"Nobody has the intention of building a wall!" said East German communist leader Walter Ulbricht in June 1961. This was a lie. Two months later on August 13, 1961, Berlin was divided in two, families were torn apart, and the Berlin wall became a symbol of German division for the next 28 years. East Germany’s communist dictatorship was responsible for the deaths of at least 140 people, who died trying to cross the Wall, while more than 5,000 East Germans succeeded to escape to the West. This episode of History Stories uses archival footage from filmmaker Ernst Wollenberg to tell the story of this symbol of German division and the lie that led to terror and death.

Report by Angela Volkner.

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