60 years ago: How East Germany plotted to construct the Berlin Wall
BERLIN: In the early hours of Sunday, August 13, 1961, communist East Germany’s authorities began building the Berlin Wall, cutting the city in two and plugging the last remaining gap in the Iron Curtain.
Rumours that the border between East and West Berlin was about to be closed had been swirling for 48 hours.
On Friday, the parliament or People’s Chamber of communist German Democratic Republic (GDR) had given the green light to take any measures necessary to halt the exodus of its population westwards.
Over the preceding 12 years, more than 3mn citizens had fled the strict regime, opting for the freedom and prosperity offered by West Germany.
At 4.01am on that Sunday, a top priority AFP flash dated Berlin hit the wire: “The army and Volkspolizei are massing at the edge of the Eastern and Western sectors of Berlin to block passage.” In a second flash, the story was firmed up. “Berlin’s metropolitan trains have for the past two hours not been going from one sector to the other.”
Very early in the morning,
AFP’s correspondent at the scene described the situation on the ground. “Barbed wire fences and defensive spikes have been put in place overnight to hermetically seal the border between East Berlin and West Berlin. The road is practically cut off for refugees.”
Little by little, the kilometres of barbed wire gave way to a 43km-long concrete wall cutting the city in two from north to south. Another outer wall, 112km long, cuts off the enclave of West Berlin and its 2mn inhabitants from the GDR.
Constantly upgraded over its 28 years of existence, more than 100km of the wall is made up of slabs of reinforced concrete, 3.60m high, crowned with a cylinder without a grip making it almost impossible to climb.
Along the eastern side of what is widely called the “wall of shame” stands a “no man’s land”, 300m deep in places.The remainder is made of metal wire. However hermetic this formidable “anti-fascist protection rampart”, as it was officially known, would be, it would not prevent the escape of nearly 5,000 people until it was taken down on November 9, 1989. Around 100 fugitives have lost their lives trying to cross over.