The Berlin Wall (73 page)

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Authors: Frederick Taylor

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9
Clay Large,
Berlin: A Modern History
, as above pp. 379f.

10
Leonhard,
Child of the Revolution
pp. 396f.

11
Ulbricht’s instructions taken from Leonhard,
Child of the Revolution
(German ride:
Die Revolution entläβt ihre Kinder
) pp. 379f.

12
Cf. Tony Judt,
Post-War: A History of Europesince
1945 p. 131 and again cited by Leonhard to his interviewer in
Der Spiegel
16/2005 as above, where he also describes the early days of the Ulbricht Group.

13
Richie,
Faust’s Metropolis
p. 626 and see also Ann and John Tusa,
The Berlin Blockade
p. 30.

14
Osip Mandelstam, ‘We Live, Not Feeling’ (1934) in Albert C. Todd and Max Hayward (eds.),
Twentieth Century Russian Poetry
.

15
General Lucius D. Clay,
Decision in Germany
p. 15.

16
Cited in Richie,
Faust’s Metropolis
p. 632.

17
George Clare,
Berlin Days
1946—47 p. 6.

18
Clare,
Berlin Days
p. 16.

19
Ibid. p. 21.

20
See the frank appraisal of this more or less obstructive position by a quasi-official French source in
Vive Berlin!/Ein Ort deutsch-franzosischer Geschichte
1945-2003 /Un lieu d’histoire franco-allemande 1945-2003/A Focal Point of German-French History 1945-2003 (a Publication of the Allied Museum) pp. 49ff.

21
Frank,
Walter Ulbricht
pp. 212f. And for the ‘block’ plan.

22
Ibid. pp. 208f.

23
See Judt,
Postwar
p. 131. And, for the ‘Austrian danger’ (
Gefahr Österrreich
), Frank,
Walter Ulbricht
p. 213.

24
Douglas Botting,
In the Ruins of the Reich
p. 118.

25
Clay Large,
Berlin: A Modern History
p. 390.

26
Quoted in Richie,
Faust’s Metropolis
p. 637.

27
Cf. Clay Large,
Berlin: A Modern History
pp. 391ff.

28
See Dennis,
The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic
pp. 37f.

29
Richie,
Faust’s Metropolis
p. 670.

30
Clare,
Berlin Days
p. 177.

4 Blockade

1
Claus Leggewie,
Die ehemalige Zukunft in Ein Land Genannt die
DDR ed. Ulrich Plenzdorf and Rüdiger Dammann p. 42.

2
Dennis,
The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic
p. 45.

3
See Ann and John Tusa,
The Berlin Blockade
pp. 105ff.

4
Ibid. p. 144.

5
Richie,
Fautst’s Metropolis
p. 667 and, for an even more colourful description, Clare,
Berlin Days
p. 185.

6
Lt.-General William Tunner,
Over the Hump
p. 161.

7
Tusa,
The Berlin Blockade
p. 222. And for Reuter’s speech.

5 ‘Dissolve the People and Elect Another’

1
Tusa,
The Berlin Blockade
pp. 360ff. and for the following.

2
Dennis,
Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic
p. 46 for Stalin’s manoeuvres.

3
See Carolyn Eisenberg,
Drawing the Line
passim. But pp. 495ff. contain the bulk of Professor Eisenberg’s argument thar the Anglo-Americans were responsible for the division of Germany. Het book provides a fascinating document-based tour of the maze of betrayal, misunderstanding and power-political jiggery-pokery that was Germany between 1945 and 1949 and contains many valuable insights. It is clear that the Americans on the spot, including Governor Clay, were keen on creating a revived, Capitalist Germany on the American model and willing from an uncomfortably early stage to push for it at all costs, including permanent division of the country. The problem lies in her narrowly focused, almost myopic portrayal of the Soviets as the justly aggrieved party. There is disturbingly little detailed reference to persistent Soviet bad faith. She does not pull back except in a rather perfunctory way to look ar the brutal and repressive Soviet occupation policy in Germany itself and in newly ‘liberated’ Eastern and South-Eastern Europe as the other, equally important factor in influencing the Allies’ move away from full implementation of the (in any case far from unambiguous) Potsdam Accords.

4
See J udt,
Postwar
p. 151.

5
Fot a summary of rhis see Perer Joachim Lapp,
Ulbrichts Helfer
pp. 1f.

6
Judt,
Postwar
pp. 152f.

7
See Claus Christian Malzahn,
Detltschland, Detttschland.: Kurze Geschichte einer geteilten Nation
p. 83. And for the quote from the Adenauer letrer from 1946.

8
Ibid. p. 85.

9
Vladislav Zubok and Constanrine Pleshakov,
Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War: From Stalin to Khrushchev
p. 159.

10
Diederich,
Die Grenzpolizei der
SBZ/DDR p. 203.

11
For rhis and the new leadership’s back-flip afrer Sralin’s death see Hope M. Harrison,
Driving the Soviets up the Wall
pp. 19ff.

12
Ibid. p. 34.

13
See Werner Koop,
Der 17. Juni 1953: Legende und Wirklichkeit
p. 41.

14
Ibid. p. 62.

15
Ibid. pp. 28f.

16
Ibid. p. 29. And for the following regarding the East German reacrion.

17
Ibid. p. 34.

18
Malzahn,
Deutschland, Deutschland
p. 91.

19
See Koop,
Der 17. Juni 1953
pp. 145ff for a chronology of the East Berlin evenrs. The saga of the government loudspeaker van appears in Malzahn,
Deutschland, Deutschland
p. 93.

20
Koop,
Der 17. Juni
1953 pp. 148f. And for the following, based on Koop’s reading of
Stasi
and KVP reports for the day.

21
Dennis,
The Rise and Fall of the Gennan Democratic Republic
pp. 66ff. For a detailed description of the Berlin part of the revolt and its suppression see also Richie,
Faust’s Metropolis
pp. 684ff.

22
Dennis,
The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic
pp. 67f.

23
Harrison,
Driving the Soviets up the Wall
pp. 35f.

24
‘I’ve never seen such an idior in my life’: Beria quored in Frank,
Walter Ulbricht
p. 251 (preceding secrion headed
Krisenjahre
).

25
Harrison,
Driving the Soviets up the Wall
pp. 39f. and Dennis,
The Rise and Fall of the German Dwocratic Republic
pp. 71f.

26
Harrison,
Driving the Soviets the Wall
p. 42.

6 The Crown Princes

1
Pörzl,
Eri,-h Honecker
pp. 43f.

2
Ibid. p. 40.

3
See Peler Merseburger,
Willy Brandt
1913-1992 pp. 18ff.

4
Ibid. pp. 122ff.

5
Quored Ibid. p. 263.

6
See Dennis,
The Rise arid Fall of the German Democrtic Republic
p. 85.

7
See William Taubman,
Khrushchev: The Man and his Era
p. 331.

8
Taubman,
Khrmhchev
p. 391. And for the press conference.

9
Cired ibid. p. 399.

10
Vladislav M. Zubok,
Khrushchev and the Berlin Crisis
1958-1962 Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars Cold War International History Project, Working Paper no. 6 p. 13.

11
See Paul Bergner,
Die Waldsiedlung: Bin Sachbuch über ‘Wandlitz’
pp. 16f. And for the following derails of the surveying and acquisirion of the building land.

12
Quored in Bergner,
Die Waldsiedlung
p. 38 from Vera Oelschlegel’s autobiography,
Wenn das meine Mutter wü?t
.

13
See Hans Haltrer, ‘Ick fühl mir wie im Krankenhaus’ in
Der Spiegel
47/1999, 22 November 1999.

14
See Bergner,
Die Waldsiedlung
pp. 161ff.

15
For the derails about the F-Club and the role of the serrlement employees see Thomas Grimm,
Das Politbüro Privat: Ulbricht, Honecker, Mielke & Co. aus der Sicht ihrer Angestellten
p. 10. See also Halrer, ‘Ick fühl mir…’in
Der Spiegel
47/1999 as above.

16
Ibid. p. 22.

17
Ibid. p. 11.

18
Ibid. p. 10.

19
Halrer, ‘Ick fühl mir…in
Der Spiegel
47/1999 as above.

20
See Bergner’s remarks in
Die Waldsiedlung
p. 53: ‘Despire an intensive search I found nor a single statement from a former inhabitant of the forest settlement rhar he had liked living there or had moved there willingly or ar least “wirhout inner resistance”. The terrible thing is that these depictions of the situarion seem relatively believable.’

21
Grimm,
Das Politbüro Privat
p. 161 for the account by Ulbrichr’s cook, Helmut Bäuml.

22
Aurhor’s interview with Günter Schabowski, Berlin, 1O August 2005.

23
Bergner,
Die Waldsiedlung
p. 6.

7 Wag the Dog

1
Robert F. Dallek,
An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy
pp. 188ff.

2
For JFK’s relative unpopularity among the Democratic Party’s liberal establishment see ibid. p. 232.

3
Ibid. p. 177.

4
See SAPMO-BArch 4182/1.323 (Nachlass Ulbricht) MF 2 Memo 15.12.1960 from Gerhard Kegel, Ulbricht’s senior foreign-policy adviser, on the influence of the Ford Motot Co., and the
lengthy report on the supposedly deteriorating US political and economic situation, including the influence of big business, 10.1. 1961 from Deputy Foreign Minister Otto Winzer.

5
Dallek,
Kennedy
p. 309.

6
Ibid. p. 315.

7
Taubman,
Khrushchev
p. 485. And fot the convetsation with Ambassador Thompson. In fact, Khrushchev’s eldest son, Leonid (b. 1917), who was killed in the Second World War, was a few monchs younger than Kennedy. Khrushchev’s eldesr child, however, a girl named Yulia Nikitichna,was indeed born two years before Kennedy, in 1915.

8
See Zubok and Pleshakov,
Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War
pp. 192f.

9
Ibid. p. 190.

10
Harrison,
Driving the Soviets Up the Wall
pp. 194f,

11
Dennis,
The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic
p. 88.

12
See André Steiner, ‘Vom Überholen eingeholc: Zur Wirtschaftskrise 1960/61 in der DDR ’ in
Vor dew Mauerbau: Politik und Gesellschaft in der DDR der funfziger Jahre (Schriftenreihe der Vierteljahrshefte fiir Zeitgeschichte Sondernuimmer
2003) Herausgegeben von Dierk Hoffmann, Michael Schwarz und Hermann Wentkner, pp. 245ff.

13
Nikita S. Khrushchev,
Khrushchev Remembers: The Glasnost Tapes
p. 169.

14
Frank,
Walter Ulbricht
p. 357.

15
Harrison,
Driving the Soviets tip the Wall
p. 128.

16
For the shortcomings of Soviet rocketty in the early 1960s see Taubmann,
Khrushchev
p, 537.

17
The illicit use of rocket fuel as a sociallubricam quoted in Harrison,
Driving the Soviets up the Wall
p. 129.

18
For a detailed description of his campaign see Zubok and Pleshakov,
Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War
pp. 255ff.

19
Ann Tusa,
The Last Division: Berlin and the Wall
p. 218.

20
For this, the Selianinov-König meetings, and Pervukhin’s doleful end-of-year report see Harrison,
Driving the Soviets up the Wall
pp. 146ff.

21
Zubok,
Khrushchev and the Berlin Wall Crisis
as above p. 19.

22
Quoted in Frank,
Walter Ulbricht
p. 343.

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