Germany. In 1948 and 1949 the Soviet Union blocked the roads to West Berlin, and the Western Allies flew in food and fuel for almost a year in the Berlin Airlift. On August 13, 1961, East Germany began building the Berlin Wall around West Berlin. It stood until November 9, 1989, when the border was opened. Germany was reunited in 1990, and the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union came to an end in 1991.
On the map
- The Iron Curtain: the border between the Warsaw Pact and the rest of Europe
- West Germany and East Germany, with Bonn and Berlin
- Moscow: capital of the Soviet Union
- The Berlin Wall: about 155 km (96 miles) around West Berlin, 1961 to 1989
- Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie, on the Wall
- Tempelhof Airport: where the planes of the Berlin Airlift landed
Find it on the map
- West Berlin, an island of the West inside East Germany
- The neutral countries between the two sides: Switzerland, Austria and Yugoslavia
- Turkey and Norway, the NATO countries that bordered the Soviet Union
The map shows 1961. NATO then had 15 members, including the United States and Canada (not shown); Spain joined in 1982. Albania stopped taking part in the Warsaw Pact in 1961 and left it in 1968. Borders are adapted from the historical-basemaps dataset by A. Ourednik (GPL-3.0). The Iron Curtain line is the border between the Warsaw Pact countries and their neighbors, taken from the same borders. The Berlin Wall and the West Berlin border are from the Berlin open data map of the Wall in 1989 (Geoportal Berlin). Coastlines and rivers are shown as they are today.
Frequently asked questions
What was the Iron Curtain?
The guarded border that divided Europe during the Cold War, from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, between the communist countries of the Warsaw Pact in the east and the countries to the west. Winston Churchill made the name famous in a speech in 1946.
Which countries were in NATO and the Warsaw Pact?
In 1961 NATO had 15 members: the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Turkey and West Germany. The Warsaw Pact had eight: the Soviet Union, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania.
Where was the Berlin Wall?
It ran all the way around West Berlin, about 155 km (96 miles), cutting it off from East Berlin and the rest of East Germany. The inset on the map shows its real route in 1989.
When was the Berlin Wall built and when did it fall?
East Germany began building it on August 13, 1961. The border crossings were opened on November 9, 1989, and Germany was reunited on October 3, 1990.