Tensions in Berlin and the Berlin Wall 1961

1
Tensions in Berlin and the Berlin Wall (1961)
2
Events leading up to 1961

• In the 1950s the Soviet-controlled German
  Democratic Republic was experiencing difficulties
  with East Berliners escaping to the West.
• Not only were they troubled that their citizens
  were defecting to the West, but the Soviets
  feared that West Berlin was growing quickly
  militarily and was building tactical nuclear
  weapons. The Soviet Union was weary of a new
  capitalist Germany which would be aggressive like
  in the past.
• By 1958, Khrushchev felt threatened by growth in
  West Berlin, so he offered a proposal to the West
  in which he stated that he wanted a free Berlin
  with distinct rights, police force and foreign
  policy.
• The West immediately rejected this idea and he
  resorted to a peace treaty with East German
  leader Walter Ulbricht which threatened Western
  rights in Berlin
• A new red threat to West Berlin was happening.
  Khrushchev's demand that the United States,
  France and Britain agree to end the four-power
  pact governing West Berlin, turning it over to
  red East Germany, hints at new and major crisis.
• http//www.onwar.com/aced/data/bravo/berlin1961.ht
  m
• http//homepages.stmartin.edu/Fac_Staff/rlangill/P
  LS20310/The20Wall,201958-1963.htm

3
Events leading up to 1961 Continued

• The Soviet Union was also fearful that Germany
  would align itself with Poland and Poland itself
  would shift its economy westward and the Soviet
  Union would be left with an almost non-existent
  buffer zone in its western border.
• Negotiations between the two powers were futile
  as neither wanted to give in to the other as it
  would show a sign of weakness.
• Eventually, Khrushchev was persuaded to put aside
  his ultimatum for the time being and had talks
  with Eisenhower
• East Germany copied Soviet government style but
  the Soviet economy was the main support
• The economy in East Germany was faltering and
  could not compete with the West
• more than 300,000 fled East Germany in 1953
• 156,000 in 1956
• 144,000 in 1959
• Almost 200,000 in 1960
• 1957 GDR declared Republikflucht (fleeing to the
  West) a crime.
• Altogether between 1949 and 1961, 2.8 million
  Germans crossed to the West. This represented
  one-sixth of the population of the whole country.
• East Germany suffered particularly from the loss
  of skilled workers. The people who remained were
  called upon to make greater sacrifices to
  compensate for the lost workers.
• http//homepages.stmartin.edu/Fac_Staff/rlangill/P
  LS20310/The20Wall,201958-1963.htm
• http//www.msnbc.com/OnAir/msnbc/TimeandAgain/arch
  ive/berlin/wall.asp?cp11

4
US Political Response

• In May 1st, 1960, the U-2 reconnaissance plane
  piloted by the American pilot Gary Powers was
  shut down over Sverdlovsk. The incident broke
  down the relations between Eisenhower and
  Khrushchev at a summit in Paris of the same year.
  
• On January 20th, 1961, President Kennedy took
  office and a new era of American-Soviet relations
  began.
• Four months later in Vienna, Kennedy and
  Khrushchev met and discussed Berlin. Khrushchev
  demanded once again a peace treaty and
  recognition of East Germany. Berlin was to become
  a neutral city and the West would only have
  access to it with East German permission. Kennedy
  refused and he stated that the Americans had a
  right to be there according to the post WWII
  agreements.
• Khrushchev responded that his decision to sign a
  separate peace treaty with East Germany in six
  months was irrevocable and he would continue to
  threaten America with aggressive actions. Kennedy
  and Khrushchev never met personally after that
  summit again.
• As soon as Kennedy returned to the White House,
  he ordered the staff of the CIA, the Pentagon,
  the National Security Council, and the State
  Department to focus on the issue of Berlin and
  come up with effective American policy towards
  the issue as soon as possible.
• http//homepages.stmartin.edu/Fac_Staff/rlangil
  l/PLS20310/The20Wall,201958-1963.htm
• http//www.jfklibrary.org/HistoricalResources/JFK
  inHistory/TheColdWarinBerlin.htm

5
US Political Response continued

• Both Kennedy and Khrushchev announced great
  increases in military spending. The Soviet Union
  resumed nuclear testing and The U.S. tripled the
  draft of soldiers and called up the reserves.
  Both leaders were outraged over each others
  actions.
• Khrushchev warned Kennedy that only a mad man
  would start a war over Berlin. However many
  viewed Berlin as the heart of the Cold War
  therefore it was essential that the US would
  still be able to maintain influence and control
  over West Berlin.
• The US also decided to heavily increase military
  power in Berlin. This increase was in American
  intercontinental ballistic missile forces, adding
  five new army divisions to protect West Berlin,
  and an increase in the nations air power and
  military reserves.
• The increase in military in the Allied garrison
  in West Berlin was not interfered with by the
  Soviets. They fully realized the potential for a
  nuclear war and did not want to escalate the
  crisis.
• Similarly, President Kennedy decided not to
  interfere with the building of the wall for the
  same reason.
• There was, however, no threat of West Berlin
  falling to the communists
• http//www.jfklibrary.org/HistoricalResources/JFK
  inHistory/TheColdWarinBerlin.htm
• http//homepages.stmartin.edu/Fac_Staff/rlangill/P
  LS20310/The20Wall,201958-1963.htm

6
The Wall is erected

• By 1961 the problem of East Germans feeling to
  West Berlin became too much to be ignored and
  Walter Ulbricht urged Khrushchev to approve the
  building of a wall that was conceived years
  before but they did not dare build because the
  Kremlin knew that fencing off West Berlin would
  reflect badly on communist life.
• After Moscow learned that the Americans would not
  object greatly to the halt of the refugee outflow
  as long as West Berlin was not touched. This
  proved to be true when Kennedy told his aide Walt
  Rostow that I can hold the alliance together to
  defend West Berlin, but I cannot act to keep East
  Berlin open.
• On August 13th, 1961, Berliners were awakened by
  the sound of military vehicles and barbed wire
  being set up along the streets.
• Kennedy and the government stated that as long as
  routes to West Berlin were open and the city was
  free, whatever happened in East Berlin was no
  cause for war. Protesting through appropriate
  channels would happen but nothing more.
• Willy Brandt (mayor of West Berlin) criticized
  the Americans for not reacting to the wall
  significantly. Said the inaction succeeded in
  casting doubt upon the capability and
  determination of the Allied Powers to act.
• Although the building of the wall was a direct
  violation of the postwar Four Powers Agreements,
  Kennedy acknowledged that trying to stand up for
  East Berliners involved too much risk of direct
  confrontation.
• http//userpage.chemie.fu-berlin.de/BIW/wall.html

7
Immediate consequences

• When barbed wire went up on the night of August
  13th, 1961, families and friends were
  unexpectedly separated.
• On Monday morning, East Berliners who worked in
  West Berlin were told by construction builders
  and armed guards that the border was now closed
  and they had to turn back. Police dispersed the
  group of people trying to go to West Berlin that
  morning.
• The dividing line between East and West sometimes
  ran straight through old tenement buildings with
  the main door on East Berlin and windows on West
  Berlin. Some desperate people attempted to escape
  through the windows of these buildings. Firemen
  in West Berlin would bring blankets to catch the
  jumping East Berliners.
• http//www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/history/escape
  .htm

8
Checkpoint Charlie Standoff

• On October 22nd, 1961, US Mission Chief Allan
  Lightner was stopped in his car on his way to a
  theater in East Berlin. Lucius D. Clay, President
  Kennedys adviser in West Berlin, decided to take
  action.
• US civilians were sent on excursions to East
  Berlin in armoured jeeps full of heavily armed
  and batte-ready soldiers.
• On October 27th, Clay sent an American diplomat
  to the checkpoint in a diplomatic car to see how
  the Soviets would respond. The East German border
  guards asked for his passport, which was a
  violation of the Four Powers Agreements which
  stated that no German authority had the power to
  stop Allied personnel for any reason. Clay had
  ordered some tanks and an infantry battalion to
  stand by in a nearby airfield.
• A few moments later 10 of 33 Soviet tanks that
  were by the Brandenburg Gate drove to within
  50-100 feet of the checkpoint. The American tanks
  did the same.
• Gunners on both sides loaded the tanks and
  awaited orders. NATO and the Strategic Air
  Command were put on high alert.
• Khrushchev instructed the Soviet military
  commander via a direct line to the Kremlin that
  if the Americans used force they had to respond
  with force.
• The commanders of both sides were weary that a
  nervous soldier might fire a shot in all the
  tension and start a shoot-out.

9
Checkpoint Charlie Standoff continued

• Kennedy contacted Khrushchev through a direct
  line recently established and asked him to
  withdraw the Soviet tanks and told him that they
  would do the same thing.
• 16 hours later, a Soviet tank moved back a couple
  of yards and the American tanks did the same. The
  tension was broken and a direct conflict was
  avoided.
• http//www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/history/checkp
  oint-charlie.htm

10
Long term consequences

• The wall did become a successful way to deter
  emigration from East Berlin to West Berlin.
  Between 1949 and 1962 there were over 2.5 million
  emigrants that left East for West. However,
  between the time the cemeted wall was erected ,
  in 1962, and the wall collapsed, in 1989, only 5
  000 emigrants were able to leave East Berling.
• The stronger the wall got, the more it seemed to
  prove to the world that Soviet communism would
  only work through suppression of the masses since
  there were so many escape attempts.
• The wall became great propaganda material for the
  West as a symbol of Soviet tyranny. The shooting
  of some would-be defectors were made high profile
  by the West again to show Soviet tyranny.
• When the Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989, two
  years before the break up of the Soviet Union,
  many considered it as a major failure on part of
  the Soviet Union.
• http//www.berlin-life.com/berlin/wall