What Berlin Means

THE ATLANTIC

BY LUCIUS D. CLAY

IN PUBLISHING a supplement on “Berlin: The Broken City,” the Atlantic is performing a timely public service. Obviously, an understanding of the conditions which prevail today is essential to any examination of the future of Berlin. For, after fifteen years, the Berlin problem remains with us, still unresolved and still a challenge to the future of Europe.

When the European Advisory Commission established the areas of occupation in the spring of 1944, it did not anticipate that the Soviet zone of occupation would split off from the rest of Germany, nor did the heads of the three governments when they approved the proposals of the commission at Yalta. Berlin was to be the seat of the Allied Control Council, which was to govern all of Germany until this responsibility could be returned to an elected German government. It is doubtful if even the Soviet government then had in mind the establishment of a separate government for East Germany.

However, when the allied armies were hastily demobilized, the Soviet government maintained its armies intact in Central Europe. It soon found that the threat of force represented by these armies made it possible for the Communists to take over, one by one, all of the governments of Eastern Europe. This, in turn, led to the establishment of a Communist government in East Germany, and to ultimate division of Germany. This division of Germany was undoubtedly accelerated by the acceptance in principle by the Western allies at Yalta of the transfer of certain lands in eastern Poland to the Soviet republic, with compensation to be provided to Poland from land in East Germany. However, the eastern boundary was not fixed at Yalta, or at Potsdam, as the Western allies insisted that this boundary could only be fixed with the signing of a peace treaty with a new and representative German government. Therefore, the Soviet government, in establishing the Oder-Neisse line as the western boundary of Poland, was acting alone. The expulsion of the German population in this area, which led to a mass migration to West Germany, created a lasting political problem in West Germany, where the refugees still expect to return to their homes.

As the division of Germany became a recognized fact, it was evident that Berlin had become an enclave behind the Iron Curtain, although it still remained under quadripartite allied control. When the effort to establish a common currency for Germany as a whole failed, the Western allies proceeded to establish a currency for West Germany. The Soviet military government countered with a new currency for East Germany, which also became the currency for the area of Berlin under its control. Four-power government of Berlin had come to an end. The introduction of West German currency into West Berlin was used as the excuse for the Soviet blockade, which was imposed in June,

1948. However, it was clear that the real purpose of the blockade was to drive the Western allies out of Berlin and to create doubt throughout Western Europe of the intent of the United States to remain in Europe, which, without this security, would have been subjected to the pressures which caused Eastern Europe to fall into Communist hands.

When we met the blockade with an airlift which could be stopped only by act of war, the Soviet government was unwilling to take this risk, and thus the blockade, which had failed, was lifted in May,

1949. It had done much to convince the peoples of Western Europe that the Communist design to take over Europe could be stopped.

Fortunately, too, we had realized in 1947 that the economic rehabilitation of Western Europe was essential to checking Communist political penetration. With this realization came the political maturity to embark on a program of financial and economic aid which gave immediate hope to the peoples of Western Europe. As further evidence of our sincerity, we joined in the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a collective defense against Communism.

Concurrently, the Western allies recognized the Federal Republic of Germany and conveyed to it a substantial measure of sovereignty. Subsequently, it was granted full sovereignty and accepted as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. While Berlin had been included in the Basic Law of the Federal Republic as one of its states, the allies approved this law only in the understanding that Berlin was not immediately to become such a state, and that its representatives to the national parliament would be primarily observers. This action was taken to protect the special agreements which guaranteed the right of the allies to remain in Berlin. However, even though Berlin remained under allied control, the adoption of a common currency had tied its economy to the economy of West Germany. While West Berlin lagged somewhat behind the Federal Republic in its rate of economic recovery, with assistance in the form of tax concessions and subsidies from West Germany it also made rapid progress. Today there is full employment in West Berlin, which has established itself as a major industrial city — the largest between Paris and Moscow. It is, indeed, the showplace of freedom behind the Iron Curtain.

As West Berlin grew in prosperity, the Soviet government, pressed by the Warsaw Pact countries and by East Germany, threatened again and again to sign a separate peace treaty with East Germany, under which the rights exercised by the allied powers under agreements with the Soviet government would be canceled. Thus, the Western powers would be forced to negotiate new arrangements for access to Berlin with the East German regime. Moreover, as Ulbricht increased his efforts to establish a police state, the increased flow of refugees through Berlin to West Germany became a serious threat to the East German economy. To survive, Ulbricht had to close this avenue of escape. And so, on August 13, 1961, the East German government, obviously with Soviet backing, erected a wall through the heart of Berlin. That this separated thousands of families and cut off thousands of workers in East Berlin from their jobs in West Berlin meant nothing to a ruthless regime which could survive only as a police state. The regime was confident, too, that the Wall would create fear and confusion in Europe. The Communist leaders did not believe that a walled-in West Berlin could survive and expected many of its people to seek safety in West Germany, leaving a hollow shell behind them.

However, neither the Wall nor the harassments which followed accomplished these purposes. The Western allies met the threats to their right of access with sufficient show of force to convince the West Berliners of their determination. The people of the walled-in city, recovering from the initial shock of the Wall, realized anew that their city must continue to grow and prosper as a symbol of hope to their countrymen in East Germany and to all enslaved peoples everywhere. The initial exodus of people and capital stopped. There was a renewal of the firm resolution of its citizens not only to keep their city as an important industrial center, but also to make it the cultural and educational capital of Germany.

The maintenance of the independence of West Berlin has become a symbol of the determination of free peoples everywhere to protect freedom against aggression; a symbol, indeed, of the determination of the United States to remain in Europe until there is a settlement of the European problem. It is as true today as it was in 1948 that an allied withdrawal from West Berlin would destroy the confidence of free peoples everywhere and would encourage further Communist aggression in many parts of the world.

WHAT, then, is the future of Berlin? Certainly, a divided Berlin, split by a wall, with West Berlin more than one hundred miles from the Federal Republic, is unnatural. And yet, so is the division of Germany into two parts; particularly as long as the peoples in both parts want to be reunited.

There can be no lasting political settlement of the Berlin problem as long as there is a divided Germany, any more than long and lasting peace looks possible for Europe until the question of German unity has been fully resolved. Many times in history efforts have been made to divide peoples who wanted to be united; and usually in the course of history this reunion has taken place.

For any final solution of the Berlin problem there has to be created in Europe an atmosphere in which the unification of Germany is recognized to be in the best interests of a lasting peace. Then, a united Berlin could once more become the capital of a reunited Germany. Certainly, this question involves many other factors, including the settlement of the final boundary of East Germany, the kind of government which would be established for a united Germany, and the part which such a Germany would play in the Europe of tomorrow.

No one can foresee the settlement of this problem in the immediate future. The enthusiasm of the individual Western European countries for a reunified and larger Germany is doubtful, and this does not add to the prospect for a successful negotiation with the Soviet government on the conditions for reunification. Thus, the real question is, What is the future of West Berlin, separated from the Federal Republic, surrounded by a wall, with no hinterland of its own, and vulnerable always to harassing attacks against its access routes?

Interestingly, for some years after the lifting of the blockade there was no division between the two Berlins. Thousands of the residents of East Berlin moved daily back and forth to work in West Berlin, and the residents of both sides moved back and forth to attend opera, theaters, and other recreational activities, If such communication could be restored, it would ease materially the tensions in West Berlin. On the other hand, if it led to a further migration from East Germany, neither the allies nor the West Germans could refuse to accept political refugees arriving in West Berlin seeking transportation to West Germany. However, if there is any real sincerity in the Soviet desire to create better relations with the West, some reasonable means for Berliners to travel back and forth between East and West Berlin might be arranged. If this could be done, and further harassing actions threatening access routes were stopped, there would cease to be an immediate Berlin problem.

Of course, allied soldiers must remain in Berlin, where, by their presence, they guarantee security. Their removal could destroy the morale of West Berlin and the confidence of its people in the determination of the West. As long as these soldiers remain, the citizens of West Berlin go about their daily tasks, confident of their security and resolved to keep their city a vital place in which to live. Progress in the rebuilding of West Berlin has been remarkable. Substantially destroyed by bombing, with much of the industry which remained after the bombing removed to Communist countries, Berlin, which had depended in large part for its existence on government employees, had to build for itself a new economy. Favored by tax laws designed to spur the growth of industry, it has now built an industry which not only provides full employment for its citizens but is attracting some young people from the Federal Republic. It is a city of lakes and parks which provide opportunities for recreation and prevent the claustrophobia which might otherwise destroy its morale.

Still, a city must have more than industry to live. Since West Berlin is no longer the capital of Germany, or, indeed, politically a part of West Germany, it has had to establish other goals. It has made a conscientious effort to become the major educational and cultural center of Germany. Its Free University, founded by faculties and students unwilling to accept the type of education offered by the Communist-dominated Berlin University, has become one of the great universities of the world. It has maintained the reputation of its great Technical University and has added many other educational activities. It has built a modern opera house for its excellent opera company and is completing a magnificent building for its famous philharmonic orchestra. Encouragements and inducements are offered to those who would study opera, music, and indeed all of the arts, and increasing numbers of visitors are attracted each year to the many new offerings which West Berlin has to make in the cultural field.

Its leaders are conscious of the need to further these efforts and to attract to West Berlin international visitors and meetings. It is possible to visit West Berlin and to see it as a normal, prosperous city, except that sooner or later contact must be made with the grim Wall which divides the city into two parts. It is only then that the determination and willpower of the Berliners are fully recognized. It is only then that their courage in taking a stand for freedom is recognized as deserving the firm protection of the West so that their city may survive.

That there can be any permanent solution for Berlin until there is a general settlement of the European problem and of the state boundaries of Germany is wishful thinking. That the people of West Berlin are prepared to continue to keep their city alive until such a solution is reached has been demonstrated over fifteen years. As long as they have confidence in the Western world, they will not fail. We cannot fail them.