Before the Wall: The final chance to flee East to West Berlin was a wire fence

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On Saturday Aug. 12, 1961, a record number of people (approximately 4,000) fled from East to West Berlin. The following day, the world awoke to find 30 miles of barbed wire running through the heart of the city. The barrier was laid by East German soldiers

Two days later, on Tuesday Aug. 15, the same soldiers began to transform that wire into a wall — the Berlin Wall.

After World War II, the Potsdam Conference had divided Germany into four occupied zones, each under the control of one of the allies: France, Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union. Berlin, the capital, lay in the eastern section controlled by Russia and was itself divided into sectors. Read more...

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