Construction of the Berlin Wall began
On this day · 13 August 1961
Overnight on August 13, 1961, East Germany sealed off West Berlin, dividing a city—and families—for 28 years.
In the early hours of August 13, 1961, East German forces began sealing the border around West Berlin, first with barbed wire and within days with concrete. Berliners woke to find their city cut in two, with streets, tram lines, and even families abruptly severed.
The ruling SED built the barrier to stop the hemorrhage of people fleeing west: in the first eleven days of August alone, tens of thousands had crossed. The completed system eventually ran some 155 kilometers around West Berlin, ringed by guard towers, a “death strip,” and patrols ordered to shoot.
What began as a tangle of barbed wire hardened into the Cold War’s most infamous monument.
The Wall stood for 28 years, until it was opened on November 9, 1989. Its fall became the defining image of the Cold War’s end and of a Germany about to be reunited.
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