On 7 August, Berlin witnessed a large demonstration, ostensibly to show solidarity with the victims of the Leipzig catastrophe. The Soviets decided that the Germans would not be reliable enough to control the uprising, and used their own security forces. The problem was much the same as in Leipzig. The Soviet Interior Army forces troops were young recruits, many from Central Asia and the Caucasus. They were not well equipped to handle crowds, and were poorly trained. When confronted by large crowds, they panicked and began using their weapons. Although the German marchers were mainly from church groups, several clandestine resistance groups, army deserters, and NKFD terrorists were also in the city. When the Soviets tried using weapons to break up the demonstrations, they came under fire themselves. This led to a bloody melee, with the Soviets firing at the innocent crowds, not able to discern the riflemen in buildings nearby.
Although the kasernes for the German 1st Motor Rifle Division nearby were given close scrutiny by Soviet forces, no one expected any kind of concerted anti-Soviet action from them.[5]
The Soviets trusted that their informers would warn them well in advance of any likely disturbances. Unbeknownst to them, the division was a hotbed of anti-Soviet sentiment. The German political officers who normally acted as the main conduits for internal control were in feet some of the main instigators of clandestine anti-Soviet agitation. The informer network had been turned on the Soviets. The Soviets were told that the situation in the division was calm, and that the units were still loyal. On the surface, this appeared to be the case. But a clandestine organization had been building up since late July, with plans to attack the cordon around West Berlin and permit a massive escape of East German troops into the western part of the city. The group did not have sufficient arms to directly confront the Soviets on the battlefield, but felt they were armed well enough to get through the border defenses. They even had some armored vehicles ready to go.
When fighting broke out in the city on 7 August, and news of the massacres began to filter back to the kasernes, the 1st Motor Rifle Division insurgents modified their plans. They decided to open a breach on the southwestern edge of the inner-city barrier near Treptow Park, and keep it open by force if necessary to help in the escape of any civilians who could manage to reach the site.
The border breach by the German troops took place on Saturday night, 9 August. The Soviet officers were getting plastered, as is the Soviet Army tradition for Saturday nights, and in violation of the usual rules, enlisted personnel also had been provided with alcohol to keep up morale after the most recent Berlin troubles. German soldiers, dressed in Soviet officers' uniforms with faked passes, were able to move about 1,200 troops out of their kasernes, drive into the city past Schonefeld airport, and deploy opposite the inner-city barrier by about 0100 early Sunday morning. Soviet troops were either lured away or killed, and the engineers set about clearing a path through the minefields and barriers. A defensive perimeter was set up covering about eight city blocks. The leaders of the insurgency had already contacted other underground leaders and told them to prepare a demonstration for the following morning at the Soviet Memorial in Treptow Park. The underground leaders had no idea what the soldiers were planning. The troops also managed to set up an improvised radio station, which would be used to broadcast to the city at large once the action had begun.
The West German border police knew what was happening before the Soviets did. In the early morning hours, a small team of East German Army insurgents sneaked across the border and made contact with German border police. The police informed Bonn of the action, but it took some hours before the Federal Republic officials began to comprehend what was happening. Many West German officials felt it was a Soviet provocation. This action was bound to drag the Federal Republic into the East German crisis, but the results could not be predicted with any certainty.
On the morning of Sunday, 9 August, a rather large demonstration began. Soviet troops moved into the area with plans to disperse the group as soon as it was convenient. Special KGB Border Guards units had been brought in to replace the hopeless Interior Army forces.[6]
Soviet officers watching the disturbance were flabbergasted when they heard demonstration leaders announce over bullhorns that a breach had been made in the wall on the opposite street, and that people interested in doing so could flee into West Berlin without hindrance. The crowd itself was quite shaken by the news, but soon there was a rush, mainly by young people, down the streets toward the wall.
The demonstration turned into pandemonium. The Soviets began firing into the area, then tried to press their way into the crowd in an attempt to reach the wall. East German soldiers had set up cordons to prevent this. The Soviet troops were in fact outnumbered by the Germans, and when fighting broke out, the Soviets hastily withdrew. It took nearly two hours for the Soviets to regroup and move up reinforcements. Regular army units and tanks were then brought up, and the Soviets became aware that the West Germans were moving their own troops and police to areas opposite the breach in the wall. News of the action had reached people all over town, and it was proving nearly impossible to move troops through the city due to the enormous crowds in the streets.
The local commander, Col. Yuriy Shevchenko, had about a regiment of motor rifle troops and KGB Border Guards, and about twelve tanks. He was ordered to seal the breach at all costs. His units fought rear guards from the insurgents for nearly two hours, without being able to make much headway. The Germans were obviously well entrenched and well positioned, and Shevchenko simply didn't have the force needed to overcome them. More and more army units were brought up as the day dragged on, but some units were hit by sniper fire, and others were simply bogged down inside massive crowds, which showed little willingness to disperse. Some Soviet commanders were reluctant to use gunfire for fear of provoking more action, but other units were not so squeamish.
By Monday morning, Soviet units had managed to approach the breach on both sides and were firing their tanks into the no-man's-land. The fire was striking buildings on the West German side, which NATO officers had warned Soviet liaison officers in West Berlin would not be tolerated. On the West German side, huge crowds had gathered to see what was happening and to voice their support of their German compatriots from the other side of the wall.
Around 1100, the unexpected happened again. During a lull in the fighting, when West German and Soviet military officers were trying to negotiate a cease-fire, the West German crowds managed to surge forward into the barrier area, forming a human wall to protect fleeing East German civilians. A local Soviet officer, confused as to the identity of the civilians in the barrier zone, ordered his troops to open fire on them. West German police and soldiers, aghast at what was happening, returned fire against the Soviet troops.
For about two hours, there was sporadic firing across the barrier strip until the last elements of the East German Army insurgents began withdrawing. The Soviets tried to chase the fleeing troops across the barrier, only to encounter fire from West German police and soldiers on the opposite side. A cease-fire was arranged later in the afternoon as cooler heads prevailed.
The Kremlin was outraged by the West German role in the latest riots. Hard-liners insisted that all roads leading into Berlin be closed, and air routes suspended. Others pointed out that this was not simply an infringement on German sovereignty, but that it violated Soviet understandings with the U.S., Britain, and France. It was pointed out that the U.S. had tried to distance itself from West German actions, and had tried to cool down the situation. This was read by the hardliners as an American unwillingness to back the more strident German demands for Soviet troop withdrawals to defuse the continuing unrest. The hard-liners believed that the U.S. wanted to continue its gradual troop withdrawals begun in 1991 under the MBFR (Mutual Balanced Force Reduction) treaty. In the end, this line of reasoning prevailed, and the blockade was announced, beginning 15 August.
5
The Warsaw Pact term "motor rifle" is applied to military units that NATO usually calls "mechanized infantry."
6
The KGB Border Guards are a paramilitary force used to patrol the Soviet Border. They are equipped like light infantry, and are considered more politically reliable than average military units.