Shortly after midnight on this day in 1961, East German soldiers begin laying down barbed wire and bricks as a barrier between Soviet-controlled East Berlin and the democratic western section of the city.
After World War II, defeated Germany was divided into Soviet, American, British and French zones of occupation. The city of Berlin, though technically part of the Soviet zone, was also split, with the Soviets taking the eastern part of the city. After a massive Allied airlift in June 1948 foiled a Soviet attempt to blockade West Berlin, the eastern section was drawn even more tightly into the Soviet fold. Over the next 12 years, cut off from its western counterpart and basically reduced to a Soviet satellite, East Germany saw between 2.5 million and 3 million of its citizens head to West Germany in search of better opportunities. By 1961, some 1,000 East Germans–including many skilled laborers, professionals and intellectuals–were leaving every day.
In August, Walter Ulbricht, the Communist leader of East Germany, got the go-ahead from Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to begin the sealing off of all access between East and West Berlin. Soldiers began the work over the night of August 12-13, laying more than 100 miles of barbed wire slightly inside the East Berlin border. The wire was soon replaced by a six-foot-high, 96-mile-long wall of concrete blocks, complete with guard towers, machine gun posts and searchlights. East German officers known as Volkspolizei (“Volpos”) patrolled the Berlin Wall day and night.
Many Berlin residents on that first morning found themselves suddenly cut off from friends or family members in the other half of the city. Led by their mayor, Willi Brandt, West Berliners demonstrated against the wall, as Brandt criticized Western democracies, particularly the United States, for failing to take a stand against it. President John F. Kennedy had earlier said publicly that the United States could only really help West Berliners and West Germans, and that any kind of action on behalf of East Germans would only result in failure.
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They commonly trapped fish such as salmon and herring. Salmon was able to be caught in abundance during the spawning season due to exhaustion caused by swimming upstream.
A DYNASTY is a series of rulers from the same family.
A Political Dynasty is where a family or group maintains power by controlling the state for several generations.
Examples of a Dynasty are:
*Bourbon Dynasty - a European royal line that ruled in France from 1589 to 1793 and also ruled Spain, Naples, and Sicily.
*Ming Dynasty - the imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644
In Theocracy, government leaders are members of the clergy and its legal system is based on religious law.
An Empire is a political structure where one state dominates other states. It Empire head is called Emperor or Empress.
Monarchy is a form of government where one or more individual reigns sovereignty until death or abdication. It head of state can be a King or Queen.
The Telegraphy was the first to send coded messages over a wire in a matter of seconds
