HiStory

13th August 1961. The day the Berlin Wall was built.

This is a translation of the german story
“13. August 1961 - Tag des Mauerbaus in Berlin”
written by Rotraud Oelke and posted by Horst Hommel.

It was Sunday, a beautiful day during the holiday season. In order to boost my pocket money I had taken on a job helping out in a children’s holiday camp. It was the summer holidays between my eleventh and twelfth school year, I was seventeen.

We had just returned to our tents after having breakfast together when suddenly the camp radio came on. Usually it was used to broadcast general information to everyone. At that moment we thought: “now what is it? “ until we noticed that an official announcement of the Government of the German Democratic Republic was being read out.

It was made public that units of the National People’s Army, supported by task force associations, were erecting a protective Wall in Berlin. The task forces were paramilitary units, which were founded in the businesses and were officially to protect the publicly owned businesses from enemy attack. Actually, anyone who had any commonsense knew that they were an instrument of power used by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and were to be deployed as such in the case of conflict between the state and the population. The main reason for closing the border and building the Wall was to protect people in our state from enemy attacks, which were allegedly controlled from West Berlin.

At first I didn’t comprehend the content of the radio broadcast. A border right through the middle of Berlin – how was that supposed to work?

I knew Berlin very well, as our grandmother lived as a pensioner in Berlin-Steglitz and we always went to stay with her in the holidays. She provided us with culture, like the theatre, opera, museum visits, both in East as well as in West Berlin. We had cut across Berlin at will and all at once a barrier? It was unthinkable!

The worst thing for me in this situation was that there was no one I could talk to about it, not about my thoughts and fears anyhow. The people I trusted weren’t within reach.

My parents and my youngest brother were currently visiting my grandmother in West Berlin. My older sister was in Bochum (she had received official permission to travel) visiting our relations. Only my other brother and I were in the GDR on this crucial day. I had neither the opportunity to speak to a family member or to acquire the relevant information about the truth. There was also no possibility for me to turn on a radio or television broadcast from the German Federal Republic. I was quite distraught, but I also had to look after the children who had been entrusted to me. That helped to take my mind off things.

The next day I went to a phone box to find out whether my parents and siblings had returned at all. They had, but only because two of their family members were in GDR on the said 13^thAugust 1961 and they didn’t want to leave us behind for anything in the world. In my naivety I persuaded myself that I would still be able to travel to West Berlin to visit my grandmother (with a kind of visa).

When I had gone home from the children’s camp the truth slowly unravelled. I couldn’t understand it. We were trapped! Until then Berlin had been the only gap in the border and many people left the country via Berlin when the pressure became unbearable or they were expecting personal repressive measures which exceeded the ‘standard measure’.

My parents were freelance doctors (a concession on the part of the state in order to stop a severe outflow of labour. Their main motive for staying in the GDR was always: “doctors and pastors leave the sinking ship last”. They would not have been able to reconcile leaving patients behind with their own ethics.

As children we were supposed to decide freely after finishing our school education, which way and in which part of the country we wanted to go. I was quite sure I wanted to study in West Berlin after my A-Levels and be there for my grandmother. All my future plans were destroyed. My parents suffered from the fact that, having decided to live in this state for the benefit of their patients, they had also made this decision for their children.

The 13^th August 1961 was a tragic day for everyone who had to continue living in GDR. We were no where near aware of the consequences of doing so at the time.

Our biggest hope that the Western world would not allow the erection of the Wall was not fulfilled. We had to wait more than 28 years until the Wall disappeared again. I am glad to have witnessed the day the Berlin Wall was opened.