04 September 2009

Berlin Divided … And Reunited, 1961-1989

A Timeline

This timeline is excerpted from The Berlin Wall: 20 Years Later, published by the Bureau of International Information Programs. View the entire book (PDF, 2.53 MB).

1961

MARCH 13 — President John F. Kennedy meets with West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt, reassuring him of continued U.S. support.

JUNE 3-4 — At their Vienna conference, President Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev find themselves in stark disagreement over German self-determination. Khrushchev threatens after six months to negotiate a separate peace treaty with East Germany, a measure that would unilaterally change the post-war status quo and threaten western access to divided Berlin. In response, Kennedy promises a “cold winter,” announces plans for a substantial buildup of U.S. conventional military forces, and declares he will defend Allied access to West Berlin.

JULY/AUGUST — In response to the large number of refugees fleeing East Berlin and the GDR (as many as 2,000 each day from August 1–12), the East German government gravely warns of “measures to safeguard the security of the German Democratic Republic.”

AUGUST 13 — Before dawn on a Sunday morning, East German police officers and soldiers begin barricading the Eastern sector of Berlin from the three Western sectors, preventing any further migration. Two days later, the GDR begins construction of a mammoth concrete wall. Refugees attempting to flee westward to freedom are shot dead by border guards. The British Foreign Office calls the move “contrary to the four-power status of Berlin and … therefore illegal.” The New York Times editorializes that those who fled to the West did so “because they could not endure the shame and misery of living under the so-called German Democratic Republic.”

AUGUST 26 — All crossing points are closed to West Berliners. The East German government restricts passage to only West Berliners with a special permit, then effectively shuts down access entirely by refusing to issue these permits.

1962

JANUARY 24 — Twenty-eight men, women, and children escape to West Berlin by tunneling their way under the fortified Wall. Among them were a 71-year-old paralyzed woman and an 8-year-old girl.

JUNE 8 — Fourteen East Berliners, including a woman with a baby in her arms, seize control of a passenger ferry on the River Spree and brave gunfire from GDR border guards to reach the West Berlin bank unharmed. “Today is my dream come true,” said the ship’s steward. “This is the happiest day of my life.”

AUGUST 17 — Eighteen-year-old Peter Fechter becomes the Wall’s 50th casualty when he is shot by border guards during an escape attempt. His bullet-riddled body is left unattended on the eastern side of the Wall as West Berliners scream at the “murderers” on the other side.

1963

JUNE 26 — President Kennedy invigorates Germany and shakes the world with a powerful speech from West Berlin. He concludes with the words: “All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words: Ich bin ein Berliner.”

DECEMBER 17 — Just in time for the Christmas holiday, an agreement between the West German and East German governments enables West Berliners to obtain short-term permits to visit relatives in the Eastern part of the city for the first time since the border was closed.

1964

OCTOBER 5 — Fifty-seven East Berliners successfully reach West Berlin through a 145-yard tunnel dug under the basement of an abandoned pastry shop. It took over six months to build the tunnel and was the largest escape to date.

1965

DECEMBER 26 — About 800,000 West Germans take advantage of a special two-week holiday relaxation of restrictions to visit friends and relatives in East Berlin. East Berliners were not permitted to travel to the west. One was killed and another wounded attempting to do so.

1967

FEBRUARY 2 — East German parliament establishes a separate East German citizenship encompassing residents of East Berlin. This implies that the division of Germany will be permanent.

FEBRUARY 3 — East Germany releases four Americans imprisoned since 1965 on charges of helping East Berliners escape to the West.

1970

MARCH 19 — Former West Berlin mayor and now West German Chancellor Willy Brandt meets with the chairman of the GDR Council of Ministers, Willi Stoph, in Erfurt, East Germany.

MARCH 26 — The U.S., Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union begin negotiations on a Berlin Agreement.

1971

JANUARY 31 — Berliners can make telephone calls across the Wall for the first time in two decades.

MAY 3 — Erich Honecker, the mastermind of the Berlin Wall, takes over from Walter Ulbricht as East German leader.

SEPTEMBER 3 — Representatives of the U.S., France, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union sign the Four Powers Agreement, reaffirming that all four powers retain rights and responsibilities with regard to Germany and, by implication, to Berlin.

1972

DECEMBER 21 — West German minister Egon Bahr and GDR State Secretary Michael Kohl take a major step toward reconciliation, signing the Basic Agreement on Relationships between the Federal Republic and the German Democratic Republic. It provides for enhanced commercial, diplomatic, cultural, and tourist ties.

1975

OCTOBER 29 — Despite lingering tensions, the FRG and the GDR agree that either side can rescue drowning victims in bordering rivers and canals. This issue arose after West German firefighters were forced to watch a boy drown in the Spree River— which separated East from West — when GDR border guards refused to let them try to save him.

1980

OCTOBER 9 — Attempting to re-impose travel restrictions, the GDR raises the fee for visitors from West Berlin to twenty-five deutsche marks per day.

1982

JUNE 11 — During his first visit to West Berlin as president, Ronald Reagan calls on the Soviet Union to work proactively toward long-term peace. During a speech to American soldiers, he asks “Why is this wall here? Why are they so afraid of freedom on this side of the wall?”

1984

JANUARY 20 — The U.S. Embassy in East Berlin arranges for six GDR citizens to cross into West Berlin as political refugees.

JANUARY 24 — A dozen more East Germans seek refuge at the Permanent Representation of the Federal Republic in East Berlin. Much to the consternation of the GDR, they too were granted asylum in West Berlin.

MARCH 14 — Frustrated by its inability to stem the flow of East Germans to the West, the GDR erect a second wall between the Brandenburg Gate and Potsdamer Platz. West Germany initially attempts to take advantage of this development and adjust the borders of Berlin. The New York Times opined that “neither the United States or the Soviet Union is exercising much control” in Berlin. In its 23 years of existence, the Wall had already claimed at least 70 lives.

1985

MARCH 11 — Mikhail Gorbachev, youngest member of the Soviet Politburo, is elected secretary general of the communist party. The New York Times calls him “A Leader With Style — and Impatience.”

1986

Gorbachev ends economic aid to the Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe. This eventually produces new policies on military aid and political interventions in the region, and ultimately to Soviet acquiescence when revolutions spread throughout Eastern Europe.

1987

JUNE 7-8 — A large open-air rock concert by the British band Genesis is held in West Berlin, and draws East Berlin youth to the Wall to listen. As GDR state police try to disperse the crowds, 3,000–4,000 young Berliners chant “The wall must go!” Countless East Berliners are injured as they are beaten by police and thrown into vans.

JUNE 12 — President Reagan speaks in front of the Brandenburg Gate, exclaiming, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Some Reagan advisers had deemed the phrase too provocative. Reagan decides to say it anyway. Berliners roar approval.

DECEMBER 8 — Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev sign the landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The linchpin phrase that Reagan insisted upon was “trust but verify.” The increased trust between the Cold War adversaries makes diplomatic solutions over Germany increasingly plausible.

DECEMBER 10 — East German state police thwart a planned protest by the “Initiative for Peace and Human Rights.”

1989

JANUARY 18 — Honecker defiantly asserts that the Wall would stay “for fifty, even a hundred years,” as long as capitalist forces opposed his regime.

FEBRUARY 6 — A final East German citizen is shot dead attempting to flee West. He was the last of 79 recorded victims. The wall would ultimately come down later that year.

FEBRUARY 27 — East German Communist theorist Otto Reinhold gives a speech denouncing the reforms of Gorbachev. Soviet analysts summarized his views by saying “there was no need to repair one’s walls just because a neighbor was doing so.”

MARCH 8 — A young East German citizen attempts to fly a homemade hot air balloon out of Berlin. He died when the balloon crashed in Zehlendorf, West Berlin.

MARCH 12 — A dispute over fishing rights near Szczecin, in western Poland, reveals a rift in the East Bloc dating to World War II. This would later become a diplomatic hurdle during the German reunification process.

JUNE 7 — Demonstrators protest in East Berlin after a series of allegedly fraudulent local East German elections. One hundred twenty were temporarily jailed.

AUGUST 8 — Outside of the Permanent Representation of the Federal Republic in East Berlin, GDR citizens gather to seek asylum. So many came and refused to leave that the building had to be closed when it could no longer accommodate people “under dignified, humane conditions.”

AUGUST 19 — Approximately 900 East German citizens escape into West Germany via Hungary to Austria. They were attending a picnic event entitled “Tear It Down and Take It With You,” where attendees were encouraged to clip off pieces of the barbed wire running along the border. About 100 Germans shove their way through a closed gate while Hungarian police look away. Three thousand refugees escaped by this means during the month of August. In the coming weeks, these numbers would increase mightily.

SEPTEMBER 11 — The “New Forum” is founded in East Berlin by critics of the GDR; Hungary opens its border with Austria with a ceremonial cut of barbed wire. Ten thousand East Germans crossed into West Germany via Austria that month.

OCTOBER 7 — Official celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the GDR commence. Thousands demonstrate in Berlin, demanding democracy and freedom. Mikhail Gorbachev lectures the regime of Erich Honecker, urging it to embrace reforms and to recognize the groundswell of discontent in East Europe. Gorbachev prophetically adds that “Life punishes those who come too late.”

OCTOBER 9 — Mass demonstrations of 70,000 in Leipzig, home to much grassroots opposition to the GDR.

OCTOBER 18 — Erich Honecker is forced from office after 18 years as state and party chief. He attributes his resignation to the effects of gall bladder surgery. Honecker later is brought to trial in Germany. His successor is Egon Krenz, a conservative whom the New York Times calls “no Gorbachev.” Krenz promises reforms, but they proved too little, too late.

OCTOBER 21-30 — In Berlin and other major German cities, hundreds of thousands of protestors mass in demonstrations against the government.

NOVEMBER 7 — The entire East German government resigns, followed closely by the entire Politburo. Demonstrations continue, refugees increase.

NOVEMBER 9 — After a vague announcement lifting travel restrictions, the GDR government unexpectedly opens its borders in the evening. While some border guards insisted that one had to “read between the lines,” and that citizens would need special permission to pass, the guards were overwhelmed by the number of citizens who appeared. Orders were not issued to stop them. Tens of thousands flood into West Berlin.

NOVEMBER 10 — Border guards began dismantling the Wall to create more transfer points. Berliners — both East and West — enthusiastically participate in the destruction.

NOVEMBER 11–12 — Three million East German citizens visit West Germany to look, shop, or visit with family and friends; some sought new lives in the FRG. Tens of thousands fill the Kurfürstendamm, overwhelming the streets. West German newspapers run a special supplemental listing of more than 4,000 jobs — many with rooms included — to provide a reason for East Germans to stay.

NOVEMBER 13 — Hans Modrow is elected prime minister by the People’s Parliament of the German Democratic Republic. Meanwhile, in Leipzig, 200,000 demonstrate for reform, as others do in other major German cities. The “Monday Demonstrations” continue for weeks. The Soviets do not intervene.

DECEMBER 3 — The entire Socialist Unity party leadership, led by Egon Krenz, resigns. Along with many other top party functionaries, former state and party chief Erich Honecker is expelled from the party in disgrace. What power remained in East German government was in the hands of Hans Modrow, a reformist politician from Dresden.

DECEMBER 22 — The Brandenburg Gate reopens for the first time in 28 years. It had been a potent symbol of the division of Germany. Helmut Kohl, chancellor of West Germany, called it “one of the happiest hours of my life.”

DECEMBER 31 — On New Year’s Eve, around 500,000 people from around the world gather at the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate a new era.