History of Europe

First barbed wire, then concrete:the construction of the wall

On August 13, 1961, the GDR army and police began sealing off the borders within Berlin. Barbed wire is quickly followed by stones. A wall is built that seals the division of Berlin.

by Sebastian Theby

In the early morning of August 13, 1961, the Cold War is approaching freezing point. The National People's Army, People's Police and so-called factory combat groups of the GDR march on the borders of the Soviet sector in Berlin. The uniformed men tear up the pavement, drive posts into the ground, and pull out barbed wire. Nobody should escape anymore. The political leadership no longer wants to see how more and more people are fleeing from the Soviet occupation zone to the West and thus endangering the continued existence of the GDR.

Escape from the GDR:Last chance West Berlin

Since the founding of the Soviet-style workers' and farmers' state on October 7, 1949, more than 2.5 million people have made their way to the West. The inner-German border is already relatively impermeable in the summer of 1961, but control is difficult in Berlin.

Wall construction:Even windows are bricked up

Construction workers guarded by armed People's Police build the Wall here between Potsdamer Platz and Lindenstrasse.

The GDR leadership can no longer and will not accept this. Despite the blocking measures, another 800 people fled to the western part of the city by the next day - they climbed over the barbed wire or jumped through house windows at the sector border. The GDR regime reacted and had these loopholes plugged. The windows of the houses close to the border are bricked up, the border crossings are sealed with concrete slabs. Little by little the Berlin Wall is being built. Later, the houses near the border are completely torn away and the so-called death strip is created.

The Americans are powerless

The West is reacting cautiously to the action, and the Americans are only reluctant to express their solidarity. After Berlin's Governing Mayor Willy Brandt asked the Americans for support in a letter to the then US President John F. Kennedy two days after the construction of the Wall began, the latter wrote back shortly afterwards:

"As serious as this matter is, we [...] have no measures at our disposal that can bring about a significant change in the current situation."John F. Kennedy to Berlin's Governing Mayor Willy Brandt on August 18 1961

As early as June 1961, Kennedy had expressed the powerlessness of the West to an adviser:"[Khrushchev] has to do something to stop the flow of refugees - maybe a wall. And we won't be able to prevent that. I can keep the alliance together to Defending West Berlin. But I can't do anything to keep East Berlin open."

Ulbricht denied the construction of the wall shortly before

The final separation of Germany was very carefully planned and organized. The regime was completely ignorant before the Wall was built. As late as June 1961, the head of the GDR's Council of State, Walter Ulbricht, asserted at a press conference:

"I understand your question to mean that there are people in West Germany who want us to mobilize the construction workers in the capital of the GDR to erect a wall. I am not aware of any such intention, as the construction workers in the capital are mainly occupied with house building and their manpower is used to the full. Nobody intends to build a wall!"Walter Ulbricht at a press conference on June 15, 1961

Cynically, Ulbricht thus coined the term "wall" before it even existed. The credibility of his statement should be representative of the typical GDR propaganda - until the fall of the wall in November 1989.

Hundreds die at the inner-German border

Until then, however, the "anti-fascist protective wall" - as the propaganda term was used in the East - ensured with deadly precision that the citizens of the GDR remained trapped in their country. Walls and fences, dog walkers, mines, self-firing systems and border guards with orders to shoot should make attempts to escape impossible. It is estimated that around 900 people died between 1961 and 1989 trying to escape at the inner-German border:almost 200 refugees drowned in the Baltic Sea, more than 600 died at the inner-German border and the Berlin Wall.

The Fechter case is an example of a number of victims of the Wall

Many people lost their lives trying to escape, such as 18-year-old Peter Fechter, who was shot and died in 1962.

At least 136 people pay for the escape attempt at the Berlin Wall with their lives. This was the result of investigations by the Berlin Wall Memorial and the Potsdam Center for Contemporary History. One of the most tragic cases is linked to the name of Peter Fechter:a good year after the border was built, the 18-year-old tried to climb over the wall with a friend. The friend manages to escape, but Fechter is shot at by the GDR border guards when he is on top of the Wall and falls back into GDR territory. There he screams for help for an hour until he finally bleeds to death in agony. Fechter's death at the Wall is exemplary for all those who lost their lives at the border - a symbol of the inhumanity of the GDR regime.