Erection of the Wall

At the end of the 1950s, the "cold war" prevails between East and West. The atomic arsenals of the US and the USSR could repeatedly wipe out all life on earth. The "nuclear standoff" - the constant danger of mutual annihilation - prevents the outbreak of a "hot war" between the two superpowers and their alliance partners.

Erection of the Wall in the Harz Street on August 18, 1961 ©Bundesbildstelle

In October 1957 the USSR places the first space satellite (Sputnik I) into earth orbit. The US and the western countries are in shock at this Soviet accomplishment. Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev engages in a further step: in November 1958 he challenges the Western protective countries in an ultimatum to withdraw their forces from the four-power city of Berlin. West Berlin is to be "demilitarized" and turned into a "free city".

The Khrushchev ultimatum arouses indignation in western countries. Were the western powers to yield to Soviet pressure, the freedom of inhabitants of West Berlin would be - as in 1948 - in great jeopardy. The representatives of the governments of the US, UK, and France, at the Paris meeting of NATO in December 1958, express their determination to preserve the freedom of West Berlin at any cost.

In January 1959 the Moscow regime heightens its pressure and presents a draft peace settlement between the victorious powers and Germany. According to this, the two German states, the Federal Republic of Germany and the DDR , are to form a confederation. This German Confederation, standing along the dividing line between the two power blocks, is to join neither NATO nor the Warschauer Pact. The Oder-Neisse border is to be confirmed in the peace treaty, whereby the eastern regions of the former German Reich are to be permanently yielded to Poland and the USSR.

The Western powers decisively reject the Soviet plan and call for the convocation of a four-power conference in Geneva, to which observers of both German states are to be invited. The Soviets agree. The Geneva conference ends inconclusively in August 1959.

The daily stream of refugees from the DDR mounts (in the years 1949-61 over 2.6 million refugees flee to the West Germany). The best escape route is, as always, through the four-power city of Berlin, where the border crossing between East and West is still relatively unrestricted. This situation seems to be no longer acceptable to the regimes in East Berlin and in Moscow. Backed up by the USSR, the DDR leadership erects the Berlin Wall, starting August 13, 1961. The western powers take this clear violation of the four-power status of the city without significant protest; the citizens of Berlin are shocked.

Citizens of West Berlin wave to their relatives on the other side of the Wall ©Bundesbildstelle

The border between East and West Berlin, as also the border elsewhere between the DDR and the Federal Republic of Germany, becomes a nearly insurmountable obstacle for persons who wish to flee to the freedom of the West. Hundreds of persons pay with their lives, bodily injury, or many years of prison for their flight attempts.