Historians give a precise date for the construction of the Berlin Wall: August 13, 1961. In the small hours of that morning, East German police and combat units, backed by Soviet troops, began laying barbed wire along the sector boundary in Berlin, with the first concrete elements following within weeks. The wall that the world came to know — the “Border Installation 75” reinforced-concrete segments — came later in the 1960s and 1970s. The barrier stood for twenty-eight years, two months, and twenty-seven days, until it was opened on the evening of November 9, 1989.
The decision had been months in the making. By the summer of 1961, East Germany was losing roughly a thousand citizens a day through the open sector boundary. Walter Ulbricht, the East German leader, had pressed Moscow for permission to close the border; Khrushchev had resisted, knowing it would be a propaganda disaster. By July 1961, however, Khrushchev was also worried that the East German state might collapse entirely if the hemorrhage continued. The go-ahead was given in early August.
The operation began in the small hours of August 13. East German police and combat units moved into position along the sector boundary, blocking access from the East. Construction crews — soldiers, workers — the Freiwillige Helfer der Volkspolizei — laid barbed wire and then stacked concrete blocks. The Western allies protested, but did not intervene; General Lucius Clay declined to use force to break the barrier.
The wall evolved over the years. The initial barbed wire and cinder-block wall was replaced in stages by the L-shaped reinforced-concrete “Border Installation 75” segments that became the wall of photographs and films. The finished system stretched about 155 kilometers and included a “death strip” of sand, fences, watchtowers, dog runs, and anti-vehicle ditches.
The full story of the wall’s construction and its human cost is treated in the dedicated article.