28 August 1961
The chief of the East Berlin People’s Police gives instructions that the order issued by the Interior Minister to keep people back at a distance of 100 metres from the border is to be enforced rigorously: "In the entire area of the state border, particularly at check points, all contact, waving, exchange of greetings or letters or the handing over of presents etc. between residents of West Berlin and people in the Democratic Sector is to be prevented."
On Bernauer Strasse, Brunnenstrasse and at the cemetery in Liesenstrasse in the north of Berlin, the Wall is made higher to stop West and East Berliners from waving to each other or taking up any other forms of contact.
A GDR People’s Policeman who has fled to West Berlin talks about his deployment on the border since August 13 and the mood in his unit. He says he had the order to shoot at deserters, but not at civilians; the Combat Group units, he says, had different commands.
In Bonn, West German Foreign Minister Heinrich von Brentano gives his views on the current developments in Berlin. His remarks come in reaction to the criticism levelled by the Social Democratic opposition (SPD) and parts of the press that the West German government is lacking a coherent policy on Germany.
Western press comments:
In West Berlin, the daily "Die Welt" reports on the increased censorship of mail in East Berlin. It says that, while postal services between East Berlin and West Berlin and between West Berlin and the GDR are functioning with astonishing smoothness (delivery takes 50 hours on average), postal censorship by the GDR has been tightened to an extraordinary degree: "In July, spot checks were enough, but now every postal item, whether a letter, a greeting card or printed matter, has to be examined in detail. The personnel working in the censorship offices – especially the supervisory personnel in the East Berlin post office at Stettin railway station – have been reinforced for these duties by trained staff from other cities in the Zone."
