Snapshot · Fin vs History
Operation Rose saw a wall constructed overnight around the eastern sectors of Berlin on 13 August 1961, ending the open border that had allowed 3 million to flee.
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At 1:00:48 · chapter starts 53:40
For twelve years after the GDR's founding, the border was open — something both Fin and Horatio admit surprises them. East Berliners could simply walk into West Berlin and then travel freely to West Germany. And they did, in enormous numbers: between 1949 and 1961, nearly 3 million people left East Germany, mostly young, educated professionals. The brain drain was existential. Ulbricht presented the crisis to Khrushchev on 8 January 1961, arguing that if East Germany collapsed it could destabilise the entire Soviet bloc. Khrushchev agreed to act. On the night of 12-13 August 1961, under the codename Operation Rose, a wall was constructed around the eastern sectors of Berlin. What began as barbed wire became concrete, watchtowers, death strips. It would stand for 28 years. Fin closes the episode by teasing part two — the history of the Wall itself — available on Patreon, alongside a bonus episode on the film 'The Lives of Others', which dramatises the Stasi story with uncomfortable accuracy.
Between 1949 and 1961, nearly 3 million East Germans fled West through the open Berlin border — mostly young, educated professionals. On 13 August 1961, Khrushchev authorised Operation Rose and a wall went up around East Berlin overnight, ending the brain drain and beginning the most infamous symbol of the Cold War.
Between the GDR's founding in 1949 and the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, nearly 3 million people fled East Germany to the West.
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