History of the Berlin Wall

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Victims at the wall
Video

5 August 1961

In the period from 5.8.1961, 8.00 a.m., to 6.8.1961, 8 a.m., 1,283 refugees are registered in the Marienfelde refugee centre in Berlin.

From 5 to 7 August, the foreign ministers of the three Western Powers meet in Paris and discuss their Berlin policy, partly in the presence of the German foreign minister, Heinrich von Brentano. The aim is to come up with a joint reaction to the Soviet threats, but the four ministers cannot agree on anything going beyond "The Three Essentials".

The then French foreign minister, Couve de Murville, records in his memoirs: "Lord Home asked when negotiations with the Soviets would begin; Dean Rusk proposed a conference of the foreign ministers of the four victorious allies for the start of October. I asked what we should talk about: the only plausible topic was Berlin. If we ourselves suggested discussing that, however, it would give the impression that we were prepared to make concessions to avoid the conflict that threatened. (…) The German foreign minister, von Brentano, shared the French misgivings. (…) In the end, we were unable to reach an agreement and decided to meet again in New York in September." (Couve de Murvill 1971, p. 183/84).

Arthur M. Schlesinger describes the dilemma of the meeting from an American point of view as follows: "We hoped to reach enough of an agreement to be able to invite the Soviet Union to a four-power conference. The English were in favour of it, and the West Germans proved to be more receptive than had been expected. But the Americans still did not have any solid position to offer, and the French also continued to flatly reject the idea. (…) The Paris meeting thus led nowhere. However, one wonders whether, if there had been an invitation made to Moscow, the Russians would have dared to carry out the drastic action that they were preparing for the following weekend." (Schlesinger 1965, 375/76)

However, in their official concluding statements, the four delegations give the impression of having agreed on preparatory measures to deal with a critical situation in Berlin.