Barbed Wire Sunday (german: Stacheldrahtsonntag), is the name given to 13 August 1961, when the

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

and

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

closed the border between

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

and

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

and began the construction of what would become the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

. The intention of closing the border was to prevent the migration of East Germans to the

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...

. Prior to the establishment of the wall, approximately 3.5 million (or 20% of the population) East German citizens

defected In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...

to West Germany, many through the Berlin border due to its lack of security. This posed a major issue to the government as it was losing its substantial amounts of not just its workforce but also its

intellectuals An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking Critical thinking is the analysis of available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments to form a judgement. The subject is complex; several different definitions exist, ...

Timeline

Beginning at midnight,

Walter Ulbricht Walter Ernst Paul Ulbricht (; 30 June 18931 August 1973) was a German communist politician. Ulbricht played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and later (after spending the years of Nazi rule in ...

directed the beginning of construction. Under extreme secrecy, East German troops arrived at certain points to unload concrete, barbed wire, shovels, stone blocks and more.

Stasi The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the Intelligence agency, state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990. The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maint ...

agents were stationed throughout major intersections between the Soviet and Western sectors of Germany. Around 4 a.m., radio reports of commotion in the streets were being broadcast in

. By 4 p.m., half a million Berliners from both the West and East congregated around the sector. While police in West Berlin held back West Berliners who were calling for action, police in East Berlin were keeping its people away from the construction.

Results

Despite the measures imposed, 800 people managed to escape East Berlin before the end of the day. They had to overcome barbed wire or jump through house windows at the sector border to succeed. However, only a few dozen managed to escape the following day. The Berlin Wall had officially been established. Football players

Emil Poklitar Emil Poklitar (born 14 June 1939) is a retired German football striker. While playing for SC Dynamo Berlin, he defected to West Berlin after a friendly match against Boldklubben af 1893 at Idrætsparken in Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ...

and

Rolf Starost Rolf Starost (born 25 June 1942) is a German former professional footballer who played as a defender for East Berlin club SC Dynamo Berlin and for . Starost is a multiple East Germany national football team junior international. Sporting career ...

from

SC Dynamo Berlin The Sports Club Dynamo Berlin was an East German sports club that existed from 1954 to 1991. It was the largest sports club of SV Dynamo, the sports association of the security agencies. The club was disbanded after German reunification and even ...

defected to

during a friendly match against

Boldklubben af 1893 Boldklubben af 1893 is a Danish football club currently playing in the Danish 2nd Division. They play at the 7,000 seat Østerbro Stadion in Østerbro, Copenhagen. Achievements * Danish championship titles (9): ** 1916, 1927, 1929, 1930, 19 ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

on 13 August 1961. Emil Poklitar had gotten wind that the authorities were going to build the Berlin Wall and was helped by his teammates in SC Dynamo Berlin to escape the

supervisors.

Notes

{{Authority control 1961 in East Germany Berlin Wall