Martin Joseph Hillenbrand (August 1, 1915 – February 2, 2005) was an American diplomat who served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany from 1972 to 1976. ... He served as U.S. Ambassador to Hungary from 1967–1969 and later as the U.S. Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany from June 27, 1972, to October 18, 1976.

The construction of the Berlin Wall began on August 13 dur-ing the summer of 1961. It reflected East German, and ultimately Soviet, inability to tolerate further the massive outflow of refugees from the GDR.

Washington, D.C., August 12, 2011 - Fifty years ago, when leaders of the former East Germany (German Democratic Republic) implemented their dramatic decision to seal off East Berlin from the western part of the city, senior Kennedy administration officials publicly condemned them.

Dr. Martin Hillenbrand interviewed by John Stark. Hillenbrand discusses the rebuilding of Germany, post-WWII, and the move towards German unification, including the differences between West German Chancellors Willy Brandt and Konrad Adenauer, the Berlin Crisis of 1962, and John Foster Dulles.

In this interview Hillenbrand discusses President John F. Kennedy [JFK] entering office amid the Berlin crisis; working as the Director of the Office of German Affairs with JFK; the Berlin Task Force and the Ambassadorial Group; JFK's attitude towards the German problem and German reactions to the Kennedy Administration; the State Department ...

The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer, pronounced [bɛʁˌliːnɐ ˈmaʊɐ] ⓘ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). [a] [1] [3] Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government of the GDR on 13 August ...

The fall of the Berlin Wall (German: Mauerfall, pronounced [ˈmaʊ̯ɐˌfal] ⓘ) on 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, marked the beginning of the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain, as East Berlin transit restrictions were overwhelmed and discarded.

Feb 6, 2024 · On August 13, 1961, the German communist government erected a fence between West and East Berlin. Known as the Berlin Wall, it became the symbol of the Cold War. “At four o’clock in the morning, police and military forces of the SED-state began occupying the Soviet sector,” wrote a Swiss correspondent of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

Nov 1, 2019 · The Wall was East Germany’s answer to this existential threat. On August 13, 1961, at one o’clock in the morning, the boundary between both halves of Berlin and the checkpoints between West Berlin and the surrounding region of Brandenburg were sealed off.

Nov 26, 2024 · The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed in 1961 that separated Soviet-controlled East Germany (the GDR) and West Germany (controlled by the United States, Britain, and France). The Wall stood at around four meters tall and 155 kilometres long and was heavily guarded by the “death strip” a piece of land which contained mines and, by 1989 ...