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60 years ago, the Berlin Wall went up | DW News

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"Brandenburg Gate Closed" — that was the headline used by the Associated Press (AP) news agency in the early hours of August 13, 1961, to announce a truly momentous event: the beginning of the construction of the Berlin Wall.

Built along the fault line between the East and West, it immediately became a symbol of oppression and division. East Germany's National People's Army (NVA) and construction crews loyal to the communist German Democratic Republic, or GDR, were deployed to cut off all access routes to West Berlin, initially in most locations with barbed wire.

Erich Honecker, later to become East Germany's leader, was at the head of "Operation Secure the Border." The aim: to literally cement the division of Berlin.

That was quickly followed by construction of a steel and concrete perimeter wall with a forbidding height of just short of 3.5 meters (12 feet) that surrounded the whole of West Berlin.

The aim was to prevent any more people from fleeing the GDR. At least 2.6 million people had already done so since its founding in 1949. They sought better lives across the border in West Germany, which was officially known as the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). A better life not just materially — but also culturally and politically.

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Category
Europe
Tags
DW News, Berlin Wall, GDR
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