Iron curtain

The Iron curtain ( iron curtain in English) is the name given to the border which crossed the Europe during the Cold war, separating the European States placed under Soviet influence from the European States Western.

This wall was concretized in several places, whose most famous in Germany the Berlin Wall and the village of Mödlareuth were.

History of the iron curtain

The iron curtain openly was marked by the Berlin Wall, almost insuperable obstacle set up on the initiative of Nikita Khrouchtchev to separate the Soviet zone from the zone américano-British-Frenchwoman of West Berlin.

The border between GDR, the Czechoslovakia, the Hungary on the one hand and the FRG and the Austria of the other was in very great fitted latticework on part, of the fields of mines and the turns of guets armed with Mitrailleuse S on the Soviet side which prevented the crossing of the border.

The Mur of shame will remain until the end of the Communist regimes of Europe. Its end began the May 2nd 1989 when the Hungary starts to dismantle the “Iron curtain” established along the Austrian border, which disappeared definitively with the fall from the Berlin Wall.

Origin of the term

The first use of the expression Iron curtain is drawn from the Rideau of iron Utilisé in Théâtre S and initially applied to the border of the Russia definite like a “impenetrable barrier” by Ethel Snowden, a politicking British socialist feminist, who denounced the development of the Bolchevism in this country in his book Through Bolshevik Russia appeared in 1920.

It was then taken again by Joseph Goebbels which used it the first time in an article published in the internal newspaper of the Nazi party, Das Reich , the February 23rd 1945 by denouncing “Eiserner Vorhang” which falls down on the countries taken under the Soviet influence .

Winston Churchill made the expression popular the March 5th 1946 at the time of the famous Discours of Fulton. Alarmed by the violations repeated of the Charte of the Atlantic and the Déclaration of Yalta on released Europe, Churchill shows share in a telegram of May 12th, 1945 with Truman of its fears the Soviet forces to advance if they want it to banks of the Atlantic. The expression Iron curtain will make flora.

East-German iron curtain

The totality of the iron curtain deployed by the German Democratic republic occupied a surface of 2 600 km ² for 1 393 km of inter-German border, metal netting lengthened on 1 275 km, and with the back, the barrier with alarms acoustic and visual had 1 196 km length.

As of the end of the Second world war, the Red Army and the Soviet security services had exerted a pitiless control along the lines of demarcation between the East and the West. The Soviets had shown for a long time on the circumference of their immense national territories which they were Masters in art to lock borders and to isolate their nationals from the outside world.

However, until 1952, nearly a million Germans managed to pass to the West. Phenomenon all the more alarming that GDR counted only 16 million inhabitants and that among the runaways, one counted a strong percentage of qualified personnel, lifeblood of the nation.

In front of this hemorrhage of the elites and workers which threatened the viability even of the State, the Politburo of the Soviet Union promulgated the May 26th 1952 an relative order with “measurements on the line of demarcation” which resulted in the establishment at the border of an audit roll 10 meters broad, of a sector of high protection of 500 meters and of a closed area of 5 kilometers.

On the audit roll of 10 meters, a fence of barbed Wire was established. This stopping of the “first generation” made fall the number of emigrants to 100 000 per annum.

Of 1949, until the end of 1961, 2 738 566 Easts Germany are flee in West Germany and were listed. It is the August 13rd 1961 which began the construction of the Berlin Wall condemning the only point of the device where the escape was still possible.

In order to make obstacle with the escapes, the Soviets starting from August 13rd, 1961 isolated western Berlin. The secret order n°39/61 of the September 14th 1961 is promulgated under the title of “Safeguarding of safety in the area closed along the border of the west of the German Democratic republic”. This decision reinforced measurements of prohibition in force since May 1952 and carried the authorities to undertake new work intended to clog all the exits possible and to improve the devices of setting in death. GDR bought even steel in FRG and the United States for this work; the deliveries ceased when these countries knew for what these materials were intended.

In 1970, a new construction schedule was launched in order to dry up the flow of fugitive, at this point in time appeared the first panels of fence of 3,20 m, whose width of 5 mm of the pilot wheels in bevel, edges like swords, is calculated to let pass only the naked fingers, without protection, of those try to rise over. This innovation constituted the end of second generation.

That of 3rd generation resides in the installation of the anti-personnel Mine SM 70, machine with automatic shooting installed on the posts, dissuasive par excellence.

Following the international protests, this machine was completely withdrawn in 1987, and replaced by systems warning electronic and communications more evolved/moved, it was 4th and last generation of the iron curtain.

On the iron curtain itself, other than Berlin, as the stopping became tighter, the flow of the refugees was reduced as the statistics show it:

1962 : 2 656
1964 : 1 811
1968 : 827
1970 : 517
1974 : 116
1982 : 72

To note that the village of Mödlareuth located into full on border RFA/RDA was literally cut into two by a wall similar to that of the Berlin.

The figure of people killed while trying to cross this border carries to polemic. In 2007, the Research center of modern history of Potsdam, financed by the Federal state, had indicated that, according to its research, 133 people had perished in victims of the East-German mode between 1961 and 1989, including seven children of less than 16 years while a private organization, the association of August 13rd quantifies with at least 1.245 people the victims between 1945 and 1989.

Description of the curtain of 4th generation (of the border inside the grounds)

On the whole, 4 generations of iron curtains were conceived until the Années 1980 supervised by surroundings fourteen thousand armed frontier guards.

Traced frontier zone with boundary stones.
Post border carrying an emblem of the GDR a height of 1,80 Mr.
Audit roll deforested and levelled which can go up to 100 Mr.
Double end out of metal netting of approximately 2,40 m in height on both sides of a minefield in open country.
On a road, passage of door in the metal end of 3,20 height m netting.
2 maximum depth m Ditch, provided with concrete plates, barring the passage of the vehicles.
Bande 6 m broad controls intended to detect any trace of step.
Way suitable for motor vehicles.
Projectors or arc lamps.
Watchtower out of concrete.
Shelter of observation out of concrete.
Post of connection to the underground phone network.
500 m after the border, barrier with electric devices and acoustics; partially, double fence of metal netting with Dog S of guard.
Wall out of concrete/screen arrived 3,30 height m.
Not of control.
closed Area of 5 km.

Elitekommando Ost

A commando of nine men of the Special forces of the Bundeswehr, the Elitekommando Ost which officially existed forever, was supervised by the CIA and was directed from the FR of Germany to make pass the border to defectors of 1977 to 1989

Czechoslovakian iron curtain

The Czechoslovakian border was isolated by an area closed from 6 to 12 kilometers from depth inside which the inhabitants must be provided with a special Passeport. The agglomerations were enclosed by an additional enclosure of netting and barbed wires and by a whole alarm system.

In 1948, after the Blow of Prague, the control of the border (of which 356 km with Germany) fell to the hands from the popular militia before the authorities do not create a military body of frontier guard of approximately 10 000 men.

A locking mechanism was set up. The soldiers reeled barbed wire of which the first wire tended to haste constituted the screen of an iron fabric on which others wire, intersected in all directions, formed hérissement hideous; another fence Czech side enclosed the closed area. This task was accompanied by the abandonment of nature. At the end of a few years, the landscape was nothing any more but undergrowth.

In 1964, the Czechs started to clean these bands of wild territories become again, shaved the villages located near the border and cut the roads of connection. The grounds were returned to the culture and the peasants endeavoured to nourish the soldiers stationing at the border. At the same time, the installations diversified and underwent improvements.

The year 1968, after the Spring of Prague, marked the turning of modernization: the first fence with 3 conducting wire of 5 000 Volt S was replaced by a 2 height meters end tended by cement posts. Signal devices were installed. All the wooden support were replaced by iron and Béton and the phone network developed. Ways suitable for motor vehicles were open. Patrols motorized replaced the patrols with foot. The human monitoring was reinforced; each company of a hundred men controlled 5 to 6 km of border. Nature was put at contribution to place there indistinguishable traps and mines, and little by little, according to the Terminologie specific to the Communists, the situation “was standardized”.

Western side, no frontage road had been traced nor arranged. The patrols followed the ways which existed, rather rare, or circulated by fields and wood.

did 7 refugees in 1976 and 19 in 1977 manage to cross the border germano-Czech, (figure border austro-Czech?)

Hungarian iron curtain

The iron curtain hongois was established in 1966 out of the 260 km of border with Austria. It was about a double network out of barbed and electrified netting. It started to be dismantled starting from May 2nd, 1989 by the Hungarian frontier guards, using cutting pliers and of Bulldozer S.

In twenty-two years of existence, some thirteen thousand five hundred people tried to cross it with the danger of their life, that is to say on average 2 attempts each day. On the whole, only three hundred people succeeded in passing to the West.

Monitoring in the West

The border between the FRG and GDR and the Czechoslovakia was Western side supervised by a unit (symbolic system) British and 2 regiments of cavalry armor-plated of the US Army and by the frontier guards West German. The Bundeswehr not being authorized to station with less than 5 km of the border.

North in the south:

the “Service of the British border” on a sector of 610 km between Lubeck and Gottingen, its HQ was with Helmstedt; 16 soldiers in the years 1980 of which only 4 patrols some along the inter-German border, armed but not carrying ammunition to avoid all “provocation”.
11th regiment of cavalry American on a sector of 385 km between Kassel and the north of Bayreuth, its HQ was with Fulda.
2nd regiment of cavalry American on a sector of 660 km along the Czech border, its HQ was with Nuremberg.

Sources

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