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Winter Campaign
Chapter section from:
Airbridge to Berlin --- The Berlin Crisis of 1948, its Origins and Aftermath
By D.M. Giangreco and Robert E. Griffin
© 1988
(Used with permission)
The Berlin City Council originally set the date of November 14, 1948, for the city-wide elections, but the three Western Sector commanders, meeting on October 5 to approve the election regulations, moved the date to Sunday, December 5. The question then became: Would the Russians permit the Soviet Sector to participate in the face of a certain rejection of the Communist SED in proportions more overwhelming than their 1946 defeat? If not, what excuse would be used? On October 20, 1948, the Soviet Sector commander replied to the City Council request for city-wide elections by declaring the Soviet Sector would not participate because of "terrorism, political persecution, and Fascist war propaganda" in the three Western Sectors.(3)
In the face of these absurd charges, the election laws were amended to suspend the election in the Soviet Sector. However, to provide for Soviet Sector continued representation, the City Council agreed to hold over the 32 members (16 SPD, 11 SED, and 5 CSU) chosen in the Soviet Sector in the 1946 elections. This measure adopted by the City Council was an obvious effort to maintain the semblance of a city-wide government after the December elections.
The Communist SED recognized it could not realistically face the Berlin electorate because it had supported the blockade. It refused to permit the party's name to appear on the ballot. In an attempt to dissuade and intimidate Berliners from the three Western Sectors from going to the polls, the Communists press and radio engaged in a bitter campaign against the elected city leaders and the legal city government. The Communists resorted to constant reports of the imminent Western Power withdrawal from Berlin and rumors that polling lists of participating voters would then fall in Soviet hands. The implication was that reprisals would follow.
One of the leading instruments of the Communist propaganda campaign was Radio Berlin (Berliner Rundfunk) which had been controlled by the Communists since June 1945, before the Western Powers arrived in Berlin. All efforts by the Western Powers to gain a voice in the direction of Radio Berlin, one of the most powerful radio signals in Europe, had been thwarted by the Soviets and their German Communist allies. Frustrated and with no other choice than to surrender the air waves to the Communists, the Americans had licensed RIAS (Radio In America Sector) in September 1946, and provided it with a 1,000 watt transmitter. In early 1947, this was increased to 2,500 watts and on July 1 1947, a 20,000 watt station went on the air with a radius of 75 kilometers.
At first, RIAS only operated a few hours a day and its listening audience was limited because of its weak signal. In February 1948, Clay gave RIAS permission to answer Communist anti-Western propaganda, installed an American director to bear the brunt of any Soviet criticism for the RIAS German staff, and increased its air time to 13 hours daily. When the Berlin blockade began, RIAS immediately began to broadcast 24 hours a day and provided all types of emergency information for Berliners regarding daily power allocations and availability of rationed items. Because newsprint was scarce in the early months of the blockade, RIAS sent out mobile trucks with loudspeakers to various neighborhoods to get needed information and news to Berliners without newspapers and radios. At the request of the Air Force, RIAS also provided a homing beacon for airlift pilots en route to Berlin.(4)
RIAS became the voice and spirit of Berliners determined to fight the attempted Communist takeover of their city. Top-notch German commentators were recruited to cover all news events. Forums and round table discussions were conducted on all political questions. But the most popular programs were the political satire programs featuring noted Berlin comedians and satirists poking fun at the Communists, the Western Powers, and the Berliners themselves.
The most popular of these political satire programs was Die Insulaner (The Islanders) with a cast of characters of "typical" Berliners such as housewives, workers, teachers, and Communist party functionaries explaining the latest news. With truth and ridicule, they made the Berliners laugh with lines like: "To insure a warm Christmas, the date was to be shifted to July 25." And to poke fun at the dehydrated American foods they were forced to use: "Decorations for Christmas would be no problem, the Allies would fly in powdered Christmas trees that could be reconstituted with water." The warmed-over toast they ate became "Stalin cutlets," and one of the best jokes was: "We are in luck. Just imagine if the Americans were blocking Berlin and the Russians were running the airlift." Clay was later to state, "Next to the airlift, RIAS was the strongest weapon in the Cold War."(5)
The Berliners responded to the alternative of the fair, truthful broadcasting of RIAS as opposed to the slanted Communist propaganda of Radio Berlin. Independent surveys showed RIAS' listening audience in Berlin increased from 34 percent in early 1948 to 80 percent by October 1948.
Without the participation of the Communist SED in the Berlin election campaign, except in the negative sense of attempting to discourage participation, the Socialists (SPD), Christian Democrats (CDU), and the Liberal Democrats (LDP) parties concentrated on getting the vote out and making the election a referendum for Berlin's support for democracy versus totalitarianism. Their purpose was not only to demonstrate to the Soviets and their German Communist allies that they could not be intimidated, but also to show the world their determination and desire for freedom.
The Western Powers expected the Soviets to take some action after the December 5 elections to formalize the de facto split of the city which had begun in June with the currency reform and had become more aggravated in the following months when the City Council and other city agencies had been forced out of the Soviet Sector. The Communists decided to move the time table up. On Tuesday, November 30, 1948, just five days before the election, the SED and the "Democratic Bloc" staged a meeting in the Soviet Sector of Berlin; elected a "provisional" democratic Magistrate for Greater Berlin; and ''unanimously'' elected Friedrich Ebert Jr., son of the first president of the Weimar Republic, as Lord Mayor of Berlin. This sham puppet city government promptly claimed to be the only "legal" government for all of Berlin and was immediately recognized by the Soviet military governor as such.
Why the Soviets acted before December 5 when they could have blamed the Western Powers for splitting the city by acting after the elections, is unknown. Perhaps, it was a further step at intimidation and an additional measure to discourage Berliners from the three Western Sectors from going to the polls. Regardless, it is easy to see what the fate of Berlin would have been without the presence of the Western Power-a classic Communist coupe d'etat. What likely would have occurred in the Western Sectors of Berlin would have been a replay of what had happened earlier that year in Czechoslovakia when elected non-Communist leaders attempted to demonstrate a measure of independence.
It is interesting to note that November 30 was the worst day of the worst month of the airlift. Because of extremely poor flying weather conditions, only one US C-54 carrying ten tons of supplies was able to land in Berlin. The British were able to land a few planes, but the total tonnage delivered was only 72 tons, a fraction of the minimum 4,500 daily tonnage required. The first few days of December 1948 were not much better. This was on the very eve of the election.
The Soviets kept up their barrage of propaganda and false rumors. On December 4, the official Soviet Military Authority German language newspaper, Taegliche Rundschau, printed a banner headline, "The Western Powers Will Leave Berlin in January."(6) To demonstrate their opposition to this election, the Communist SED exhorted its followers to cast spoiled ballots as evidence of their displeasure with the democratic parties and the election itself.
What would be the reaction of the Berliners? Here was a city and a population which had had very limited exposure to democratic government and, what little they had from 1919 to 1933, had not been successful. Before that was a monarchy. Then a totalitarian state dominated by a dictator's single political party led to six years of war ending in bombings, pillaging, and total defeat. Their city over 60 percent destroyed and under occupation by two opposing political ideologies, they were being asked to make a choice while undergoing a blockade and severe economic hardships.
If one looked at it through the eyes of a Berliner in 1948, who could have blamed them for surrendering to what looked like the inevitable? Which power block was the stronger? All they had to do was look around. The Soviet Union had already swallowed up eastern Europe. France and Italy were tottering on the brink of succumbing to Communism. Great Britain was a shell of a once-great power. Only the United States appeared to be capable of challenging the Soviet Union. But the United States was far away and the Soviet Union was on their doorstep. Plus, the United States always seemed to vacillate with its democratic form of government breathing hot and cold on whether to become involved in "foreign entanglements." There was no hesitation on the part of the Soviet Union. It spoke as one voice for world Communism and its determination to destroy capitalism.
The Berliner is known to have a quick mouth and a self-deprecating cynical view of the world, but Berliners had also become very politically sophisticated having been wooed by the experts in propaganda. They had learned to look behind the banners and slogans to see if the deeds and actions matched the words. Although political realities might have convinced them they had little future with the West; the deeds and actions of the Soviet Union and the German Communists in destroying the unity of their city required their protests be heard. The one way available to them in December 1948, was the ballot.
On Sunday, December 5, 1948, Berliners demonstrated to the Soviet Union and the world they would not be intimidated. They went to the polls in overwhelming numbers to show their support for democratic government. More than 86 percent of all eligible voters cast ballots with the SPD getting 65 percent, the CDU 19 percent, and the LDP 16 percent. Of the eligible 1,586,461 voters in the three Western Sectors, 1,369,492 cast ballots and less than 1 percent were deliberately spoiled as advocated by the Communists. In spite of Communist threats to create disorder at polling places, the election went off peacefully with only a few minor incidents.
The political events of November 30 and December 5, finalized the split of city government and administrative agencies. Although some cooperation continued in certain limited areas, Berlin has been politically, socially, and economically two cities since December 1948.
On December 7, the old City Council met and again elected Ernst Reuter as Lord Mayor and, with no potential of a Soviet veto, Reuter assumed his rightful post denied him since 1947. This action was reconfirmed on January 14, 1949, when the new City Council reelected Reuter, his two deputy mayors, Louise Schroeder and Dr. Friedensburg, and a new Magistrate. Although Reuter rightfully proclaimed his government was the legal government for all of Berlin, reality then and now is that his authority was limited to the 12 western boroughs of Berlin. Reuter became the first mayor of what is now West Berlin.
Another significant event occurred during the first week of December 1948, when on December 4, the Free University in West Berlin was formally opened in an official ceremony at the Titania Palast. The need for an alternative to once world famous Humboldt University, located in the Soviet Sector of Berlin, became evident in early 1948 when the Communists began ousting professors and students who did not conform to the ideology proclaimed by the Communists. In April 1948 an informal arrangement began with US assistance in the Dahlem district around a nucleus of buildings formerly housing the Kaiser Wilhelm Academy. Professors and students first came from Humboldt University and became the nucleus for, what is today, a symbol of academic freedom with an international student body. In 1950, the Ford Foundation contributed funds for classrooms, an auditorium, and a library.
With the city now more or less officially divided, there was a pressing need to begin establishing a sound economic foundation in West Berlin. To attain this, one of the first orders of business had to be to establish the West Mark as the sole legal currency for West Berlin and the city fathers began pressing the Western Powers to initiate the necessary measures. Since June 1948, the Western Sectors had operated under a dual currency system. Because the Western Powers had been negotiating with the Soviet Union through mid-September 1948 on the basis of withdrawing the West Mark and making the East Mark the only legal currency for all of Berlin, the Western Powers had deliberately restricted the amounts of West Marks in circulation in Berlin. This, and other factors, had caused the West Mark to appreciate against the East Mark.
During late 1948 and early 1949, one West Mark bought three and one-half to four East marks. Because East Marks could be used to buy most goods and services furnished by the Berlin city government, government agencies took in East Marks almost exclusively. However, by law they were required to pay their employees 25 percent of their salaries in West Marks. This caused every city agency to operate at a deficit which had to underwritten by the Western Powers, plus additional support was needed from the Western Zones of Germany.
Still the Western Powers hesitated. In September 1948, they had put the currency question before the United Nations and they were reluctant to take action pending the UN decision. However, after the city split in December, delay became unnecessary. The possibility of a solution that would reunite the city became remote and the need to set the Western Sectors on a firmer economic foundation became overriding.
Beginning in late December 1948, certain telecommunications services and postal fees could only be paid for with West Marks in the Western Sectors of Berlin and the first steps toward making the West Mark the sole legal tender in West Berlin began.
This question was first raised by Clay on September 28, 1948, in a cable to Army Under Secretary William Draper. Over the next six months, the subject came up at least 18 times in cable traffic between Clay and Washington. After Clay finally won over Washington objections about disturbing the status quo while the UN commission of experts was studying the question, the French continued to throw up roadblocks. Even after the Communist action of setting up a rump city government in the Soviet Sector and the elections in the Western Sectors had effectively split the city, the French continued to object. Ever fearful of possible German resurgence, the French did not want any ties between West Berlin and the proposed West German government.
On December 22, the United Nations committee of experts, formed in November to study the Berlin currency Issue, made a preliminary draft of its findings. The experts, ignoring the division of the city earlier in December, recommended the West Mark be withdrawn from circulation and the East Mark be made the only currency for all of Berlin. Clay immediately made his objections known and the United States government rejected the draft report as unworkable because it was based on a unified Berlin which no longer existed.
This rejection caused the British, who had heretofore supported the US position on making the West Mark the sole legal tender in the West Sectors, to back off because the US rejection shut off any discussions or possible agreement with the Soviets. Discussions on the Berlin currency issue continued in Geneva between technical specialists representing the Four Powers and the UN committee through January and early February 1949, but finally ceased on February 11 when the UN committee reported they had been unable to recommend a plan acceptable to all four powers. At one time during January 1949, because of continued British and French opposition, the US delegation in Geneva proposed unilateral action by the US to make the West Mark the sole legal tender in the US Sector of Berlin, but Clay rejected this proposal as unworkable. (8)
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