Why was the Berlin Wall built in 1961?
The Berlin Wall is built
Der Bau der Mauer
13 August 1961. Since the end of the war some 3.5 million people had left the Soviet zone and the GDR, many of them young and skilled; by the late 1950s more than nine in ten…
Where: Germany
What happened
Since the end of the war some 3.5 million people had left the Soviet zone and the GDR, many of them young and skilled; by the late 1950s more than nine in ten went through the open border in Berlin. In the night of 12 to 13 August 1961 East German soldiers and police sealed off West Berlin with barbed wire; the concrete wall followed. Two days later the young border guard Conrad Schumann jumped over the wire, in a photograph that went round the world. The border around West Berlin ran for some 155 kilometres. At least 140 people died at the Wall; other counts are higher. It stood for 28 years.
Say it
Am 13. August 1961 begann die DDR mit dem Bau der Mauer.
On 13 August 1961 the GDR began building the Wall.