Today in History: The Berlin Wall Went Up 50 Years Ago

And thus began 28 terrible years marked with too much blood of those trying to escape, voting with their feet against totalitarian Communism.  Oh, and lest we forget: the Wall didn't come down "by itself."  Freedom-loving people went out there and finally tore that sucker down in 1989.  But in remembrance:

The number of people who died trying to cross the Wall is disputed - at least 136 are known to have been killed but victims' groups say the true number is more than 700. The first victim was thought to be Guenter Litfin on 24 August 1961 and the last Chris Gueffroy on 6 February 1989.

I also give you one archival photo that has always stuck with me--an East German border guard defecting in 1961, leaping through the 2-day-old Wall as it begins to form first as a barbed-wire barricade:

UPDATE 1:  Some members of the German far Left are nostalgic for the Wall and "the good old days" when you could get shot for trying to escape East Germany.  Actual apologists for the Wall and totalitarian Communism.  Ugh, how repugnant!  They get the "dirtbag du jour" tag.   Link xie-xie to gentle reader Marian.

UPDATE 2: The mayor of Berlin is appalled with Wall-nostalgia:

"We don't have any tolerance for those who nostalgically distort the history of the Berlin Wall and Germany's division," [Mayor Klaus] Wowereit said at the ceremony in front of a small section of the Wall recently rebuilt for posterity. 

"The Wall was part of a dictatorship," he said. "And it's alarming that even today some people argue there were good reasons to build the Wall. No! There's no legitimate reason nor justification for violating human rights and for killings."