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Chronicle 1961

In the night of the 12 to the 13 of August, Walter Ulbricht, as SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Ger.: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands)) party leader and Chairman of the National Defence Council of the GDR, (German Democratic Republic [East Germany]. (Ger.: Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR)) gave the order to seal off the sector border in Berlin. Having obtained the agreement of the Soviet Union a few days previously, and with the support of the Soviet troops in the GDR, the regime closed off the last route for escape from the Party dictatorship: in the early morning of August 13, border police started ripping up streets in the middle of Berlin, pieces of asphalt and paving stones were piled up to form barricades, concrete posts were driven into the ground and barbed-wire barriers erected. more
  • January

     
    • 1 January

      1961

      Marienfelde Reception Centre in West Berlin: transit point for hundreds of thousands of refugees from the GDR, photo from 1958
      In 1960, 199,188 people fled from the GDR, three quarters of them (152,291) over the still open sector border from East to West Berlin. In January 1961, the stream of refugees continues: 16,697 people from the GDR arrive in the West; 47.8 percent of them are young people under the age of 25. The flow of refugees from the GDR up to the end of 1960, 17 February 1961 (in German)
    • 5 January

      1961

      West German Chancellor Dr. Konrad Adenauer (photo taken April 1961)
      In Bonn, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer celebrates his 85th birthday. Bishop Otto Dibelius conveys the best wishes of the Protestant Church in Germany and touches upon the serious situation in Berlin.
    • 11 January

      1961

      The press office of the prime minister (Ministerpräsident) of the GDR states that the GDR government rejects plans to hold the all-German Protestant Church Congress in Berlin and regards it as a provocation. more
    • 19 January

      1961

      The economic crisis in the GDR puts paid to the resolution, taken at the 5th SED Party Congress in 1958, to demonstrate the superiority of socialism over capitalism: by 1961 the per capita consumption of all major foodstuffs and consumer goods in the GDR was to catch up with and overtake that in West Germany.

      SED leader Walter Ulbricht informs the Soviet party leader Nikita Khrushchev that this plan has failed and that the predicted economic growth will not be attained. He says that the GDR will fall far behind West Germany, something which will not go towards reducing "illegal emigration". Ulbricht asks the Soviet leader for a loan of DM 800 million. If this is not possible, he says, "such a serious situation will arise in supply and production that we would be confronted by grave symptoms of crisis."

      The SED leader suggests to Khrushchev that the DDR should undertake a propaganda offensive so that progress could at last be made on the "peaceful solution to the question of West Berlin and the creation of a peace treaty." This offensive includes a letter in which Ulbricht as Chairman of the State Council wants to directly address US President John F. Kennedy. In his written answer of 30 January 1961, Khrushchev responds to the appeal for economic help by pointing out that negotiations between the two sides were currently under way. But he makes it perfectly clear to Ulbricht that any diplomatic steps towards preparing negotiations on a peace treaty were a matter for the Soviet Union alone. Only if the Soviets failed "to reach an agreement with Kennedy", he says, would the GDR perhaps, "under certain circumstances", be asked for suggestions. He adds, however, that it would be some time before Kennedy established his position on Germany. Letter from Walter Ulbricht to Nikita Khrushchev, 18 (19) January 1961 (in German) Letter from Nikita Khrushchev to Walter Ulbricht, 30 January 1961 (in German) less
    • 20 January

      1961

      John F. Kennedy takes up office as President of the United States. The main sentence in his inaugural address refers to relations with the Soviet Union: "Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate."
    • 21 January

      1961

      SED leader Walter Ulbricht orders Defence Minister Heinz Hoffmann to confer with the Supreme Commander of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany (GSFG) to clarify questions of military security that would arise if the situation in Berlin and on the western border were to grow more serious. more
    • 25 January

      1961

      The CPSU’s main mouthpiece, "Pravda", publishes a speech by Nikita Khrushchev in which he threatens once more to sign a separate peace treaty with the GDR in order "to remove the splinter – the occupation regime in West Berlin – from the heart of Europe."
    • 26 January

      1961

      The Germany Academy of Agriculture holds a two-day scientific conference on "open-stall systems" for keeping cattle on the Soviet model. GDR agriculture is suffering a severe crisis. On average, 720 cattle are dying every day. more
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