PROTECTION AGAINST ‘FASCISM'
At 1 a.m. on Aug. 13, 1961, East Germany sealed off the border between the Soviet-controlled eastern sector of Berlin and the western sectors controlled by the Allies.
Over the following weeks, workers erected a 155-kilometer (96-mile) barrier encircling West Berlin. The Wall itself—up to 3.6 meters (12 feet) high—was merely the outermost part of a heavily fortified strip that variously included barbed wire, metal fences, guard towers, hidden alarms and dog walkways.
Communist leader Walter Ulbricht called it an “anti-fascist protective wall,” though in reality its purpose was to stop the flood of people leaving for the West.
