III.

Relations with West Germany

In the 1950s East Germany’s relations with capitalist West Germany became strained after the West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer claimed that all Germans were one nation, and insisted on dealing with the Socialist Unity Party rather than with the East German government. Relations became even more strained with the division of Berlin into separate zones. Berlin lay deep within East German territory, but had been divided into east (communist) and west (non-communist) sectors. To stop the flow of dissatisfied East Germans to the West, a situation draining East Germany’s trained workforce, Ulbricht set up a well-guarded corridor along the country’s western frontier, leaving Berlin as the only practical escape route. Ulbricht finally blocked that exit in 1961 by ordering the construction of the Berlin Wall, a heavily fortified cement barrier that cut off East Berlin from West Berlin; in 1968, Ulbricht imposed new restrictions on already limited travel from West Germany to West Berlin.