February 1961
In February 1961, 13,576 people flee from the GDR. Of these, 49.5 percent are young people under the age of 25.
4 Februar: The Bremen carmaker Borgward, which employs more than 20,000 workers, is in a crisis. The company ends the financial year 1960 with losses totalling over 28 million marks. The state of Bremen takes over the Borgward plants as creditor and announces the foundation of a joint-stock company. But the rescue attempt fails. There are mass redundancies, and in September 1961 the company finally files for bankruptcy. GDR propaganda describes the demise of the company as a sign of the "general crisis of capitalism" and "lack of prospects" in the West.
8 February: In an article for the SED’s main mouthpiece, "Neues Deutschland", Walter Ulbricht writes about the State Council’s resolution of 30 January 1961 on the further "development of the administration of justice" in the GDR. Ulbricht says that "the remnants of egoistic and inhuman thought and action from the capitalist era" have been erased from the GDR. He says "new socialist relationships" have now evolved that pull the rug from beneath crimes and offences against "socialist legality". Ulbricht discloses that the pardon issued by the GDR parliament on 4 October 1960 resulted in 16,000 prisoners being freed and "70,000 citizens who have come into conflict with the law" having their punishment remitted.
At the same time, the GDR steps up its fight against "human traffickers" and "head-hunters" who are blamed for the exodus of refugees from the GDR. In the ensuing period, the Supreme Court of the GDR holds a large number of trials directed against "human trafficking", in which severe prison sentences are handed down.
10 February: The commanders of the National People’s Army of the GDR and the Group of Soviet Armed Forces in the GDR decide to work out a new plan for joint military actions. At the same time, special working groups within the SED party apparatus and in the GDR Ministry of Transport work on plans to stop the flow of refugees.
12 February: Leading representatives of the Protestant Church in West Germany and West Berlin are not given permission to travel to East Berlin to take part in the opening service of the Protestant Synod in the Marienkirche (Church of St. Mary’s). The Western city commanders and the West German government lodge protests.
13 February: GDR newspapers report on their title pages that the Soviet Union successfully launched a space shuttle to Venus the previous day, thus proving once more the supremacy of Soviet science.
17 February: Statistics on the flow of refugees from the Soviet-Occupied Zone/GDR are published in the bulletin of the West German Federal Press and Information Office. It says that 2,531,540 refugees were registered in West Germany and West Berlin in the period from September 1949 to the end of 1960. The number of refugees from 1945 to 1949 is estimated at 438,760, so that the total number of refugees from 1945 to 1960 comes to around 2,970,300.
17 Februar: In an aide-mémoire to the West German government, the Soviet government iterates its demand for a peace treaty to be signed with Germany. It says the Soviet goal is "to secure the situation that has arisen in Europe after the war, to give a firm legal footing to the inviolability of the borders established after the war and to normalise the situation in West Berlin on the basis of a sensible consideration of the interests of all sides." It threatens once again that the Soviet Union will sign a separate peace treaty with the GDR if the West German government refuses. In this case, it says, the GDR would be given authority over access routes to Berlin on land, on water and in the air. As a consequence, refugees from the GDR would have no chance of getting to West Germany from West Berlin any more.
