On 23 August 1961, ITN’s Nigel Ryan reported from West Berlin on the latest escalation of the Berlin crisis: the building of the Berlin Wall. The East German erection on August 13th of a barbed wire barricade dividing the Soviet and Western sectors of the city caused international alarm and outrage among West Berliners. Protesters took to the streets and West Berlin’s Mayor (later West German Chancellor) Willy Brandt denounced the barrier. US Vice President Lyndon B Johnson and a token force of American troops arrived in the city to demonstrate US support for the western Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland, BRD) and vigilance against Soviet activities. Barricades across railway lines, bridges and roads were erected to halt the westward flood of refugees, the so-called “brain drain” that threatened the Communist German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republic, DDR) with economic collapse. West Berliners wishing to visit their relatives in the Soviet sector would now require special passes. A British journalist who defected to the DDR in 1950 told Ryan of his belief that the building of the barricade would increase the pressure on the West to recognise the government of East Germany. Many West Berliners were reportedly demanding that the West take some countermeasures against the DDR, for example by restricting commerce between the eastern and western zones of the city.
#ColdWar #Berlin #BerlinWall #EastBerlin #WestBerlin #DDR #BRD #DeutscheDemokratischeRepublik #BundesrepublikDeutschland #East #West #USA #SovietUnion #USSR #Communism #1960s #1961 #Politics #Crisis
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