Basic HTML Version
A
t one minute
pa~t
midnight.
the alarm wen t off a t Check–
poin t Four. Scrgeant Rudi
Thu row scramblcd in to
hi~
uni fo rm
und awa kened his troo ps. Ten
minutes later. they assembled be–
fore Licutcnant Witz. thcir com–
pany command er. Witz repca ted
whut he'd just bccn told by his So–
vie t Army supcriors. '·A bolt is
bei ng s lammed in the door.' ' he an–
no unced. "to !>top the 83
e~pionage
ami terror centcr!> in West Berlín
from draining ou r cou ntry of it5
be~t
munpowcr."
Thcn he cxp lained: Thcir unit.
pa n of the
Ea~t
Gerrnan Army Bor–
dc r Guards. would be joined by
40.000 other troops in scaling the
border be twcen West and East Bcr–
lin . Barbcd wi rc and othcr ba rri–
cade!-> were be ing put up: ·oon a
wall wou ld be built betwcen the two
ha lves of thc city. A soldier Stan ding
next to Sergeant Thurow muttc rcd,
"Will the Wcstern All ies stand for
that?"
They did. Thc date was Augu t
13. 196 1. and this August marh the
fiftcenth
a nni ver~ary
of the Berlin
Wa ll - onc of the most monstrous
monumcnts to thc loss of liberty
evcr erec tcd. The West ·'stood for
it .. thcn. a nd thc Wcst has taken the
Wall in !> tridc c.:ve r since: the Wcst
has lea rn cd
to
li ve with the Wa ll -
and. to its shame. comfo rtably.
The "Wall of Shame" Arises
The night Thu row and his men were
ordered to throw up thc barri er left
it s mark on them. Príva te Fir t Class
Gottfri cd He rmann entercd Thu–
row's oni cc a few hou rs late r,
wa lk ed over to th e s ink , an d
crubbed his hands like Pontius Pi–
la te. Then he confro nted his ser–
gcant. 'Tm ashamed of myscl f,'' he
sa id simply. (PFC Hermann was the
fi rst of Thurow's company of border
guards to Occ to West Berli n. Within
th e nex t 12 months. 16 of Li euten–
ant Wit z's 96
~o l die rs
had fted too–
among them Scrgeant Thurow.)
Thc nigh t before the borc.ler was
sea led. West Bcrlin Mayor Willy
Brandt (later West German chance l–
lor a nd
1
obel Peace Prize lau rcate)
The
PLAIN TRUTH August 1976
was res ting in a train. his "campaign
special.'' which was taking him on a
round of elcct ionee ring spccches
throughou t th e Fede ral Rt:publi c
ol'
Gcrmany. At 4 a.m., four hour!-> a f–
ter Rudi Thu row' men wcre awak–
encd . Brandt was ca ll ed from hi5
slccp a t Ha nnovcr. St unned by the
news. he took th t: first flight to Ba-
1 in. As soon as he stepped off the
plane. he raced to the bord er be–
twec n his "free Bc rli n'' and thc So–
vie t-occupied
ea~t e rn
sector o f the
cit). What he had been told was
true. The split of th c city appca red
fina l.
Anot hcr man whosc sleep \\'a in–
tcrruptcd th at night was th e late
Konrad Adenaucr, then Federal
chancellor. He was telcphoncd at
4: 30 a. m. at hi s homc a t Rhondorr
by one of his a idcs just two hours
before he wa · d ue
to
be ea ll cd for
Ma ·.
lt
was Sunday. and the chan–
cc llor. a devout Roman Catholic.
wcnt to Mass as usual. He did noth–
ing artc r
M a~s
until the ncxt day
whcn he told the German pcople
ovcr television therc was no ca use
for alann .
For Brand!. by contrast. thi s was
a Sunday of despcrate acti vity. At
11 a.m.. he met th c commanding
ge nera ls of th c American, British.
and French occupying force. in
West Berlín and urged them to scnd
Alli ed a rmcd
patr~l s
to th e sector
boundary - not to rol! back the
barbcd wire. but just to reassure the
West Berline rs and to undcrscore
All ied read incss to defcnd Wcst
Bcrlin. He a lso askcd that Alli ed
protcsts be scn t to Moscow " thi s
vc ry day." (Actually. it took more
tha n two days for the Allied com–
mand ers even to protest
10
their So–
viet Army co unt crpart s in Eas t
Berli n ; it took even longer fo r a pro–
tes t to reach Moscow.)
By daybreak, Augus t 13. 196 1.
East German troops had scalcd a ll
bu t 13 of the rema in ing 80 crossing
poi nts be tween Wcst and Ea. t Bcr–
lin. Armed police, " People 's Army"
so ldiers, a nd rese rvis ts guarded
thosc checkpoints which had not ac–
tua lly been blockaded. Four ni ghts
later. Communist ·'shock workers"
bui lt a concre te ba rri er six fce t high
acro:.~
the Potsdamer Platz. Wh at
had once been Bcrl in 's and Central
Eu rope's busie t, mos t conges tcd
trame in tersecti on soon became a
concrete wasteland in which wild
rabbit. li ved - because every man,
wornan and child was moved out.
By August 22, th c num bcr of
checkpoin ts through which Berlincrs
could pas:.- but now only with spe–
cial permits - was rcduced to 7. and
th c Eas t German aut horit ies warned
everyone
to
kcep 100 meters back
from the Wa ll on both sides "fo r
th ei r own sa fety." Th e West Ber–
li ners we re outraged. Willy Brandt
wrote to Pres iden! Joh n F. Kennedy
on August 16. asking for a stronge r
Wcstern response. Kennedy sent
Vice-Presiden! Lyndon Johnson to
Wc5 t Berlin - along with a U.S.
Army batt le group from West Ger–
many - to demon trate that Free
Bcrlin was still ·'an ult imate Ameri–
can commi tment. "
In Moscow. Wes t Ge rman Am–
ba sador Hans Kroll went to sec So–
viet lcadcr ikita Khrushchev to
dc li ve r a protes t. He was surprised
to find Khrushchcv a lmost sympa–
thet ic.
" 1
know the wa ll is an ugly
th ing." the Soviet leader told Krol! .
"And one day it will disappear -
bu t only when the reasons for its
const ruction have disa ppeared."
Why the Berlín Wall Was Erected
Wh a t were th c reasons for the
Wa ll 's construction? Khrushchev
pu t thcm in his own words during
that conve rsation wi th Kroll.
' 'Wha t was
J
supposed todo?" he
as ked. "More than 30,000 people -
and mind you. among them the best
and mos t capablc people from the
G. D.R. (thc Commu nist Ge rman
Democratic Repu blic] - left th eir
country in the mon th of July. l t isn' t
ha rd to figure out how soon the East
Gcrman economy would have col–
lapscd had we no t take n steps
aga inst this mass fti ght.
' 'There were only two kind s of
count crmeasures pos ible." Khrush–
chev cont inued. "For us to block ai r
transpon, or the Wall. The firs t
would have brought us in to se rious
29