This post card pictures Walter Ulbricht, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the German Democratic Republic between 25 July 1950 – 3 May 1971. This means that he ruled GDR during the time when the wall was erected, starting at 13 August 1961.
The post card contains a quote from Walter Ulbricht, from the magazine Neues Deutschland (new Germany). Translated the quote says:
"I understand your question as, that there are people in West Germany, who wish, that we mobilize the construction workers of the capital of the GDR, to erect a wall. To me it is not known, that such an intention exists. The construction workers of our capital occupy themselves mainly with building of apartments, and our manpower is for this fully deployed."
This was said by Walter Ulbricht at an international press conference the 15 June 1961. The wall construction was started less than two months later.
It is a bit amusing how Ulbricht, in the first sentence, turns it as it was the west germans that wanted a wall. As we now all know the wall was built to keep the GDR citizens inside GDR. It was built to stop large amounts of GDR citizens from escaping to West Germany.
There is a very interesting video clip from the mentioned press conference at YouTube:
The back side is unwritten.
In my next post I will follow this post card up with a related one, again with a quote. That time it will be from the successor, Erich Honecker.
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