1 Marsh Town
1 Entries in Clausewitz, Berlinischer Stadtbuch, cited in Alexandra Richie, Faust’s Metropali: A History of Berlin p. 29.
2 Giles Macdonogh,Berlin pp. 116f.
3 Richie, Faust’s Metropolis p. 66.
4 Nancy Mitford, Frederik the Great p. 291.
5 Macdonogh, Berlin p. 117.nd Its Legacies: German Modernities, Imperialism, and the Meanings of Reform, 1890-1930 ed. Geoff E
2 Reds
1 For a particularly interesting overview of this era, see Wilhelminism aley and James Retallack.
2 Bebel’s speech quoted in Jonathan Sternberg, Yesterday’s Deterrent: Tirpitz and the Birth of the German Battle Fleet p. 195.
3 Fot this quote and details of Ulbricht’s early life and political apprenticeship see Mario Frank, Walter Ulbricht: Eine deutsche Biografie pp. 64ff.
4 See Frank, Walter Ulbricht pp. 90ff.
5 Richie, Famt’s Metropolis p. 401.
6 Quoted in Frank, Walter Ulbricht p. 105.
3 ‘It Must Look Democratic…’
1 Cf. Frank, Walter Ulbricht pp. 122f. Neumann, for instance, was shot in 1937. His wife, Margarete Buber-Neumann, was sentenced to five years hard labour in Siberia, but then handed over by the Russians to the Gesrapo in 1940. She was imprisoned in the Ravensbriick women’s concentration camp until April 1945. There she met and became close friends with Milena Jesenská, once the lover of Franz Kafka. Jesenská died of her privations in 1944. Miraculously, however, Buber-Neumann survived to write ‘Between Two Dictators: Stalin and Hitler’ after the war as well as many other works, including a biography of her friend Milena. She died in November 1989, in Frankfurt-on-Main, three days befote the Berlin Wall was breached.
2 See interview with Wolfgang Leonhard, Zuruck in die Zukunft in Der Spiegel, 6/2005 8 April 2005.
3 David Clay Large, Berlin: A Modern History p. 371.
4 See Richie, Faust’s Metropolis pp. 616ff. And in even more detail, with little horror spared, Anthony Beevor, Berlin: The Downfall pp. 406ff. (Chapter 27, Vae Victis!).
5 Quoted in Frank, Walter Ulbricht p. 193. And for the details of Ulbricht’s work with Galadshev and Serov.
6 Figures in Mike Dennis, The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic 1945-1990 p. 4 1.
7 Wolfgang Leonhard, Child of the Revolution p. 373.
8 Betzarin was made a posthumous honorary citizen of East Bedin in 1965. After 1989 he was not accepted as an honorary citizen of the united city, but after the ‘Red-Red’ coalition took power in Bedin a successful campaign was mounted to have the honour restored.
9 Clay Large, Berlin: A Modern History, as above pp. 379f.
10 Leonhard, Child of the Revolution pp. 396f.
11 Ulbricht’s instructions taken from Leonhard, Child of the Revolution (German ride: Die Revolution entläβt ihre Kinder) pp. 379f.
12 Cf. Tony Judt, Post-War: A History of Europesince 1945 p. 131 and again cited by Leonhard to his interviewer in Der Spiegel 16/2005 as above, where he also describes the early days of the Ulbricht Group.
13 Richie, Faust’s Metropolis p. 626 and see also Ann and John Tusa, The Berlin Blockade p. 30.
14 Osip Mandelstam, ‘We Live, Not Feeling’ (1934) in Albert C. Todd and Max Hayward (eds.), Twentieth Century Russian Poetry.
15 General Lucius D. Clay, Decision in Germany p. 15.
16 Cited in Richie, Faust’s Metropolis p. 632.
17 George Clare, Berlin Days 1946—47 p. 6.
18 Clare, Berlin Days p. 16.
19 Ibid. p. 21.
20 See the frank appraisal of this more or less obstructive position by a quasi-official French source in Vive Berlin!/Ein Ort deutsch-franzosischer Geschichte 1945-2003 /Un lieu d’histoire franco-allemande 1945-2003/A Focal Point of German-French History 1945-2003 (a Publication of the Allied Museum) pp. 49ff.
21 Frank, Walter Ulbricht pp. 212f. And for the ‘block’ plan.
22 Ibid. pp. 208f.
23 See Judt, Postwar p. 131. And, for the ‘Austrian danger’ (Gefahr Österrreich), Frank, Walter Ulbricht p. 213.
24 Douglas Botting, In the Ruins of the Reich p. 118.
25 Clay Large, Berlin: A Modern History p. 390.
26 Quoted in Richie, Faust’s Metropolis p. 637.
27 Cf. Clay Large, Berlin: A Modern History pp. 391ff.
28 See Dennis, The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic pp. 37f.
29 Richie, Faust’s Metropolis p. 670.
30 Clare, Berlin Days p. 177.
4 Blockade
1 Claus Leggewie, Die ehemalige Zukunft in Ein Land Genannt die DDR ed. Ulrich Plenzdorf and Rüdiger Dammann p. 42.
2 Dennis, The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic p. 45.
3 See Ann and John Tusa, The Berlin Blockade pp. 105ff.
4 Ibid. p. 144.
5 Richie, Fautst’s Metropolis p. 667 and, for an even more colourful description, Clare, Berlin Days p. 185.
6 Lt.-General William Tunner, Over the Hump p. 161.
7 Tusa, The Berlin Blockade p. 222. And for Reuter’s speech.
5 ‘Dissolve the People and Elect Another’
1 Tusa, The Berlin Blockade pp. 360ff. and for the following.
2 Dennis, Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic p. 46 for Stalin’s manoeuvres.
3 See Carolyn Eisenberg, Drawing the Line passim. But pp. 495ff. contain the bulk of Professor Eisenberg’s argument thar the Anglo-Americans were responsible for the division of Germany. Het book provides a fascinating document-based tour of the maze of betrayal, misunderstanding and power-political jiggery-pokery that was Germany between 1945 and 1949 and contains many valuable insights. It is clear that the Americans on the spot, including Governor Clay, were keen on creating a revived, Capitalist Germany on the American model and willing from an uncomfortably early stage to push for it at all costs, including permanent division of the country. The problem lies in her narrowly focused, almost myopic portrayal of the Soviets as the justly aggrieved party. There is disturbingly little detailed reference to persistent Soviet bad faith. She does not pull back except in a rather perfunctory way to look ar the brutal and repressive Soviet occupation policy in Germany itself and in newly ‘liberated’ Eastern and South-Eastern Europe as the other, equally important factor in influencing the Allies’ move away from full implementation of the (in any case far from unambiguous) Potsdam Accords.
4 See J udt, Postwar p. 151.
5 Fot a summary of rhis see Perer Joachim Lapp, Ulbrichts Helfer pp. 1f.
6 Judt, Postwar pp. 152f.
7 See Claus Christian Malzahn, Detltschland, Detttschland.: Kurze Geschichte einer geteilten Nation p. 83. And for the quote from the Adenauer letrer from 1946.
8 Ibid. p. 85.
9 Vladislav Zubok and Constanrine Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War: From Stalin to Khrushchev p. 159.
10 Diederich, Die Grenzpolizei der SBZ/DDR p. 203.
11 For rhis and the new leadership’s back-flip afrer Sralin’s death see Hope M. Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall pp. 19ff.
12 Ibid. p. 34.
13 See Werner Koop, Der 17. Juni 1953: Legende und Wirklichkeit p. 41.
14 Ibid. p. 62.
15 Ibid. pp. 28f.
16 Ibid. p. 29. And for the following regarding the East German reacrion.
17 Ibid. p. 34.
18 Malzahn, Deutschland, Deutschland p. 91.
19 See Koop, Der 17. Juni 1953 pp. 145ff for a chronology of the East Berlin evenrs. The saga of the government loudspeaker van appears in Malzahn, Deutschland, Deutschland p. 93.
20 Koop, Der 17. Juni 1953 pp. 148f. And for the following, based on Koop’s reading of Stasi and KVP reports for the day.
21 Dennis, The Rise and Fall of the Gennan Democratic Republic pp. 66ff. For a detailed description of the Berlin part of the revolt and its suppression see also Richie, Faust’s Metropolis pp. 684ff.
22 Dennis, The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic pp. 67f.
23 Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall pp. 35f.
24 ‘I’ve never seen such an idior in my life’: Beria quored in Frank, Walter Ulbricht p. 251 (preceding secrion headed Krisenjahre).
25 Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall pp. 39f. and Dennis, The Rise and Fall of the German Dwocratic Republic pp. 71f.
26 Harrison, Driving the Soviets the Wall p. 42.
6 The Crown Princes
1 Pörzl, Eri,-h Honecker pp. 43f.
2 Ibid. p. 40.
3 See Peler Merseburger, Willy Brandt 1913-1992 pp. 18ff.
4 Ibid. pp. 122ff.
5 Quored Ibid. p. 263.
6 See Dennis, The Rise arid Fall of the German Democrtic Republic p. 85.
7 See William Taubman, Khrushchev: The Man and his Era p. 331.
8 Taubman, Khrmhchev p. 391. And for the press conference.
9 Cired ibid. p. 399.
10 Vladislav M. Zubok, Khrushchev and the Berlin Crisis 1958-1962 Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars Cold War International History Project, Working Paper no. 6 p. 13.
11 See Paul Bergner, Die Waldsiedlung: Bin Sachbuch über ‘Wandlitz’ pp. 16f. And for the following derails of the surveying and acquisirion of the building land.
12 Quored in Bergner, Die Waldsiedlung p. 38 from Vera Oelschlegel’s autobiography, Wenn das meine Mutter wü?t.
13 See Hans Haltrer, ‘Ick fühl mir wie im Krankenhaus’ in Der Spiegel 47/1999, 22 November 1999.
14 See Bergner, Die Waldsiedlung pp. 161ff.
15 For the derails about the F-Club and the role of the serrlement employees see Thomas Grimm, Das Politbüro Privat: Ulbricht, Honecker, Mielke & Co. aus der Sicht ihrer Angestellten p. 10. See also Halrer, ‘Ick fühl mir…’in Der Spiegel 47/1999 as above.
16 Ibid. p. 22.
17 Ibid. p. 11.
18 Ibid. p. 10.
19 Halrer, ‘Ick fühl mir…in Der Spiegel 47/1999 as above.
20 See Bergner’s remarks in Die Waldsiedlung p. 53: ‘Despire an intensive search I found nor a single statement from a former inhabitant of the forest settlement rhar he had liked living there or had moved there willingly or ar least “wirhout inner resistance”. The terrible thing is that these depictions of the situarion seem relatively believable.’
21 Grimm, Das Politbüro Privat p. 161 for the account by Ulbrichr’s cook, Helmut Bäuml.
22 Aurhor’s interview with Günter Schabowski, Berlin, 1O August 2005.
23 Bergner, Die Waldsiedlung p. 6.
7 Wag the Dog
1 Robert F. Dallek, An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy pp. 188ff.
2 For JFK’s relative unpopularity among the Democratic Party’s liberal establishment see ibid. p. 232.
3 Ibid. p. 177.
4 See SAPMO-BArch 4182/1.323 (Nachlass Ulbricht) MF 2 Memo 15.12.1960 from Gerhard Kegel, Ulbricht’s senior foreign-policy adviser, on the influence of the Ford Motot Co., and the lengthy report on the supposedly deteriorating US political and economic situation, including the influence of big business, 10.1. 1961 from Deputy Foreign Minister Otto Winzer.
5 Dallek, Kennedy p. 309.
6 Ibid. p. 315.
7 Taubman, Khrushchev p. 485. And fot the convetsation with Ambassador Thompson. In fact, Khrushchev’s eldest son, Leonid (b. 1917), who was killed in the Second World War, was a few monchs younger than Kennedy. Khrushchev’s eldesr child, however, a girl named Yulia Nikitichna,was indeed born two years before Kennedy, in 1915.
8 See Zubok and Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War pp. 192f.
9 Ibid. p. 190.
10 Harrison, Driving the Soviets Up the Wall pp. 194f,
11 Dennis, The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic p. 88.
12 See André Steiner, ‘Vom Überholen eingeholc: Zur Wirtschaftskrise 1960/61 in der DDR ’ in Vor dew Mauerbau: Politik und Gesellschaft in der DDR der funfziger Jahre (Schriftenreihe der Vierteljahrshefte fiir Zeitgeschichte Sondernuimmer 2003) Herausgegeben von Dierk Hoffmann, Michael Schwarz und Hermann Wentkner, pp. 245ff.
13 Nikita S. Khrushchev, Khrushchev Remembers: The Glasnost Tapes p. 169.
14 Frank, Walter Ulbricht p. 357.
15 Harrison, Driving the Soviets tip the Wall p. 128.
16 For the shortcomings of Soviet rocketty in the early 1960s see Taubmann, Khrushchev p, 537.
17 The illicit use of rocket fuel as a sociallubricam quoted in Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall p. 129.
18 For a detailed description of his campaign see Zubok and Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War pp. 255ff.
19 Ann Tusa, The Last Division: Berlin and the Wall p. 218.
20 For this, the Selianinov-König meetings, and Pervukhin’s doleful end-of-year report see Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall pp. 146ff.
21 Zubok, Khrushchev and the Berlin Wall Crisis as above p. 19.
22 Quoted in Frank, Walter Ulbricht p. 343.
23 Quotation from m/s of memoir Coca Cola schmeckt nach Berlin by Joachim Trenkner, with his permission. Further material from interview with Joachim Trenkner, Berlin, 17 December 2004.
24 Harrison,Driving the Soviets tip the Wall pp. 169f.
25 Ibid. p. 169. Though it should be noted that defectors do tend ro ‘sing for their supper’. In the 1990s Senja also claimed in front of a Washington congressional committee that American MIAs from Korea and Vietnam were used in secret Eastern Bloc medical experiments. This assertion has been viewed with a great deal of scepticism in many circles.
26 See Matthias Uhl, ‘Westberlin stellt also ein großes Loch innerhalb unserer Republik dar’ in Vor dem Mauerbau (Schriftenreihe der Viertelsjahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte Sondernummer 2003) as above pp. 315f.
27 Harrison, Driving the Soviets tip the Wall p. 170. Pervukhin’s report to Foreign Minister Gromyko of 19 May 1961.
28 Taubmann, Khrushchev p. 499. And for the comment on Khrushchev’s repetition.
29 Cited ibid. p. 495.
30 Harold Macmillan, Pointing the Way 1959-1961 p. 356.
31 Uhl,’Westberlin stellt also ein großes Loch…’as above p. 317.
8 Operation ‘Rose’
1 Dallek, Kennedy p. 417.
2 Ibid. p. 423. And for the account of the situation in the Oval Office while Kennedy gave his speech.
3 Richie, Faust’s Metropolis p. 715.
4 Taubman, Khrushchev p. 501. And for the McCloy encounter.
5 Quoted in Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall p. 178.
6 ‘In der Argumentation muss ab sofort das Wort Republikflucht verschwinden und an dessen Stelle Abwerbung, Menschenhandel, Kopfjäger usw. gesetzt werden’, Circular dated 20 July 1961 from Abteiliung Agitation beim ZK der SED in BArch Berlin SAPMO DY/30/IVA/2/ 9.02.20 MF 3.
7 See Bernd Eisenfeld and Roger Engelmann, 13.8.1961: Mauerbau Fluchtbewegung und Machtsicherung p. 37.
8 Quoted in Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall pp. 178f.
9 Norman Gelb, The Berlin Wall: Kennedy, Khrushchev and a Showdown in the Heart of Europe p. 97.
10 Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall pp. 185f.
11 Kvitsinsky’s account quoted in Der Spiegel 32/2001 6 August 2001, Die Schandmauer.
12 Ibid. and Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall p. 187.
13 For which Mielke was finally tried and convicted in 1993. He served two years before being released on health grounds. He died in 2000, aged ninety-two.
14 See Wer War Wer in der DDR? pp. 579f., which accepts the French story. For a different version, which has Mielke in Russia between 1940 and 1945 see John O. Koehler, Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police pp. 33ff.
15 See Herausgegeben und eingeleitet von Matthias Uhl und Arnim Wagner, Ulbricht, Chruschtschow und die Mauer, Eine Dokumentation (Schriftenreihe der Viertelijahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte Band 86) p. 43.
16 Pölzl, Erich Honecker p. 92.
17 Uhl, ‘Westberlin stellt also ein großes Loch…’ p. 323. And the the Soviet missile exercises and the appointment of Konev pp. 324f.
18 Zubok, Khrushchev and the Berlin Crisis p. 28 and n84.
19 Walt W. Rostow, The Diffusion of Power p. 231.
20 Uhl, ‘Westberlin stellt also ein großes Loch…’ p. 318.
21 ‘…der verstärkten pioniermä?igen Ausbau der Staatsgrenze…’ ibid. p. 323.
22 See Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall pp. 188f.
23 See ibid. p. 194 and Uhl, ‘Westberlin stellt also ein großes Loch…’ pp. 326f. For Ulbricht’s handwritten notes on the meeting see BArch Berlin SAPMO Büro Walter Ulbricht IV 30/3682.
24 Introduction, translation and annotation by Douglas Selvage, ‘The End of the Berlin Crisis: New Evidence on the Berlin Crisis 1958-1962’ in Cold War International History Project Bulletin 11 (Winter 1998) p. 219.
25 Zubok, Khrushchev and the Berlin Crisis p. 24. Report of International Department 16 March 1962. According to Andropov, Soviet loans to the GDR amounted to 6.8 billion Deutschmarks (roughly DM 400 per head of the population).
26 See Selvage’s remarks in Ibid. p. 222.
27 Uhl, ‘Westberlin stellt also ein großes Loch…’ p. 319.
28 Text of speech in BArch Berlin SAPMO Büro Walter Ulbricht IV 30/3682.
29 David E. Murphy, Sergei A. Kondrashev and George Bailey, Battleground Berlin: CIA vs KGB in the Cold War p. 366 and for Bob Harvey’s objections.
30 Ibid. also p. 366.
31 Report on Paris conference reproduced in Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961-1963, Volume XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1961-1962 pp. 281-91.
32 See Neues Deutschland 4 August 1961 for text of Anordnung zur Durchführung des Magistratsbeschlusses vom 4. August 1961 über Zahlungen im demokratischen Berlin durch Personen, die in Westberlin einer Beschäftigung nachgehen.
33 Protokoll Nr 39/61 der auβerordentlichen Sitzung des Politbüros des Zentralkomitees der SED am Montag (7.8.1961) in BArch Berlin SAPMO DY/30/J IV 2/2A/841.
34 Klaus Wiegrefe, ‘Der Schandmauer’ in Der Spiegel 32/2001 6 August 1961.
35 Merseburger, Willy Brandt pp. 393f.
36 Wiegrefe, ‘Der Schandmauer’ as above.
37 Manfred Rexin, ‘Eine Mauer durch Berlin: Erinnerungen an den August 1961’ in Deutschland-Archiv 34 (2001) 4 pp. 645 ff.
38 Quote from Mende’s memoirs in Pölzl, Erich Honecker p. 71. From the autumn of 1961 Mende, a leader of the expellees from Eastern Germany (he was Silesian-born), would serve as vice-chancellor and Minister for All-German Questions under the coalition between the liberal FDP and the CDU that followed the 17 September elections. More conservative and nationalistic than most of his party membership, in 1970 he resigned from the FDP and crossed right over to the CDU.
39 Statement by refugee Gerhard Diekmann (twenty-five, single, worker in a state-owned factory), made in West Berlin on 14 August 1961. Bundesministerium für Gesamtdeutsche Fragen (Hg., Die Flucht aus der Sowjetzone und die Sperrmaβnahmen des kommunistischen Regimes vom 13. August 1961 in Berlin p. 76.
40 Honoré M. Catudal, Kennedy in der Mauer-Krise: Eine Fallstudie zur Entscheidungsfindung in den USA pp. 251ff. (English version: Kennedy and the Berlin Crisis: A Study in US Decision-Making).
41 See Uhl and Wagner, Ulbricht, Chruschtschow und die Mauer as above p. 34.
42 Van Pawel’s account of the meeting with Konev in Peter Wyden, The Wall: The Inside Story of Divided Berlin pp. 127f.
43 Lengthy extracts from the protocol of Mielke’s speech to the Stasi leadership, 11 August 1961, in Eisenfeld and Engelmann, Mauerbau Fluchtbewegung und Machtsicherung pp. 47f.
44 See ‘Das Wetter in Berlin 1950-1961’ by Paul Schraak of the Meteorological Institute of the Free University, Berlin in Berlinische Monatsschrift 3/2001 p. 193, also available on www.berlinische-monatsschrift.de. In common with many other historical events that happened to occur during the summer months, the building of the Berlin Wall is commonly and sincerely—though incorrectly—recollected as taking place on ‘a glorious summer’s day’, with the proceedings ‘bathed in bright sunshine’ and so on and so on.
45 Interview with Joachim Trenkner as above.
46 Account of ‘parry’ at the Grosser Döllnsee in Wiegrefe, ‘Die Schandmauer’ as above. Neumann’s account in Siegfried Proskop, Poltergeist im Politbüro: Siegfried Prokop im Gespräch mit Alfred Neumann p. 176.
47 Testimony of Helmut Bäuml regarding the weekend of the border closure in Grimm, Das Politbüro Privat pp. 161f.
48 Pölzi, Erich Honecker p. 72.
49 Ibid. pp. 72f.
50 Ibid. p. 73.
51 Ibid. p. 74.
9 Barbed-Wire Sunday
1 Interview with Rober H. Löchner for the Cold War International History Project (WIHP) 1996, starting at http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/interviews/episode-4/lochner1.html.
2 Interview by the author with Götz Bergander, Berlin, 1 October 2004. And for the following.
3 Interview by the author with Lothar Löwe, Berlin, 29 March 2005. And for the following.
4 Nuremberg speech quoted in Merseburger, Willy Brandt pp. 394f.
5 Merseburger, Willy Brandt p. 397.
6 Copy of telegram E. Alan Lightner in Berlin to Secretary of State 10.28 a.m. 13 August 1961 Kennedy Library Boston National Security Files Box 91a.
7 Ibid.
8 Account of meeting at the Kommandatura drawn from Merseburger, Willy Brandt pp. 397f. and author’s interview with Egon Bahr as above.
9 Interview by the author with Wolfgang Baldin, Berlin, 11 August 2005.
10 Abt. Parteiorgane, Kurzinformation Nr. 5 über die ersten Maβnahmen und Stimmen zur Durchführung des Ministerratsheschlusses vom 12.8.1961~ in BArch Berlin SAPMO DY/30/IV/2.028 Bd 43 Bl.154.
11 Kurzinformation Nr. 5 as above.
12 Inforrnation über die Wirksamkeit der Arbeit des Gegners unter der Jugend dated 22.8.1961 in BArch Berlin SAPMO DY/30/IV/2.028 Bd 43 Bl. 228-30.
13 Account here and following from the description by Till Meyer in his autobiography, Staatsfeind (Enemy of the State), reprinted in the newspaper Junge Welt, 11 August 2001 as 13. August 1961: Treptower Park, Endstation’, Meyer later became a violent left-wing extremist and was jailed for his involvement in the ‘Movement of the 2nd June’ armed terrorist group. Among other things, the group carried out the kidnap in 1975 of the West Berlin conservative politican Peter Lorenz, who was exchanged for several imprisoned leftists. Meyer was later exposed as having been an agent of the Stasi throughout most of the 1970s and 1980s. He is now a freelance journalist in Berlin.
14 Interview by the author with Klaus Schulz-Ladegast, Berlin, 16 August 2005.
10 Prisoners
1 The church itself was bricked up and used as a storage room and as a kennel for the trained guard dogs that patrolled the border zone. It was finally dynamited in 1985 and the area where it had stood levelled. The few remnants left—part of the altar, the bell, parts of the metal spire, etc. were incorporated into the ‘chapel of reconciliation’ built on the site and consecrated in 2000. This chapel is now used for the service that precedes the annual laying of wreaths at the Bernauer Strasse Wall Memorial each 13 August.
2 Johannes Wendland, ‘Mit dem Feldstecher bei der Beerdigung der Oma’ in Das Parlament Nr 29-30 12.07.2004.
3 Opfer-der-Mauer-Liste, Polizeipräsidium Berlin.
4 Ibid.
5 Werner Filmer/Herbert Schwan, Opfer der Mauer p. 86f.
6 See Curtis Care, The Ides of August: The Berlin Wall Crisis of 1961 pp. 385f.
7 Neues Deutschland, Organ des Zentralkomitees der SED, 14 August 1961.
8 Interview by the author with Günter Schabowski, Berlin, 10 August 2005.
9 ‘Sie dürfen nicht an Schlusselfunktionen und besonders lebenswichtigen Anlagen in den Betrieben beschaftigt werden.’ Circular from Stoph among Sicherheitsmaβnahmen der DDR vom 13.8.1961~ in BArch SOPMA DC/20/4333.
10 Mfs report 29 September 1961 in http://www.bstu.de/ddr/aigist61/seiten/agitations-well2.htm.
11 Circular from Stoph regarding ‘West-Studenten’ from BArch SOPMA dc/20/4333 as above. Also for the rules regarding school pupils.
12 Survey for Abteilung Agitation de ZK der SED Argumente der Intelligenz—Stichtag 20.9.61 and memorandum Zu den Sicherungsmassnahmen der DDR in report dated 8.9.61 both in BArch SAPMO DY30/IV 2/9.02 6.
13 Report to Büro des Politbüros, Abteilung Parteiorgane 21.8.1961 in BArch SAPMO DY/30/IV 2/2.01.
14 Ibid.
15 Dennis, The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic 1945-1990 p. 102.
16 Information about the pre-GDR history of the indusrrial area from Der verbotene Stadtteil: Stasi-Sperrbezirk Berlin-Hohenschönhausen by Peter Erle and Hubertus Knabe pp. 22ff.
17 Klaus Schulz-Ladegast’s experience in prison from interview by the author as above.
18 Erle and Knabe, Der verbotene Stadtteil: Stasi-Sperrbezirk Berlin-Hohenschönhausen p. 49ff.
19 Figures from SED Bezirksleitung Gro?-Berlin, Abteiling für Sicherheitsfragen 10.10.1961 in BArch SAPMO DY30 IV 2/12 80.
20 Ibid. for reports on the clearing of apartment blocks close to the border.
11 ‘That Bastard from Berlin’
1 John C. Ausland, ‘When They Split Berlin, Washington Was Asleep’ in: International Herald Tribune 14 November 1989. Also Cate, The Ides of August pp. 305f.
2 Information on the poor start of President Kennedy’s health in August 1961 from: Dallek, Kennedy pp. 471ff.
3 See Cate, The Ides of August pp. 330ff. Also for the details of Clifton’s recall of Kennedy from the planned picnic cruise, based on Mr Cate’s interview with Clifton.
4 Cable from the Situation Room to Mr Salinger, Hyannisport WH536-61 13 August 1961 in Kennedy Library Boston NSF Box 91a. Berlin Cables. Separate accompanying cable directly from Rostow from same archival source. The file also contains the original CIA report informing Washington of the sealing of the border.
5 Cited in Richard Reeves, President Kennedy: Profile of Power p. 325.
6 Cyril Buffet, ‘De Gaulle, the Bomb and Berlin: How to use a Political Weapon’ in: ed. John Gearson and Kori Schake, The Berlin Wall Crisis: Perspectives on Cold War Alliances p. 87.
7 Minute by Macmillan in response to Ministry of Defence memorandum 23 June 1961 in BNA Kew PREM 11/3348. ‘Though,’ he added, ‘of course it would not be any comfort in being blown up to know one was bankrupt’.
8 Note by Harold Macmillan scribbled on estimates for potential Berlin airlift 13 July 1961 in BNA Kew PREM 11/3348.
9 Harold Watkinson to Harold Macmillan 12 September 1961 with handwritten annotation in BNA Kew PREM 11/3351.
10 Buffer, ‘De Gaulle, the Bomb and Berlin’ in The Berlin Wall Crisis as above p. 86.
11 See Vive Berlin! Ein Ort deutsch-französischer Geschichte 1945-2003/Un lieu d’histoire francoallemande 1945-2003/ A Focal Point of German-French History 1945-2003, a publication of the Allied Museum Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the German-French Friendship Treaty 2003, p. 85.
12 Most frequently quoted original French version: ‘J’aime tellement l’Allemagne que je préfère qu’il y en ait deux’. English attribution by the Conservative minister, John Biffen MP, in the House of Commons on 11 February 1989 in Hansard for that date, column 520.
13 Memorandum from WWR for the President: ‘A High Noon Stance on Berlin’ 22 July 1961 in Kennedy Library Boston NSF Box 82 Ger. As for the following.
14 See Christopher Winkler, ‘Between Conflict and Gentleman’s Agreement: the Military Liaison Missions of the Western Allies in Potsdam’ in Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact at http://www.isn.ethz.ch/php/documents/collection_mlm/texts/intro_winkler_eng.htm.
15 Details from: Mission erfüllt/Mission Accomplished/Mission Accompli: The Military Liaison Missions of the Western Forces in Potsdam from 1946 to 1990 (a publication of the Allied Museum, Berlin 2004) p. 27.
16 See Erler and Knabe Der verbotene Stadtteil as above pp. 41f., which includes a Stasi photograph of a British Military Mission (BRIXMIS) vehicle on the edge of the walled security area.
17 Cable No. 274 Berlin Situation Report August 13, 1800 hours. ‘Situation is quiet…’ in BNA Kew PREM 11/3349.
18 Cate, the Ides of August pp. 322f.
19 Ibid. p. 320.
20 Ausland, ‘When They Split Berlin’ in International Herald Tribune as above.
21 Interview with Robert H. Lochner for the Cold War History Project 1996 as above. And for his comments about Murrow’s phone call to America.
22 Cited in: Peter Wyden, Wall: The Story of Divided Berlin p. 219. And for Murrow’s call to Wilson.
23 We cannot know the precise content of this call. Dallek in p. 426 has Murrow later cabling Washington to the effect that the star broadcaster’s conversations with West Berlin’s movers and shakers had indicated a degree of demoralisation that ‘can and should be corrected’. Dallek continues: ‘The absence of any “sharp and definite follow-up” had produced a “letdown” that amounted to a “crisis of confidence”.’
24 Details of Brandt’s speech to the West Berlin Abgeordnetenhaus of 13 August 1961 and comments in: Merseburger, Willy Brandt pp. 398f. For the entire text (in German) and protocols of the special session of the Abgeordnetenhaus see also the official government Berlin Wall website http://www.chronik-der-mauel.de/index.php/chronik/1961/August/13/.
25 Quote from Dallek in Kennedy p. 426.
26 Kenneth P. O’Donnell and David F. Powers with Joe McCarthy, Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye: Memories of John Fitzgerald Kennedy p. 343.
27 Sir C. Steel to Foreign Office 5.00 p.m. 14 August 1961 in BNA Kew PREM 11/3349. And for the following opinion of Brentano’s views.
28 Wyden, Wall p. 219. But Murrow’s direct influence is not mentioned by any German sources.
29 Merseburger, Willy Brandt pp. 408f.
30 Interview with Robert H. Lochner for the Cold War History Project 1996 as above.
31 Minutes of the Steering Group on Berlin 15 August 1961 [document dated 16 August], in Kennedy Library Boston NSF Box 88. And for the following quotes.
32 Max Frankel in New York Times 16 Augusr 1961 ‘Reds Held Losing: Washington to Stress East German Move Confesses Failure’.
33 Cable from Lightner in Berlin to Secretary of State 15 August 1961 in Kennedy Library Boston NSF Box 91 a cables 8/61.
34 For Brandt’s letter, his consequent speech at the Rathaus, and the consequences, see Merseburg, Willy Brandt pp. 400f. Full text (in German) available at the official website of the Wall Memorial Museum in Berlin: http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/chronik/1961/August/61/.
35 Merseburger, Willy Brandt p. 402. And for the roles of Murrow and Lightner in the affair.
36 Account of Berlin Steering Group meeting 17 August 1961 in Kennedy Library Boston NSF Box 88. Present: the President; the Secretary of State and Mr Kohler; the Secretary of Defense, Mr Gilpatric (Deputy Secretary of Defense) and General Lemnitzer (Chairman, Joint Chiefs, of Staff); the Attorney-General (R.F. Kennedy); Mr Dulles and Mr Murphy (CIA); Mr Wilson (USIA); General Taylor, Mr Bundy, and Mr Owen.
37 See the account ‘Despatched to Defend: Welcomed by Citizens’ in the US army’s weekly Berlin newspaper Berlin Observer 25 August 1961.
38 Norstad to Lemnitzer 18 August 1961 in Foreign Relations, 1961-1963, Volume XIV, Berlin Crisis, 1961-1962 and online at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/frus/kennedyjf/xiv/15862.htm Doc. 119.
39 Central Intelligence Agency, Studies in Intelligence, vol. 33, No. 4, Winter 1989 pp. 79f.
40 Dallek, Kennedy p. 427.
41 Cate, The Ides of August p. 402.
12 Wall Games
1 See Hagen Koch, Meine Flucht nach Vorn privately published on CD pp. 90ff. Herr Koch claims to have been blackmailed by a local Stasi officer into joining, having originally applied to join the East German navy. There is, however, no question bur that he was a convinced and idealistic Communist at that time.
2 Ibid. pp. 132f.
3 Conrad Schumann, interview with CNN for Cold War series episode 9, see http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/09/script.html.
4 Leibing cited in ‘Ein Held, der keiner sein wollte’ by Kai Guleikoff in Junge Freiheit 14 August 1998. See also the interview with Leibing in ‘Na, springt der?’ by Moritz Schwartz in Junge Freiheit 10 August 2001.
5 Now once more Mohrenstrasse.
6 Cate, The Ides of August p. 404 for the composition of the party.
7 Wyden, The Wall pp. 227f. Wyden also, however, cites Clay’s later oral history depositions, in which the general admitted that almost a week after 13 August it was probably already too late for such a thing. And, in fact, if the East Germans had simply built their wall a few blocks back from the actual border, it would have been even harder to do anything about it without ‘invading’ East Berlin.
8 For the personal details of the Bonn meeting with Adenauer see Cate, The Ides of August pp. 407f. and Johnson’s own account to the President on his return, available in Foreign Affairs of the United States Vol. XIV document 120, and also the Memorandum to McGeorge Bundy from Jay Gildner of the USIA 21 August 1961 in Kennedy Library, Boston NSF Box 74a Germany.
9 Memorandum from Jay Gildner for McGeorge Bundy as above.
10 Cate The Ides of August p. 412.
11 Johnson’s report in Foreign Affairs of the United States Vol. XIV as above.
12 Sir Harold Caccia to Permanent Secretary Sir Evelyn Shuckburgh of the Foreign Office 21 August 1961 in BNA Kew PREM 11/3350.
13 Memorandum from Jay Gildner as above.
14 Quoted in Merseburger, Willy Brandt p. 205 and for the following.
15 Account of the day’s activities with Johnson based on Willy Brandt’s autobiographical sketches, Begegnungen und Einsichten: Die Jahre 1960-1975 pp. 31ff.
16 From Col Johns’ written account of the journey to Berlin, used in Cate, The Ides of August pp. 417-23.
17 See the above account and also the article in the Berlin US forces’ newspaper Berlin Observer vol. 17 No. 34 25 August 1961, ‘8th Division Troops Dispatched by JFK to Beef Up Bastion’.
18 Cate, The Ides of August p. 427.
19 Memorandum from Jay Gildner as above.
20 Cate, The Ides of August p. 430. And for some of the detail on Johnson’s dinner party at the Hilton (now the Hotel Intercontinental) not covered in Brandt’s account.
21 Brandt, Begegnungen und Einsichten p. 33 (he quotes the Vice-President in English, clearly from fond memory). Cate in The Ides of August p. 435 cites thirty-three cents. Herr Franke was not available for consultation.
22 Account of Günter Litfin’s life and death based on sources including Stasi files in Bernd Eisenfeld and Roger Engelmann, 13.8.1961: Mauerbau Fluchtbewegung und Machtsicherung p. 95f.
23 ‘Mordhetze aus der Hauptstadt’ in Neues Deutschland 2 September 1961.
24 See Uhl and Wagner, Ulbricht, Chruschtschow und die Mauer as above p. 49.
25 Paul Verner to Genosse Walter Ulbricht 18.9.61 Becrifft: Grenzdurchbruch in der Bouchéstraβe (Kreis Treptow) in BArch SAPMO DY 30 3682 Büro Ulbricht Bl. 169.
26 Ministry of the Interior report of 22 September 1961 to Central Committee of the SED Betr: Pioniermaβnahmen an der Grenze zu Westberlin in BArch Berlin SAPMO DY 30 IV 2/12/72 Bl. 162f.
27 Einschätzung der Fahnenfluchten im Einsatzraum Berlin in der Zeit vom 13.8-10.9.1961 in BArch Berlin SAPMO DY 30 IV 2/12/72 Bl. 156f.
28 See Uhl and Wagner, Ulbricht, Chruschtschow und die Mauer as above p. 48
29 See Yuli Kvitsinsky’s memoirs, published in German as Vor dem Sturm p. 187.
30 Frank, Walter Ulbricht p. 367.
31 Only in 1982 were these regulations to take legal form in the ‘Border Statute’ of that year. Hitherto it was a purely administrative measure, without legislative support.
13 High Noon in the Friedri chstrasse
1 Named after Dr Walter Hallstein, State Secretary at the West German Foreign Office during the 1950s, who originated the idea of isolating the GDR in this way. Hallstein was from 1958 the first president of the European Commission and a prime mover in the creation of the European Economic Community.
2 Merseburger, Willy Brandt p. 408.
3 Note from P.F. de Zulueta to Prime Minister Macmillan re. meeting with Barnaby Drayson MP and Robert Jenkins MP 13 September 1961 in BNA Kew PREM 11/3364.
4 Details of the Checkpoint Charlie events on 22 October from Gerd Wilcke, ‘9 American M.P.’s Cross Berlin Line to Free Official’ in New York Times 23 October 1961.
5 For American commandant General Watson’s letter of protest to the Soviet commandant, Colonel Soloviev, and description of the incident see Lightner’s telegram to the State Department of 23 October 1961 in Kennedy Library, Boston POF/117 SF Ger. See also Eisenfeld and Engelmann, Mauerbau Fluchtbewegung und Machtsicherung p. 65.
6 Telegram from Clay in Berlin to Secretary of State 24 October 1961 in Kennedy Library, Boston POF/I17 SF Ger.
7 Stamped ‘Rusk’, State Department to embassies and military including JCS 18 October 1961 in Kennedy Library, Boston POF SF Ger 62.
8 Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall pp. 210f., from Professor Harrison’s interview with Yuli Kvitsinsky in 1992.
9 Ibid. p. 217.
10 See the report on this from the Soviet point of view in Colonel General Ivanov’s message to Defence Minister Malinovsky in Moscow 25 October 1961, reprinted in Uhl and Wagner, Ulbricht, Chruschtschow und die Mauer Dokument 36 pp. 158f.
11 Transcript of the meeting between Watson and Soloviev ibid, Dokument 37 pp. 160ff.
12 Cate, The leds of August pp. 482f. And for the following.
13 Cate, writing in the early 1980s, was not aware that the affable emissary was a CIA man. See David E. Murphy, Sergei A. Kondrashev and George Bailey, Battleground Berlin: CIA vs KGB in the Cold War p. 391.
14 Details of this confrontation from Sydney Gruson, ‘Soviet Advance: 33 Vehicles Are Mile From Crossing ‘Point Used by Americans’ in New York Times 27 October 1961.
15 Sydney Gruson, ‘US and Russians Pull Back Tanks from Berlin Line’ in New York Times 29 October 1961.
16 Reprinted in Uhl and Wagner, Ulbricht, Chruschtschow und die Mauer Dokument 38 pp. 164ff.
17 Reprinted ibid. Dokument 39 pp. 166f.
18 Cate, The Ides of August p. 486 based on Cate’s interviews with Clay and with the President’s secretary, Evelyn Lincoln.
19 Khrushchev Remembers as above p. 507.
20 P.F. de Zulueta to Prime Minister n.d. (probably 28 October) but annotated 29 October 1961 by Macmillan in BNA Kew PREM 11/3353.
21 Lord Home to Prime Minister 27 October 1961 in BNA Kew PREM II/3353.
22 Harrison, Driving the Soviets up the Wall p. 215.
23 ‘Document No. 2. Rough notes from a Conversation (Gromyko, Khrushchev, and Gomulka) on the International Situation, n.d. {October 1961}’ introduced, translated and annotated by Douglas Selvage, CWIHP Bulletin II (Winter 1998) pp. 223f.
24 P.F. de Zulueta to Prime Minister I November 1961 in BNA Kew PREM 11/3353.
25 See Gerhard Wettig, ‘Chruščëvs Berlin-Krise, Ein Forschungsbericht’ in Mitteilungen der Gemeinsamen Kommission für die Erforschung der jüngeren Geschichte der deutsch-russischen Beziehungen p. 143.
14 Break-outs
1 Sydney Gruson, ‘US and Russians Pull Back Tanks…’ from New York Times 29 October 1961.
2 From CIA Dispatch 6 November 1961, ‘Berlin Since 13 August (MORI 14411)’ published as part of On the Front Lines of the Cold War: Documents on the Intelligence War in Berlin 1945-1961 available from the CIA website on http://www.cia.gov/csi/books/17240/art-9.html. And see David E. Murphy, Sergei A. Kondrashev and George Bailey, `Battleground Berlin: CIA vs KGB in the Cold War p. 386.
3 Merseburger, Willy Brandt pp. 430f. And for the possible involvement of Senator Lipschitz in the bomb plan.
4 See Marion Detjen, Ein Loch in der Mauer, Die Geschichte der Fluchthilfe im geteilten Deutschland 1961-1989~ pp. 99ff.
5 Details of Burkhart Veigel’s escape activities based on the article ‘Interview mit Fluchthelfer Burkhart Veigel: Ein Koffer voller Blanko-Pässe’ available at http://www.spiegel.de/sptv/ reportage/o,1518,149670,00.html and also Veigel’s own account on his personal website at http://www.fluchthilfe.de in which he also writes in some detail about various other forms of escape, including through the sewers and through one tunnel.
6 The West German news magazine Der Spiegel, which interviewed some of the group’s leaders for a 1962 article dubbed the organisation ‘Operation Travel Agency’ (Unternehmen Reisebüro), a romantic-thrillerish sort of title which also sought to conceal the identity of its founders, who did not wish to be identified. According to Marion Detjen in her comprehensive study of the escape movement Ein Loch in der Mauer, Die Geschichte der Fluchthilfe im geteilten Deutschland 1961-1989~ (2005), this student-based organisation was much looser and less coherent than such articles claim, and was known to the initiated as the ‘Girrmann Group’, which is the title that will be used here.
7 Detjen, Ein Loch in der Mauer as above p. 103.
8 ‘Die Augen feucht vor Wut: DDR-Heldenkult um 25 Soldaten und Polizisten’ in Der Spiegel 28/1991 8 July 1991. The article erroneously states that Tews was ‘lifeless’ when retrieved. And for the circumstances of Göring’s death and secular canonisation by the East German state. See also the account in Filmer/Schwan, Opfer der Mauer as above p. 287. Information on Walter Tews’ appearance and injuries from reports of his appearance at the trial of three former East German border guards for his attempted murder inDie Welt 29 May, 31 May and 10 June 2002. The accused were eventually found not guilty on grounds that no intent to murder could be established, nor could the identity of the soldier who fired the shots that hit Tews.
9 Free translation by the author of the poem in Der Kampfruf (The Call to Battle), weekly newspaper of the Readiness Police 1 June 1961.
10 ZK der SED Abt. Sicherheitsfragen BArch Berlin SAPMO DY 30 IV 2/12 75 Bl.264.
11 Filmer/Schwan, Opfer der Mauer as above p. 281.
12 Malzahn, Deutschland, Deutschland as above pp. 129f.
13 Detjen, Ein Loch in der Mauer p. 91.
14 Cf. ‘Anlage zur Abschlußbericht d. Ausb. Rgt.’ in ZK der SED Abt. Sicherheitsfragen BArch Berlin SAPMO 30 IV 2/12 72 Bl. 278f.
15 Report of 3.1.1962 in ZK der SED Abt. Sicherheitsfragen BArch Berlin SAPMO DY 30 IV 2/12 75.
16 Report of investigators’ search of a rented room belonging to a deserter in ZK der SED Abt. Sicherheitsfragen BArch Berlin SAPMO DY 30 IV 2/12 77 Bl. 60.
17 Report, ‘Bericht über die Fahnenflucht des ehemaligen Oberoffiziers für Kommandantendienst der 2. Grenzbrigade, Major Krajewsky’ in ZK der SED Abt. Sicherheitsfragen BArch Berlin SAPMO DY 30 IV 2/12 73 Bl. 106ff.
18 ‘Ein dufter Kerl’, see Detjen, Ein Loch in der Mauer. p. 117.
19 See ‘Grabung ins Jahr 1962’ in Der Tagesspiegel 27 Ocrober 2004.
20 See Filmer/Schwan, Opfer der Mauer as above pp. 288f.
21 ‘Das falsche Kaliber’ in Der Spiegel 52/1998 21 December 1998.
22 The legal consequences of this incident constitute one of the stranger controversies of the post-Cold War world. See the ruling of the German Federal Constitutional Court on 30 November 2000 rejecting Müller’s appeal against conviction for murder at http://www.bverfg.de/entscheidungen/rk20001130_2bvr147300.html. Müller had first been convicted of the manslaughter of Private Huhn by a district court in 1999 and sentenced to one year’s imprisonment (suspended), while the following year the German Supreme Court increased the charge to that of murder, though retaining the lenient sentence. Mu¨ller’s arguments of necessity and/or self defence were rejected. The constitutional court also saw no reason ro overturn this latter verdict whereby ‘the federal court…considers the life of the border soldier of greater value…than the right of the plaintiff to protect himself against the threat of illegal proceedings on the part of the GDR authorities’, The controversy continues.
23 See material in Abt. F¨ur Sicherheitsfragen, Parteiinformation fu¨r die Zeit der erho¨hten Einsatzbereitschaft von 13.08.1962,08.00 Ihr bis 14.08.1962, 08.00 Uhr in BArch Berlin SAPMO DY 30 IV 2/I2 73.
24 Report of the commander of the First Border Brigade (B) 17 August 1962 reproduced in Filmer/Schwan, Opfer der Mauer as above pp. 104ff.
25 Transcripts of Oval Office tapes in ed. Timothy Naftali, The Presidential Recordings: John F. Kennedy: The Great Crises Volume I: July 3o-August 1962 pp. 534f.
26 Abt. F¨ur Scherheitsfragen, Befehl des Kommandeurs der I. Grenzbrigade (B) Nr 56/6223 August 1962 in BArch Berlin SAPMO DY 30 IV 2/12 73 B!. 311ff.
27 See ‘Hasso Herschel—Fluchthelfer und Geschäftsmann’ in Spiegel Online http://www.Spiegel!.de/sprvlspecial/o, I 5 18, I 13392,oo.htm!.
28 For their first meeting with Herschel see Ellen Sesta, Der Tunnel in die Freiheit, Berlin. Bernauer Straβe pp. 57f.
29 Ibid. pp. II 3f.
30 Detjen, Ein Loch in der Mauer p. 155.
31 Ibid. p. 158.
32 Ibid. p. 260.
33 Author’s interview with Klaus Schulz-Ladegast as above.
15 ‘Ich Bin ein Berli>ner’
1 Detjen, Ein Loch in tier Mauer p. 152.
2 Ibid. pp. 196f.
3 See report from Martin Hildebrandt of the German Section of the State Department (and of the Berlin Steering Group) 24 October 1962 in NARA Washington RG 59 150/68/80/01 Box 3 General Records of the Department of State: Records of Ambassador-at-Large Llewellyn E. Thompson.
4 Walt Rostow to William Tyler (Head of the European Section of the State Department) 22 October 1962 in NARA Washington RG 59 NND 98737 General Records of the Department of State, Records Relating to Berlin and Eastern Affairs.
5 Andreas W. Daum, Kennedy in Berlin: Politik, Kultur and Emotionen im Kalten Krieg pp. 72f.
6 ‘There are many people in the world who really don’t understand, or say they don’t, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world.
Let them come to Berlin.
There are some who say—There are some who say that Communism is the wave of the future.
Let them come to Berlin.
And there ate some who say, in Europe and elsewhere, we can work with the Communists.
Let them come to Berlin.
And there are even a few who say that it is true that Communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress,
Lass’ sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin.’
7 Ibid. pp, 124ff. and for Brandt’s and the diplomats’ nervous reaction to President Kennedy’s rhetoric.
8 On the American University Commencement Address and its importance see Dallek, Kennedy pp.619ff.
9 Daum, Kennedy in Berlin p. 141.
10 Dallek, John F. Kennedy, An Unfinished Life p. 625.
11 See the erudite discussion in Daum, Kennedy in Berlin pp. I3If.
12 Merseburger, Willy Brandt pp. 436f.
13 Egon Bahr, Zu Meiner Zeit p. I54.
14 Figures from Dennis, The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic p. 2 ‘4.
15 Figure for the Gestapo from Richard J. Evans, The Third Reich in Power p. 96.
16 1958 guidelines for the Stasi cited in Mary Fulbrook, Anatomy of a Dictatorship, Inside the GDR 1949-1989 p. 47.
17 Dennis, The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic p. I2O.
I8 Fulbrook, Anatomy of a Dictatorship as above p. 144.
19 Dennis, The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic pp. 113ff. and for a more sensational but truly chilling glimpse of the long-term effects of the abuse of hormone treatments on young female athletes see Carolin Emcke and Udo Ludwig, ‘Doping: Blaue Bohnen von Dr Mabuse’ in Der Spiegel 9/2000 28 February 2000.
16 The Surreal Cage
1 Interview with Joachim Trenkner as above.
2 Quoted in Richie, Faust’s Metropolis p. 770.
3 Recalled by Götz Bergander, Sreglitz resident from 1963, in interview with the author as above.
4 See Richie, Faust’s Metropolis pp. 776f.
5 Fulbrook, Anatomy of a Dictatorship as above p. 81.
6 Interview with Klaus Schulze-Ladegast as above.
7 Ulrich Enzensberger, Die Jahre der Kommune I, Berlin 1967-1969 p. 296.
8 Richie, Faust’s Metropolis p. 779.
9 See in general Angela Kowalczyk ‘China’, Megativ find Dekadent, Ostberliner Punk-Erinnerungen. And in particular, for the ambition of looking like a West Berlin punk, the hilarious and touching account of pulling off just such a deception p. 48.
10 Ibid. p. 1.
11 For a case study see Maud Rescheleit and Stefan Krippendorf Der Weg ins Leben, DDR-Strafvollzug im Jugendhaus Dessau (published by Landesbeauftragte für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienses der ehemaligen DDR in Sachsen-Anhalt). Fascinating and chilling insights into this sinister aspect of the East German state are also to be found at the official historical website of the Torgau Jugendhof Association at http://jugendwerkhof-Torgau.de/ ausstellung. Another website offers a forum, information, historical links and counselling for former inmates, many of whom are still in recovery from their experience. See http://www.jugendwerk/info.
12 Oberst (Colonel) Klaus-Dieter Braun quoted in Thomas Flemming and Hagen Koch, Die Berliner Mauer, Geschichte eines Politischen Bauwerks p. 59.
13 Malzahn, Deutschland, Deutschland p. 150.
14 See David Childs, The GDR: Moscow’s German Ally pp. I47f.
15 Dennis, The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic pp. I6If.
16 Figures for 1978 reproduced ibid. p. 292.
17 Georg Bönisch, ‘21 Tonnen Gold im Keller. Alexander Schalck-Golodkowskis Geheimimperium KoKo: Äpfel für das Volk, Orchideen und Brillanten für die Funktionäre’ in Der Spiegel 48/1999 29 November 1999.
18 See Sebastian Knauer, ‘Vom Tigerkäfig in den Wunderbus’ in Der Spiegel 51/1999 18 December 1999.
19 Malzahn, Deutschland, Deutschland p. 167.
17 Endgame
1 Koehler, Stasi p. 145.
2 Quote from Eppelmann’s interview with Der Spiegel 1993 in Fulbrook, Anatomy of a Dictatorship p. 203n.
3 See John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War, A New History p. 227.
4 Pötzl, Erich Honecker pp. 256f.
5 See the straightforward and concise statement of the problem, with figures, in Uwe Müller, Supergau Deutsche Einheit pp. 47ff. They include statistics gathered by the Allies in preparation for the Potsdam Conference of July 1945.
6 Hermann Golle, cited in Müller, Supergau Deutsche Einheit p. 48.
7 Willy Brandt, Erinnerungen p. 235.
8 Pötzl, Erich Honecker p. 263.
9 Ibid. p. 265.
10 Ibid. p. 268.
11 Dennis, The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic pp. I80f.
12 Pötzl, Erich Honecker p. 262.
13 Filmer/Schwann, Opfer der Mauer pp. 50ff for the story as told by Bittner’s mother.
14 Ibid. p. 148.
15 Detjen, Ein Loch in der Mauer p. 330.
16 Filmer/Schwann, Opfer der Mauer pp. 58ff., 148.
17 See the website of the German government agency Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung/Deutschland Radio/Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam ‘Chronik der Mauer’ for January 1989 at http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/chronik/1989/Januar/.
18 Flemming and Koch, Die Berliner Mauer p. 109.
19 Richie, Faust’s Metropolis p. 823.
18 The Wall Came Tumbling Down
1 Pötzl, Erich Honecker p. 305.
2 Ibid. pp. 306f.
3 Richie, Faust’s Metropolis p. 828.
4 Pötzl, Erich Honecker pp 31 Of. And for the article in Neues Deutschland.
5 Dennis, The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic pp. 264f.
6 Pötzl, Erich Honecker p. 3I3.
7 Richie, Faust’s Metropolis pp. 832f. And for the Krenz plot. According to Richie it was a snort, but a hiss was reported by others and seems more in character. See Cordt Schnibben, ‘Makkaroni mit Schinken, bitte: Wie Erich Honecker und sein Politbüro die Konterrevolution erlebte’ in Der Spiegel 17/1990 23 April ‘990.
8 Cited in Schnibben, ‘Makkaroni mit Schinken’ as above.
9 For the entire several-page order MfS, ZAIG, Nr 451/89 see Herausg. Arnim Mitter and Stefan Wolle, ‘Ich liebe euch doch alle!’ Befehle und Lageberichte des MfS Januar-November 1989 pp. 208ff. Translation quoted as in Fulbrook, Anatomy of a Dictatorship p. 254.
10 Pötzl, Erich Honecker pp. 323-6.
11 Richie, Faust’s Metropolis p. 833.
12 Müller, Supergau Deutsche Einheit pp. 60ff. And for the following.
13 Quoted in Fulbrook,Anatomy of a Dictatorship p. 26
14 Markus Wolf, with Anne McElvoy, Man Without a Face, The Memoirs of a Spymaster p. 325.
15 Fulbrook, Anatomy of a Dictatorship p. 261.
16 MfS, ZAIG, Nr 496/89 reprinted in Mitter and Wolle, ‘Ich liehe euch doch alle!’ as above p. 250.
17 Julie Lutteroth, ‘Ein Satz, der Geschichte schreiben wird’ in Spiegel Online 9 November 2004 at http://www.spiegel.de.
18 For this and the following, see the minute-by-minute account in Hans-Hermann Hertle, Chronik des Mauerfalls, Die dramatischen Ereignisse um den 9. November 1989 pp. 149f.
19 Interview with Egon Krenz available online at http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/ chronik/1989/November/9/. Also for the Tagesthemen extract and the announcement on Aktuelle Kamera.
Afterword: The Theft of Hope
1 Trenkner, Coca Cola schmeckt nach Berlin as above.
2 Hertle, Chronik des Mauerfalls pp. 252ff.
3 Judt, Postwar p. 639 and for the quotation from Mrs Thatcher’s memoirs.
4 See Koch, Meine Flucht nach Vorne as above p. 262.
5 Pörzl, Erich Honecker p. 363. And for the following.
6 See Margarete Raabe, ‘Arbeitsgemeinschaft 13. August dokumentiert 57 weitere Todesopfer an der DDR-Grenze’ in Die Welt 13 August 2004 and http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/ index.php/opfer.
7 See BBC web news report by Rob Cameron, ‘Slovaks flock to Peugeot plant’ at http:// news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4932112.stm.
8 Figures from Müller, Supergau Deutsche Einheit p. 107.
9 Ibid. p. 109.
10 See Christoph Dieckmann: ‘Die schwindende Stadt: Abriss und Aufbau, Menschenflucht und Gründertrotz—in Halle ballt sich die ostdeursche Gegenwart’ in Die Zeit 27/2001. See also, for the same phenomenon in Saxony, Götz Hamann: ‘Wie schrumpft man eine Stadt? Sachsen erlebt, was westliche Bundesländer noch vor sich haben: Verlassene Wohnungen und verfallende Viertel in fast jeder Kommune. Stadtplaner, Politiker und Bürger lernen allmählich, mit der neuen Leere umzugehen’ in Die Zeit 45/2004.