the man under Ulbricht, the mission was kept very secretive. Only about twenty top-level officials knew anything at all. All others were told that they were preparing for "exercises."
             Early in the morning of Sunday, August 13, 1961, the GDR began under the leadership of Erich Honecker to block off East Berlin and the GDR from West Berlin by means of barbed wire and antitank obstacles. Streets were torn up, and barricades of paving stones were erected. Tanks gathered at crucial places. The subway and local railway services between East and West Berlin were
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