Of
Gustav Seibt
The Federal President’s speech had already been written. “My dear German compatriots on both sides of the demarcation line, soldiers of the Bundeswehr. Peace is in extreme danger. This morning, units of the Soviet Zone People’s Army crossed the demarcation line and triggered the first combat operations.” With these words Heinrich Lübke should have addressed the German population over the radio from the government bunker in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler. The text was already ready in 1961, when the Cold War was heading for one of its dangerous climaxes with the construction of the Wall in Berlin, complete with weeks of staring at Checkpoint Charlie by American and Soviet tanks.