Tue, Jun 21, 2011
Since the end of World War II Berlin is divided in the American, Russian, British and French sectors. Still in the beginning of 1961 citizens can move freely between the sectors. But Berlin is a city, which has two different political and economic systems, and the difference becomes increasingly striking. While West Berlin has political liberty and growing wealth, East Berlin is socialistic and much poorer. 50.000 inhabitants live in East Berlin but work in West Berlin, and pass the border every day. More than 10.000 persons emigrate from East Berlin to find a better future in West. East Germany is bleeding out. A rumor says that the regime in the East is planning to build a wall through Berlin, but on a press conference on 15 June 1961 the East German leader Walter Ulbricht denies this. Two months later, 13 August 1961, the wall is built in a hurry. In the Bernauer Street an apartment house has its backside just at the border. This becomes for some days a last escape way, but the windows are soon bricked up. 27 October 1961 Soviet and American tanks face each other at Checkpoint Charlie, but withdraw after 16 hours.
Wed, Jun 22, 2011
In West Berlin people hope that Kennedy will negotiate with Krushchev on tearing down the wall. In East Berlin the wall is called the antifascist protection wall, and the soldiers guarding it are seen as heroes of peace. The conflict between East and West is conceived as a class conflict. As this might lead to a new war, East Germany sets up a National Service, although the intention had been never to militarize Germany again. At the first anniversary of the wall, 13 August 1962, more than 20 persons have already been killed, while trying to flee East Berlin. People all over West Berlin observe three minutes' silence for the victims. Four days later 18-year-old Peter Fechter is shot by wall guards, while trying to flee to West Berlin. He lays mortally wounded, shouting for help, but nobody helps him. In July East Germany opens a modern airport at Berlin Schönefeld, but not many of its citizens are allowed to leave the country. In October the Cuba crisis generates panic in West Berlin, as many of its citizens believe that America now will avoid the Berlin conflict, and West Berlin become incorporated in East Germany.