the Soviet Government was not aplanned event. The following description is given to show that no plans werepre-done before they started.Early in the morning of Sunday August 13, 1961, the GDR began under theleadership of Erich Honecker to block off East Berlin and the GDR fromWest Berlin by means of barbed wire and antitank obstacles. Streets weretorn up, and barricades of paving stones were erected. Tanks gathered atcrucial places. The subway and local railway services between East andWest Berlin were interrupted. Inhabitants of East Berlin and the GDR wereno longer allowed to enter West Berlin, In the following days constructionbrigades began replacing the provisional barriers with a solid wall.(4)The western allies showed little reaction, they showed more reaction duringthe blockade of 1947 to 1949, The allies participated in a massive airlift in whichFrench, US, and British planes were dropping 8,000 tons of food and fuel into thecity daily which forced the soviets to give up their blockade. When East German troops began their construction of the twenty-five footwall made of concrete and barbed wire, they were laying the foundation for theinfamous wall West Berlins mayor Willie Brandts policy of Ostopolitik allowed West Germans to visit their families in the East; however East Germans could not go to the West unless they escaped, and many died trying.(5)After August 23, 1961, citizens of West Berlin were no longer allowed to enter EastBerlin. On September 20, 1962, Peter Fechter, an Eighteen year old citizen of EastBerlin Bled to death after he was shot down by East Berlin border patron in anattempt to escape over the wall, becoming the first of many to die attempting toescape to the west. On June 21, 1963, the minister of Nation Defense of the GDR gave ordersconcerning installation of a border area at the frontier between the GDR and WestBerlin. Afterwards inhabitants of East Berlin living within a distance of onehundred...
