Berlin is divided 1961
Shortly after midnight on this day in 1961, East German
soldiers begin laying down barbed wire and bricks as a barrier between
Soviet-controlled East Berlin and the democratic western section of the
city.
After World War II, defeated Germany was divided into Soviet,
American, British and French zones of occupation. The city of Berlin,
though technically part of the Soviet zone, was also split, with the
Soviets taking the eastern part of the city. After a massive Allied
airlift in June 1948 foiled a Soviet attempt to blockade West Berlin,
the eastern section was drawn even more tightly into the Soviet fold.
Over the next 12 years, cut off from its western counterpart and
basically reduced to a Soviet satellite, East Germany saw between 2.5
million and 3 million of its citizens head to West Germany in search of
better opportunities. By 1961, some 1,000 East Germans–including many
skilled laborers, professionals and intellectuals–were leaving every
day.
In August, Walter Ulbricht, the Communist leader of East Germany, got
the go-ahead from Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to begin the sealing
off of all access between East and West Berlin. Soldiers began the work
over the night of August 12-13, laying more than 100 miles of barbed
wire slightly inside the East Berlin border. The wire was soon replaced
by a six-foot-high, 96-mile-long wall of concrete blocks, complete with
guard towers, machine gun posts and searchlights. East German officers
known as Volkspolizei (“Volpos”) patrolled the Berlin Wall day and
night.
Many Berlin residents on that first morning found themselves suddenly
cut off from friends or family members in the other half of the city.
Led by their mayor, Willi Brandt, West Berliners demonstrated against
the wall, as Brandt criticized Western democracies, particularly the
United States, for failing to take a stand against it. President John F.
Kennedy had earlier said publicly that the United States could only
really help West Berliners and West Germans, and that any kind of action
on behalf of East Germans would only result in failure.
The Berlin Wall was one of the most powerful and iconic symbols of
the Cold War. In June 1963, Kennedy gave his famous “Ich bin ein
Berliner” (“I am a Berliner”) speech in front of the Wall, celebrating
the city as a symbol of freedom and democracy in its resistance to
tyranny and oppression. The height of the Wall was raised to 10 feet in
1970 in an effort to stop escape attempts, which at that time came
almost daily. From 1961 to 1989, a total of 5,000 East Germans escaped;
many more tried and failed. High profile shootings of some would-be
defectors only intensified the Western world’s hatred of the Wall.
Finally, in the late 1980s, East Germany, fueled by the decline of
the Soviet Union, began to implement a number of liberal reforms. On
November 9, 1989, masses of East and West Germans alike gathered at the
Berlin Wall and began to climb over and dismantle it. As this symbol of
Cold War repression was destroyed, East and West Germany became one
nation again, signing a formal treaty of unification on October 3, 1990.
(More Events on This Day in History)
-
American Revolution
- 1781 Patriots ambush Loyalists as French set sail
-
Automotive
- 1902 Rotary engine inventor Felix Wankel born
-
Civil War
- 1864 Deep Bottom Run campaign begins
-
Cold War
- 1948 Record day for the Berlin Airlift
-
Crime
- 1961 Yosemite killer Cary Stayner born
-
Disaster
- 1878 First victim of Memphis yellow-fever epidemic dies
-
General Interest
- 1521 Aztec capital falls to Cortés
- 1899 Hitchcock born
- 1926 Fidel Castro born
-
Hollywood
- 1982 Fast Times at Ridgemont High debuts
-
Literary
- 1931 Novelist and screenwriter William Goldman is born
-
Music
- 1952 “Hound Dog” is recorded for the first time by Big Mama Thornton
-
Old West
- 1860 Annie Oakley is born
-
Presidential
- 1981 Reagan signs Economic Recovery Tax Act (ERTA)
-
Sports
- 1995 Yankee legend dies
-
Vietnam War
- 1966 Prince Sihanouk criticizes the United States
- 1972 Sappers raid Long Binh ammo dump
-
World War I
- 1918 German crown council at Spa
-
World War II
- 1940 The Battle of Britain escalates
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