*** World War II -- aftermath in Germany : Berlin








World War II Aftermath in Germany: Berlin (1945-47)

Berlin ruins after World War II
Figure 1.--This is what the streets of Berlin looked like after the German surrender. Note the truck was a SS vehicle. Divisional insignia of 11.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland. Most of the volunteers came from Scandinavia, but the Nordland had many other foreign voluteers. Hitler had unwisely commited SS armored divisions to the defense of Budapest. Thus they were unavailble to defend Berlin. The photograph ws taken along Oberwallstrasse. Photographer: William Vandivert.

Hitler soon after seizing power began to conceive huge plans about the archetecural recreation of Berlin. He spent hours with archetect Albert Speer discussing the future of Berlin. What ensued was the Allied strategic bombing campaign reducing the city to vast heaps of rubble. Berlin after the War was a post-Apocalyptic world. The War left large areas of Berlin a wasteland, vast piles of rubble. There were also areas where building walls stood as skeletons of a destroyed city. About a third of the city, especially the inner-city, was in ruins. As part of the Yalta arrangements, the Americans withdrew fom Czechoslovakia abd eastern germny and the Soviets allowed the western Allies into Berlin. Before the arrival of the western Allies, the Soviets began picking through the debris of Berlin looking for reparations (May-July 1945). The factories still standing were dismanteled as well as trasport and other failities and shipped East. Here the Soviets were especilly diligent in the western part if Berlin to be turned over to the Western allies. The Soviets even removed rilway tracks. After the western Allies arrived, these reparations continued in the Soviet occuption zone pf Berlin and eastern Germany. Belin was divided into four occupation zones and governed by a Four Power Allied Control Council jut like ermny as a whole. The chairman rotated monthly. The Soviets withdrew from the council as Cld war tensions energed. They began governing their sector independently. The Western Allies continued to use the Council with the same rotating leadership policy. The situation was not idea, at least for the western Allies. Berlin was deep in the soviet Zone and all land connections (road and rail had to pass through soviet controlled territory. Conditions in the Soviet Zone were harsh and from an early point people began to began moving into the Wetern Zones. Food was short and the black market flourished. [Steege] This unique situation made Berlin focal point of the Cold War as the Soviets could easily ramp up pressure in the Western outpost in Berlin.

World War II: Battle for Berlin

Hitler soon after seizing power began to conceive huge plans about the archetecural recreation of Berlin. He spent hours with archetect Albert Speer discussing the future of Berlin. The destruction of Berlin began with the allied ied bombing> Heavy daylight raids started with the introduction of long-range P-51 escorts (January 1944). Then after a D-Day respite, the Allied bombers returned in force with very little resistace from the Luftwaffe. Then after a D-Day respite, the Allied bombers returned in force with very little resistace from the Luftwaffe. Berlin after the War was a post-Apocalyptic world. One of the largest and most modern cities of Europe was left a wasteland. There were vast piles of rubble everywhere. Other areas were rows of building walls with collaosed interiors--the skeletons of a destroyed city. About a third of the city, especially the inner-city, was in ruins. Hitler's Nerobefehl (Nero Order) caused more destruction. Actually there would have been even more destruction had not Armament Minister Speer interferared with Hitler's orders. Then came the Red Army's final offensive of the War--the Battle of Berlin. Despite weeks of knowledge that the Soviets were preparing an attack, Hitler and Gauliter Goebbels refused to evacuate civilians, including the women and children. Soviet artillery, tanks, and street fighting brought even more destruction. The city was surrounded by the Soviet Red Army and NAZI power completed obliterated (April 1945). The fight for the city was a horendous struggle, but the Germans were massively outnumbered and overpowered by the Red Army.Women and girls were in a state of shock after the Soviet soldiers raped virtually every female except the very youngest and oldest they could lay their hands on. It was an orgy of rape only exceeded by the Japanese Rape of Nanking. Only the youngest girls and the oldest eldrely women escaped.

Conditions

The Germans call the end of the fighting Stunde Null (zero hour). It was essentilly a new beginning for the devestated city. Conditions in the city were terrible. There were severe food shortages. Water mains and sewage systemns were destroyed. Disease was rampant and sewage everywhere. The stench was terrible. Luckily the weather had begun to warm up as coal was unobtainable. Rail links with the coutryside and rest of Germany were destroyed. The Soviets as agreed in the London Protocol (September 1944) and Yalta (February 1945) allowed the Western Allies in to set up a four-power occupation. Those who survived had no way of making a living. Factories were destroyed. Shops were closed because goods were unavailable. Food was the most immediate problem, but housing because of all the destruction was also huge problem. Life in the city became never ending hunger, disease, housing shortages, unemployment, and abject poverty. The children which Hitler and vobbels refused to evacuate scavenged in garbage dunps, especially the garbage of the occupoation forces. Anyhing even mouldy bread or the residue in cans was seized upon. The former public gardens and parks were turned over to communal allotments where Berliners could grow food in order to complement their meagre food rations. Average food consumption before the War had been around 3,000 calorie per day. After the War, occupied Berliners were surviving on an average of 1,500 calories per day, sometimes as little as 900 calories per day. This was above what the Grmans imposed on many occupied people undr the NAZI Hunger Plan. Viryually everything ws rationed, including margarine, milk, coffee, meat, sugar and fresh eggs. Many items, like frutt, were non-existent. People survived on potatoes. Signs like 'no more meat' or 'bread – sold out' common had to be put out before people in long lines red the shop counters. Oneof theproblems was the destruction of rail and canal links to the countryside where food was available.

Economic Policy

Economic policy in Berlin was the same as the rest of occupied Germany. Economic policy was set by the four power the Allied Control Council. Berlin had its own Council, but did not set separate economic policy. The only duffernce was that there were few limits on movement between the zones while in the Soviet Zone as a whole there were increasing limts on movement. The occupation authorities continued NAZI economic policies involving the heavy regulation of the economy. This was a process that began with World War I. It adversely affected economic growth, but was obscured first by the massive rearmament program and then the War-time exploitation of occupied countries. The Mark had lost much of its value. It was still used in both the Allied and Soviet sectors as part of the occupation common economic policy. Cigarettes became a defacto curency along with other consumer items like chocolate and nylons. One Berliner, a boy at the time, recalls, "[Cigarettes were] very welcome because the currency at that time was cigarettes. If you had cigarettes, you had it made. So I remember, we looked for–all brands of cigarettes were welcome, but Camels, the most valuable, and I still remember forever Lucky Stripe, and what was it, Old Gold, and even Raleigh. But this was absolutely the currency." [Gluckstein] Berliners like other Germans suffered through 3 miserable years. The economy was stuck in a serious rut. No growth and few jobs. The Soviets were happy with the situation and nationalized business in their zone. The Western Allies did not do this and debated how to jump start the German economy. The Americans and some Germans believed that the heavy regulation regime and a virtually valueless currency were what was impeding economic growth. The Allied Control Council had the authority to chage economic policy, but any one of the four powers could block new meaures. The Soviets ould and id execize their veto. The British and French were not convinced that loosening regulations and reforming the currency was a good idea, but the Americans and German economists convinced them. The Soviet representatives in the Allied Control Council were adament--нет. Finally frustrated the Westen Allies decided to go ahead with the market reforms in their own zones, breaking the common economic policy. And the West German currency reform (June 1948) which would launch the German Economic Miracle. The same reforms were instituted in the Allied zones of Berlin. This mean that different currencies came into use in the two occupation zones. Stalin's opposition to the marker reforms also set in motion the Soviet blockade of Berlin.

Cold War Status

East Germany or the DDR was formed out of the Soviet occupaion zone. DDR oddicials decided to set its capital in East Berlin (October 1949). The Western Allies refused to recognize this and and continued to view Berlin as an occupied city that was not legally part of any German state. The Soviets and DDR officials treated East Berlin as an integral part of the DR. East Berlin was only half the size and population of West Berlin, but it included many of the city's imortant historical sites. West Germany or the FRG was founded (May 23, 1949) from the American, British, and French zones. Because West Berlin was surround by the DDR and Soviet military forces, FRG officials chose Bonn as a de facto capital. Berlin was symbolically named the de jure West German capital in West German Basic Law (Grundgesetz). West Berlin de jure remained under the authority of the Western Allies, but for practical purposes was treated as a part of West Germany. West German residents were issued West German passports. The Western allies continued legal status ws vital. It meant that any Soviet or East German action would not violate West German territory but tht of the Wetern Allies.

Sources

Gluckstein, Fritz. "Fritz Gluckstein: Berlin in the Aftermath of World War II, First Person Program (U.S. Holocaust Museum (June 24, 2009). Gluckstein had a Jewish father and Christian mother. He was classified under Nazi law as Mischlinge (a person of mixed ancestry. He spent the war in Berlin assigned to various forced labor battalions.







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Created: 10:20 PM 5/14/2014
Last updated: 12:49 AM 2/9/2016