Читать книгу Where in the World is the Berlin Wall? - Группа авторов - Страница 13

On Sunday, August 13, 1961, the systematic sealing of the 160-kilometre-long border around West Berlin began. Members of the People’s and Border Police, as well as members of the Combat Groups of the Working Class were deployed along the border. They had 30 minutes to seal off 81 streets. At 1:30am, the forces also entered numerous train stations and rail traffic between the two halves of the city was permanently blocked. The station at Friedrichstraße was the only exception and remained in service as an interchange station for inter-sector traffic. Passenger trains from the West also stopped at this station.

The streets were sealed off in the following three hours. During this period, pavements were torn up, train track connections were separated, road barriers were erected and barbed wire was lain. When the city began to wake at 6:00am, everything had been closed off. Only 12 road links remained open where people could pass between East and West and they were strictly regulated. The Brandenburg Gate was cordoned off in the following days as well as further streets. Only eight crossings remained and strict controls were carried out at such crossings.

On 15^th August, two days since the border’s closure, East Germany’s National Defence Council decided that the border should continue to be fortified by the military. In the hours of darkness between 17^th and 18^th August, work began to replace the barbed wire with concrete blocks. Contrary to Ulbricht’s claims two months earlier, construction workers were now standing at the border and sealed off the city once and for all: The Wall became more insurmountable by the day. The Wall became more and more insurmountable with each day that passed.

Citizens in both East and West looked on, bewildered. They faced the Wall, furious and powerless.

Members of the People’s Police kept citizens at bay with machine guns under their arms. Those who protested were arrested. An agitated crowd also gathered on the western side. West Berlin police had also been deployed along the border to move people away from the Wall and help prevent the situation from escalating. Everyday life in the city had been turned on its head overnight. Tens of thousands of families were torn apart by the Wall, couples were split, parents kept from their children, friends hips destroyed and neighbourhoods ruined. Countless people lost their jobs, their way of life and their prospects. Indescribable human tragedy went on as the world watched. Some people still managed to escape the East where it was possible. Many broke through the barbed wire or jumped from windows onto safety blankets held out by the West Berlin fire brigade. In September and October, more then 2000 people were evicted from their homes along or near the border. People at the Inner-German border were also forced to resettle as a result of “Operation Consolidation”.

Special edition of “BZ” about the construction of the Wall

© Archiv Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung