12 August 1961
In the period from 12.8.1961, 8 a.m. to 13.8.1961, 8 a.m., around 2,400 refugees are registered in the Marienfelde refugee centre in Berlin.
In a telegram to the US embassy in Bonn, the American Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, voices his concern about the possibility of a rebellion in the GDR: a new "17 June". He asks the US ambassador for a report on what the West German government thinks about this and about what it is doing to prevent an explosion in East Germany. He reminds the ambassador that the foreign ministers in Paris had agreed to do nothing that could aggravate the situation.
In West Germany, this weekend marks the start of the final phase of the election campaign for the Bundestag elections. The SPD has named Willy Brandt as its candidate for chancellor against Konrad Adenauer. On this evening, Adenauer speaks at an election rally of the CDU in Lübeck. He warns against panic in the face of the stream of refugees from the GDR, and plays down the crisis, including the lack of consensus in the West.
Willy Brandt takes a different tack: during an election rally of the SPD in Nuremberg, he is full of sombre intimations: "What fear has made this stream increase? (...) The answer to this question is: because the Soviet Union is planning an attack against our people whose seriousness is clear to only a very few people. Because the people in the Zone are scared that the mesh of the Iron Curtain is to be cemented together. Because they are afraid to be locked into a gigantic prison."
In the afternoon, under strict surveillance, printing houses in East Berlin already print leaflets with the resolution, which has not yet formally been taken, of the Council of Ministers as approved by the SED Politburo.
Walter Ulbricht, as Chairman of the Council of State, Chairman of the National Council of Defence and Party leader, has invited the members of the Council of Ministers and the Council of State to the guest house of the Council of Ministers on Lake Dölln, some 80 kilometres from Berlin, for a "gathering" at 4 p.m.. Alfred Neuman, who, as a member of the Politburo, has been let in on all plans, gave this account of the meeting in 1996: "On the evening before sealing-off operation, we were invited to Lake Dölln. That was on the weekend. The representatives of the block parties were there as well. In the afternoon we had coffee at the Ulbrichts’, and we had dinner there as well. The interesting thing was that no one knew why we were meeting. The Speaker of the Volkskammer, Johannes Dieckmann, came to me after we had just drunk coffee: ‘Tell me, Neumann, why are we here at Lake Dölln today?’
Nothing was known. Götting, Gerlach, they were all there. No one knew anything. I answered: ‘I have no idea.’ After all, it wasn’t my business to tell people about it. Then there was chit-chat, jokes and listening to music. At a certain hour, Ulbricht said: ‘On the basis of the resolutions of the Volkskammer, reliable security measures are being undertaken at the border during the night.’ This was before 12 o’clock. I don’t know the exact time any more. Honecker wasn’t there. He was with the staff." (Alfred Neumann in Prokop 1996, p. 176)
The operational staff set up for the closure of the border is meeting in the police headquarters of the East Berlin People’s Police. In the evening, the orders to seal off the border are given to all the responsible political and military personnel by Erich Honecker, who is Secretary of the National Council of Defence and the head of operations for the operation. All orders have been drawn up in strictest secrecy by a small group of insiders. The most important orders, addressed to the First Secretaries of the districts of Berlin, Potsdam and Frankfurt (Oder), have been signed by Walter Ulbricht himself as the Chairman of the National Council of Defence.
At 12 midnight, the entire National People’s Army is given the order for "increased battle readiness". Three thousand one hundred and fifty soldiers of the 8th Motorised Rifle Division in Schwerin start moving towards the city centre with 100 battle tanks and 120 armoured personnel carriers. Their command post is the "Magerviehhof" in Friedrichsfelde. Four thousand two hundred soldiers of the 1st Motorised Rifle Division in Potsdam march towards the Outer Ring around West Berlin with 140 tanks and 200 armoured personnel carriers. The troops have the task of forming a second line of security in the background 1,000 metres from the border and to prevent people breaking through to the sector borders.
At 1.30 a.m., Level Two battle alarm is given for all departments of the East Berlin People’s Police. The riot squad’s 1st Brigade and the Berlin Security Commando, together more than 10,000 strong, form the first line of security. They receive the order to close all sector crossings for human and vehicle traffic with the exception of 13 checkpoints and to set up barbed-wire barriers along the sector border.
At 1.11 a.m., the state-run news agency ADN broadcasts a statement issued by the governments of the Warsaw Pact states. The decisive passage is as follows: "The governments of the Warsaw Pact countries turn to the Volkskammer, the government of the GDR and all workers of the German Democratic Republic with the proposal to instate order on the West Berlin border so as to put a definite stop to subversive agitation against countries in the socialist camp and to ensure reliable surveillance and effective control around the entire area of West Berlin, including its border with democratic Berlin."
Shortly afterwards, the AND also broadcasts the text of a resolution of the Council of Ministers from 12 August 1961. It says: "To stop the hostile activities of the revanchist and militaristic powers of West Germany and West Berlin, a line of control is being set up on the borders of the GDR, including the border to the western sectors of Berlin, like that which is usual on the border of every sovereign state. A reliable surveillance system and effective control are to be ensured on the West Berlin border to put an end to subversive agitation. In future, these borders may only be crossed by GDR citizens if they have special permission. For as long as West Berlin has not been turned into a demilitarised neutral Free City, citizens from the capital of the GDR will need a special pass to cross the borders to West Berlin."
A short time later, both ADN reports are read out on GDR radio together with an "announcement by the GDR Interior Ministry about access to East Berlin" and are handed out to the people in East Berlin as leaflets from the early morning on.
It is not until 2001 that it becomes known what the West German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) reported on this day. As the "Spiegel" reported on 6.8.2001, the following information arrived at the BND headquarters in Pullach from East Berlin: "On 11.8.1961, a conference of the Party Secretaries of the partisan publishing houses and other party officials took place in the Central Committee of the SED. Here, among other things, it was announced that:
1. Now the hard path could be taken. The "usual protests" and possible economic sanctions from the West were to be expected, against which the necessary countermeasures had however been taken. There was also a strong likelihood of passive resistance from people in the Soviet Occupation Zone and particularly in East Berlin. Regulations would be enacted to break this resistance using all means available.
2. The situation regarding the constantly growing stream of refugees made it necessary to carry out the closure of the eastern sector of Berlin and the Soviet Occupation Zone in the next few days – an exact day was not named – and not, as had been planned, in 14 days’ time."
However, it remains unknown to this day whether the BND immediately passed on this information to the Chancellor or the West German government and, if so, whether anyone took note of it.
