At 2.30 a.m. on Aug. 13 the East German authorities sealed off the border between East and West Berlin, and also between West Berlin and the surrounding East German territory, leaving only 13 official crossing-points open.
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A special broadcast said that these measures had been taken in agreement with a decision by the Political Advisory Council of the Warsaw Treaty Organization; that they would remain in force until the conclusion of a peace treaty; and that they had been taken "in the interests of peace in Europe and of the security of the G.D.R. and of the other Socialist States."
As a result of the closing of the border except for the official crossing-points, the flood of refugees from East Berlin dwindled to a trickle; nevertheless, some 1,500 succeeded in escaping into West Berlin during the day across backyards, gardens, and bombed sites, and in some cases by swimming canals and the River Havel. Steel-helmeted East German border guards, People's Police, and factory "fighting squads" were strongly reinforced along the entire border, tanks and armoured cars brought up at some places, roads dug up with pneumatic drills, and barbed-wire fences erected. On five occasions during the evening of Aug. 13 the People's Police used tear-gas and smoke-bombs to disperse crowds of East German youths who had gathered on the East German side of the border to jeer at the East German troops and police. On the West Berlin side of the border, crowds numbering several thousands assembled outside the crossing-points, booed the East German border guards, chanted "Down with Ulbricht" and antiCommunist slogans, and were with difficulty held back behind barriers at the Brandenburg Gate.
The closing of the border led to an almost entire cessation of traffic between East and West Berlin. The elevated railway (S-Bahn) circling the city was stopped entirely; connexions on the Berlin Underground (U-Bahn) were disrupted except for the North-South line where, however, trains were not allowed to stop at East Berlin stations; and the East Berlin pleasure-boat service on the River Havel was suspended.
The Brandenburg Gate, one of the 13 official crossing-points still remaining open, was sealed by the East German authorities on Aug. 14, when armed People's Police accompanied by armoured cars took up positions on the East Berlin side of the Gate; the East German News Agency said that the measure was only "temporary" and had been taken because of "West Berlin provocations aimed at violating the border at the Brandenburg Gate." During the night of Aug. 17-18 a concrete barrier up to 6ft. high and topped with barbed wire--promptly nicknamed by West Berliners "Ulbricht's Chinese Wall"--was erected in the Potsdamerplatz by Communist "shock workers"; similar concrete barriers were raised at other points along the sector boundaries, apparently designed to fill in existing gaps between the crossing-points.
The Western Allied commandants immediately denounced the "no-man's-land" order as "effrontery," and on the following day about 1,000 U.S., British, and French troops patrolled up to the sector boundaries within the 100-metre radius with tanks, armoured vehicles, and anti-tank guns.
This article comes from Keesings Worldwide Online
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