Figure 1.--The photo was taken in front of Berlin's historic and very battered Brandenburg Gate separating East and West Berlin during 1947. Notice the war-battered structure. Berlin was in ruins because of the Allied bombing and the Soviet assault. And the Brandenberg gate was the iconic symbol of the city. The gate marked the line betwen the Soviet and Western zones in Berlin. It would become the location of Check Point Charly. Notic that in 1947 that people could still move freely between the zones. This did not change until Stalin attempted to isolate West Berlin (1948), resulting in the Berlin Airlift. The boy is wearing Lederhosen with out a shirt, a commn practice during the summer. Many children during the difficult years following the war went barefoot.

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 Gobbels refused to evacuate scavenged in garbage dumps, especially the garbage of the occupation 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 Germans imposed on many occupied people undr the NAZI Hunger Plan. Virtually everything was 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. One of the problems was the destruction of rail and canal links to the countryside where food was available. One issue we are not yet sure about is how conditions varied in East and West Berlin. We believe that conditions in the Soviet and Western Zones were at first similar and that people could move relatively freely throughout the city. This needs to be confirmed. These difficult conditions persisted in Berlin as well as the rest of occupied Germany until the West German currency reforms (June 1948). In response, Stalin closed the road an rail links, leading to the Berlin Air Lift (1948-49). This was when conditiins in the western anbd Eastern secors began to change.

Aftermath of the Battle of Berlin

Allied bombers had pulveried Berlin even before the Red Army arrived. The bombers had concentrated on the city center with the Government buildings. The subsequent fighting futher damaged the city, including areas that had not been bombed. German civilians were caught up in the maelstrom of war as neve before. Hitler refused to allow an evacuation of the city as the Red Army approached. Some escaped, but they had to do it on their own. There were bomb shelters like the flak towers for safety during the Allied bombing, there was no safety from the Red Army which moved methodically from block to block toward the city center. Soviet oficials who had enormous experience in seizing German occupied cities moved quickly with available resource to bring the city back to life. The first job when the firing stopped was to begin restoring essential services. [Bellamy, p. 670.] Most of the Allied bombing damage to Germany was done in the final year of the War. A high priority goal was the destruction of the German transpot system, meaning primarily the German rail sustem--the Deutsche Reichsbahn. At first it was the bombers which focued on the on the rail yards in the cities. After the descrution of the Luftwaffe, the P-51 Mustang escorts came down on the deck and shot up anything that moved, trains, barges, and trucks. As the Red Army moved to surround the city, virtually all transport that had survived the bombing ceased to opetate. But that was the least of the problems facing Berliners. There was not just food shortages, bombed-out sewers contaminated the city's water supplies. [White, p. 126.] The Soviets selected local Germans to head block committes and organised the cleang-up. [Bellamy, p. 670.] Berlin was vast landscape covered with mounds of rubble created by bombed our brick buildings. Most observers looking at the mounds of rubble at the time thought that it would take more than a generation to rebuild. There was no construction materials available so the bricks were recovered by the Trümmerfrau (rubble women). Water was a major problem with the river the primary source. The other major problem was food. Soviet authorities did what they could to feed Beriners. Food supplies were inadequate, but there was nothing like the NAZI Hunger Plan. The Germans occupying Soviet cities did not feed the population, except those who got jobs working for them. The desperate Berliners had no other food source with the transport system destoyed. The Red Army set up field kitches to feed the city. Colonel-General Nikolai Berzarin's oversaw the emergency feeding effort. [Beevor] Durng the battle, captured Germans soldiers were sumarrily shot or imternged. After the surrender, Red Army soldiers went apartment by apartment, arresting and anyone in a uniform and not just soldiers. Policemen, firemen, and railwaymen were arrested. [Beevor] Interning policemen and railwaymen did not help with the recovery. Despite Soviet efforts there were serious food shortages. There was just not enough food to feed the population. Germany had survived during the War by seizing foof from occupied countries and shipping it to the Reich. This was no longer possible. One source reports that Berliners one month into the occuation was getting about 65 percent of a daily ration of 1,240 calories believed to be necessary [Ziemke, p. 303.] Even so, that was substabtially above what many people in Europe had to survive on under NAZI occupation. And the destruction meant that more than a million Berliners had no where to live. [Beevor] Berlin was inside the Soviet occuoation Zone. The American and British arrived in Berlin to cccupy their own zones (July 1945). The French arrived a little later. Collectively the three zones became known as West Berlin. Feeding West Berliners became the rsposibility of the Western Allies. Food was bought in from the Western Allied occupation zones in Germany by train and truck. Large quantities of coal also had to be transported for home heating and electrical generation. They also did not have the food needed.

Stunde Null

The Germans call the end of the fighting Stunde Null (zero hour). It was essentilly a new beginning for the devestated city and nation. Some Writers and social commebttors believed that there was a need to make a clean sweep after the defeat of National Socialism which seemed to leave them in a cultural vacuum. Actually nothing could be further from the truth. It was the NAZIs that had launched a social revolution of unbelevable proportions--essentially ejecting the great swwp of Western Civilization. Germany located in the heart of Europe had been a major part of what became westen civillization, including economics, law, science, art, philosphy, architeture, and other spects of culture. It was the NAZIs that rejected the great achieb=vemebts of Western Civilization and German culture. By destroying the NAZI tyrany, the Allies allowed the Germans to regain their place in the panopia of nations that created Western Civilization. The Germans were able to reestablish with other European countries and America. It was the Soviets who insisted on cutting themselves off from the European mainstream, a process they began with the Bolshevik Revolution. It would, however, not be an easy process. The German Berlin garrison surrendered to the Red Army (May 2). One Berliner reports the situation. "... General Wilding, the commander of the German troops in Berlin, finally surrendered the entire city to the Soviet army. There was no radio or newspaper, so vans with loudspeakers drove through the streets ordering us to cease all resistance. Suddenly, the shooting and bombing stopped and the unreal silence meant that one ordeal was over for us and another was about to begin. Our nightmare had become a reality. The entire three hundred square miles of what was left of Berlin were now completely under control of the Red Army. The last days of savage house to house fighting and street battles had been a human slaughter, with no prisoners being taken on either side. These final days were hell. Our last remaining and exhausted troops, primarily children and old men, stumbled into imprisonment. We were a city in ruins; almost no house remained intact." [Von Schwanenfluegel] Then the uncontrolled raping of German women began. Six days later, the NAZI Government surrendered to the Allies, ending World War II in Europe (May 8).

Living Conditions

Conditions in the Berlin at the end of the War were terrible. Much of the city was vast piles of rubble. Much of the population had lived in large, multi-story apartment blocks. Some 0.6 millio apartments have been destroyed. Only 2.8 million of the city’s original population of 4.3 million still lived in the city. Some had been killed in the Allied bombing, but because od an efficent CD progrm, less than might be expected. Most of missing people had fled the city. This was largely done on their owm. Except for the KLV child evacuation program, the NAZIs never organized an evacution of the city. Most of the population left in the city was women, children, and old men. Photographs show the devastation of the German capital and capture the desperation of Berliners after the War. An American reporter describes what he saw in July 1945. "With some friends, I walked one day down the short, narrow Oberwallstrasse, which runs off Unter den Linden. What we saw there can, with a few variations, can be seen today in hundreds of Berlin side streets. A wrecked American half-track with S.S. license plates lay keeled over to starboard, and other military vehicles were strewn along behind it. Half of one large dwelling house had been sheared off, leaving four stories of rooms exposed to view. In one ground-floor room stood a small lathe which had doubtless been used to make parts of military instruments; during the war there was a great deal of parlor manufacture, in Berlin. Halfway up the street, an elderly woman and a little girl were foraging for fuel in another wrecked house. A sign on one wall of it said, in German, 'Warning! As per order of the Herr Police President of Berlin, this property has been strewn with a highly poisonous rat exterminator. Children and domestic animals are to be kept at a distance.' The old woman and the little girl hadn't read the sign or, more likely, didn't care. Under a fallen joist the child found a man's left shoe, in fairly good condition, and this she put into her rucksack. Single shoes are a commodity on Germany's black market." [Sayre] Berliners experienced the destruction and despertion they had inflicted on a whole continent. 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 Allies hired mostly women to begin the clear away the rubble. But even mong the rubble we see playing among the ruins. The situation became even worse as the first post-War winter approchd. Fmilis could live in damaged homes during the summer. Living in homes with holes in the wall and without coal was a different matter.

Food

Food was the most immeiate problem for most Beliners. The children which Hitler and Gobbels refused to evacuate scavenged in garbage dumps, especially the garbage of the occupation 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 Germans imposed on many occupied pelople unedr the NAZI Hunger Plan. Virtually everything was rationed, including margarine, milk, coffee, meat, sugar and fresh eggs. Many items, like fruit, 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. One of the problems was the destruction of rail and canal links to the countryside where food was available. But this problem evaporated when the Soviets began hardening the border. The Soviets did not want food brought into EatvBelin truckled into West Berlin. West Berliners were not allowed to obtain food in East Germany. The food for the Western sectors had to come in from West Germany. When West Nerlin reopened the schools, a feeding program became very popular wih the children.

Subway and Elevated Transit

The Berlin S-Bahn is a rapid transit railway system in and around Berlin. It complements the Berlin U-Bahn (Untergrundbahn) meaning 'underground railway' or subway. During World War II, use if the S-Bahn and U-Bahn pasenger usage incereased car use fell. Many of the underground stations were used as air-raid shelters. The S-Bahn was largely destroyed at the end of the war, and the U-Bahn heavily damaged. Although damage to the U-Bahn was usually repaired fairly quickly, the reconstructions became increasingly difficult as the War continued. more difficult as the war went on. The whole system collapsed when the power station supplying the network failed during the Soviet offensive (April 25, 1945). The ystem was not fully restored until 1950. The Allies decided that S-Bahn service in the western sectors of Berlin should continue to be provided by the Reichsbahn (DR) which became an East German company and he provider of railway services in East Germany. Rail services in West Germany proper were provided by the new Deutsche Bundesbahn. There was at firt free transit between the Western ans Soviet zones. The S-Bahn became a victim if the Cold War. Services continued operating through all occupation sectors, however, the transit system became an issue in the Cold war. The East Germans began constructing checkpoints on the borders with West Berlin. And they began conducting on-board 'customs checks; were carried out on trains. Just before the Wll was built, the East Germans began running some S-Bahn trains non-stop through western sector stations. East German Goernment employees were forbidden to use the S-Bahn since it travelled through West Berlin. Many West Berliners stopped using kines passing through East Berlin. And East Germansd began using the system to flee East Germany.

East and West

One issue we are not yet sure about is how conditions varied in East and West Berlin. We believe that conditions in the Soviet and Western Zones were at first similar and that people could move relatively freely throughout the city. This needs to be confirmed. These difficult conditions persisted in Berlin as well as the rest of occupied Germany until the West German currency reforms (June 1948). In response, Stalin closed the road an rail links, leading to the Berlin Air Lift (1948-49). This was when conditiins in the western anbd Eastern secors began to change.

Sources

Sayre, Joel. "Berlin in Defeat, 1945," Joel Sayre was an American reporter who visited the defeated city in July 1945 as the Western Allies entered the German capital.

Von Schwanenfluegel, Dorothea. "The Battle of Berlin, 1945," EyeWitness to History.com. Dorothea was a 29-year-old wife and mother living in Berlin. She and her young daughter along with friends and neighbors huddled within their apartment building as the final battle of the War was fought.

Created: 12:06 AM 5/15/2014
Last updated: 11:51 AM 12/5/2016