Central (C): Germany (CG). GDR Measures to Restrict Access to West Berlin

A file of correspondence, reports, and memoranda concerning the international reaction to the construction of the Berlin Wall. The documents discuss the view of a "very highly placed" East German government official that, as only protests are expected from the West in response to the construction of the Berlin Wall, "the decisive trial of strength had thereby been settled in favour of the Soviet zone". The documents also cover a meeting at the Foreign Office attended by Aleksandr Soldatov, the Soviet ambassador to Britain, who remarked that the construction of the wall was "a test of Anglo-Soviet relations brought upon us by West German revanchism". Other documents feature the publication of a statement by the Western Allies claiming that the construction of the wall, and subsequent additional measures introduced by the East German government, demonstrate that the East Germans "cannot tolerate the maintenance of even the simplest human contacts".