Berlin Crises. Read a short History of the Berlin Crises

Moscow Molly. Please Don't Fence Me In
Click Here. For more information from the National Security Archive.
Working Paper. Ulbricht and the Concrete Rose New Archival Evidence on the Dynamics of Soviet-East German Relations and the Berlin Crisis, 1958-61, by Hope Harrison....This is a must read.
How to Obtain your Cold War Certificate.

T H E  B E R L I N  C R I S I S

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President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Khrushchev shake hands on June 3, 1961 at their meeting in Vienna. Relations, frosty from the start, quickly deteriorate. The following day, Khrushchev demands that the Berlin problem be solved by December. Kennedy responds, "It's going to be a cold winter."

The Berlin crisis involved a controversy so bitter and so sustained that at its height world leaders feared that a misstep could trigger a nuclear war. The crisis unfolded through a war of words, diplomatic negotiations, superpower summits, and military posturing and preparations as East and West argued over the status of Berlin. For Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, U.S. "credibility" was at stake: a failure in Berlin could disrupt NATO and weaken American influence in West Germany, the key to the balance of power in Europe. Tension mounted in late October 1961 when the Soviets mistakenly concluded that U.S. tanks deployed at Checkpoint Charlie signaled an effort to break through the wall. Moscow deployed 10 tanks which squared off with the U.S. tanks. Kennedy and Khrushchev privately defused the situation by agreeing that the Soviet tanks would withdraw first. (Photo source: U.S. National Archives, Army Signal Corps Collection, #111-SC-591491)

August 13, 1961 At dawn, armed East German troops begin the sealing off of the eastern sector of Berlin with barbed wired and roadblocks. "To stop the hostile activities of the militaristic forces of West Germany," the East German cabinet decides to control the western sector border of Berlin in "a way every sovereign nation regulates its borders. "As long as West Berlin does not change into a neutral, demilitarized city, citizens of East Germany may travel to West Berlin only with a special permit. The East German Department of Interior closes all but 13 checkpoints between East and West Berlin. East German citizens are prohibited from working in West Berlin. The Public Transportation System (Metro and S-Bahn) between East and West Berlin is interrupted. Friedrichstrasse Station is the only remaining open station. Its station hall is often filled with returning Western visitors saying goodbye to their relatives and loved ones. It becomes known as the "Palace of Tears."  The first escape: On the very first day, a young recruit attempts of flee East Germany. The scene is captured on film and is seen all over the world.

August 15, 1961 East German border police close the Brandenburg Gate as a symbolic act on August 14, 1961.A day later, East German construction workers, guarded by armed border guards, erect the first segments of the Wall.

August 23, 1961 West Berliners are prohibited from entering East Berlin.

August 24, 1961 A 24 year old man becomes the first victim of the Wall. Trying to escape, he is shot by border guards in the Humboldt port area. Until April 18, 1989, many people lose their lives trying to cross the Berlin Wall.

September 12th 1961 In an attempt to make border crossing even more difficult, East German Border Units are formed as part of the National People's Army. The Border Units are dissolved 29 years later on September 21, 1990.

October 27th 1961 A standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union takes place at Check Point Charlie. No shots are fired.

M48 Tanks face off with East German and Russian Forces at Check Point Charlie.

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Along with M59 APC's below sitting in side streets and GI's taking a break from the tensions.

June 18th 1962 An East German border guard is shot by a West German escape agent. Communist party commemorates him as a hero in the "Fight against the West" and uses the incident as a pretext to further the perfection of the border system

June 19th 1962 East German Border guards and construction workers begin installing a second fence behind the existing Wall. This death strip - a barren zone 100 yards wide – is a closely controlled no-man's-land between the Walls.

August 17th 1962 The East Berliner construction worker, Peter Fecther, is shot and injured by border guards. Not provided with any medical assistance, he bleeds to death in "no-man's-land."

The above picture depicts a view of oppression from the eyes of freedom

Later, this was a common site.  Communist towers looking from the East to the West side of Berlin. Then as time went on not only were the towers visible from Berlin but they were visible all along the east German and Czechoslovakia borders.

Moscow Molly's favorite song. Cole Porter's "Please Don't Fence me in"

She would broadcast her Communist propaganda every night at 11:15 pm.

Moscow Molly

A Woman named Annette Teshlich, who was the daughter of an American defector named Lillie Mae Rahm. Annette traveled to the Soviet Union in 1935 and on March 20, 1936 became a citizen of the USSR. For a number of years well into the sixties, Annette worked as an announcer in the American section of Radio Moscow and was known as "Moscow Molly." The CIA reported that she had surprisingly factual and intimate details of life at U.S. bases in the Western European Theater and Alaskan Commands, her mission was calculated to destroy troop morale at these bases. Some of her details were so accurate that she would broadcast a bulletin about an Air Base and make mention that a certain bulb on a given runway was still out, and would remind everyone that it was a hazord. She was also known to welcome newly assigned troops to a Army or Air Force Base by Name, even to go so far as to mention the individuals home town and family members. Her theme song was "Cole Porters" Please Don't Fence Me in" She could be heard around 2300 hrs every weekday night. She was a Humdinger, I'll say that much.
 

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Berlin Crises

Until very recently the Berlin Crisis of 1958-1961 was the subject of surprisingly little study by political scientists and historians, particularly in comparison to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Yet the Berlin Crisis lasted far longer than the Cuban Missile Crisis, witnessed the greatest post-World War II risk of direct U.S.-Soviet hostilities, and had significant long-term effects on U.S.-Soviet relations and on relations within the NATO alliance and the Warsaw Pact. Further, such observers as President Kennedy believed it may have been a key factor in the Soviet initiation of the Cuban Missile Crisis. One important reason for the rather scarce study of the Berlin Crisis has been the paucity of documents available to researchers on the Crisis, from archives in both the West and the East. At last, archives in Russia and the former East Germany  (due to the breakdown of the communist system) and in the United States and Britain (due to the thirty-year-rule) are becoming open on this period, and the large number of newly declassified documents on the Berlin Crisis allows us to put together a much  more comprehensive account than ever before. This Working Paper focuses in particular on what led up to the Soviet ultimatum to the West of 27 November 1958, which started the Berlin Crisis, and to the building of the Berlin Wall on 13 August 1961, which in an important sense ended the crisis.

I want to personally thank Heiko Burkhardt of the Web Site "Berlin Wall Online" for allowing me to use photographs from her personal collection. All the above photographs have been copyrighted and distribution or displaying the above images digitally or through any media is strictly prohibited without the expressed permission of Heiko Burkhardt. http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall

Source:
Hope M. Harrison is an Associate at the Center for International  Affairs at Harvard University and a Junior Fellow of the Harriman Institute and Ph. D. candidate in the Political Science Department at Columbia University.