ALMOST 20 years after it fell, the Berlin Wall has given up its last secret. A German researcher has found in a Moscow archive the long-sought, conclusive evidence of the decision to build the hated structure on August 13th, 1961 – with the direct approval of the Soviet Union.
A yellowing protocol suggests that the decision was made on August 1st in a telephone conversation between Walter Ulbricht, head of the East German Politburo, and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
The written record of their discussion, lasting from 3.40pm to 6pm, suggests that Ulbricht was anxious to close the border, but that the final nod came from Khrushchev. The 28-page protocol of the conversation, transformed this weekend into a two-hander play at a Berlin theatre, begins with discussion of butter and milk shortages in the GDR.
The discussion then moves to the general one about the declining economic situation in the German socialist republic.
“When I came to your party conference two years ago, everything was fine. You wanted to overtake [West Germany] in 1961/62. What’s happened?” asked Khrushchev of Ulbricht.
Ulbricht blames Poland and Bulgaria for failing to deliver the promised levels of coal and steel. He also blames the destabilising influence of West Germany and claims that “Bonn is preparing, step-by-step, for an uprising” in the GDR in the autumn.
The Soviet leader suggests the problem has to do with the disappearance of East German citizens across the border: more than 200,000 in 1960 alone. “Too many engineers have disappeared, something has to be done,” says Khrushchev.
He reminds Ulbricht that he had sent his ambassador to discuss “using the current tensions with the West to lay an iron ring around Berlin”.
This was music to the ears of Ulbricht. He had already ordered enough barbed wire to encircle the west sector of the city and suggested to the Soviet leader that “there are a series of questions that cannot be solved with an open border”.
Finally, Khrushchev makes his decision.
“We’ll give you one, two weeks to prepare yourselves economically,” he said. “Then call in the parliament and announce the following communiqué: ‘From tomorrow, checkpoints will be erected and through-traffic forbidden. Whoever wants to pass can only do so with the permission of certain authorities of the GDR.”
Exactly 12 days later, the lights went out at the Brandenburg Gate and the Berlin Wall went up.