Es geschah im August - Der Bau der Berliner Mauer

It Happened in August. Building The Berlin Wall - Anatomy Of A Political Crisis

In the night from the 12th to the 13th of August 1961, Socialist Unity Party Secretary General and President of the National Defense Council Walter Ulbricht gave the order to physically separate the different sectors of Berlin.

On the morning of the 13th of August, armed border guards began ripping up the streets and barricading the area with barbed wire. A few days later, during the night from the 17th to the 18th of August, troops began replacing the barbed wire with cement blocks.

Source: German films Service & Marketing GmbH