Deutschlandlied - Auferstanden aus Ruinen: The Two Germanies (1950-1970)
With the fall of the Nazi Third Reich and the division of Germany into occupation zones of the allied powers, the stage was set for the divergent development of the capitalist west of the country and the communist east. Whilst some in the American and Soviet foreign policy elites hoped for the reunification of a neutral Germany that would provide a buffer between the emerging blocs, the political reality on the ground disallowed such a course. In the west, the French, British and American occupation zones became the Federal Republic of Germany (
Bundesrepublik/FRG) whilst the Soviet occupation zone became nominally sovereign as the German Democratic Republic (
Volksrepublik, GDR). As is to be expected, the
Bundesrepublik integrated itself with the transnational military and political environment of the 'Free World' whilst the
Volksrepublik became a keystone of the Communist Bloc.
One of the first major Cold War confrontations was over the disputed status of Berlin, which had been divided into four occupation zones, each administered by one of the "Big Three Plus One" (USA, UK, USSR and France). As a precursor to the unification of the other allied occupation zones in Germany, the three Western powers coalesced their holdings into 'Trizonia', and announced that they would be establishing a new currency for Germany, the
deutschmark, thus undermining Soviet manipulations of the
reichsmark which was intended to keep the German people in poverty artificially. Concerned that West Berlin was becoming a conduit for German flight to the west, the Soviets established a blockade around West Berlin and buzzed air traffic into the city, beginning in March 1947. President Wallace defied the recommendations of the joint chiefs of staff to force open a corridor to the city, instead rationalising non-confrontation by pointing out West Berlin's vulnerability and the Soviet seizure of the city at the end of WWII, arguing that the cession of West Berlin to Russian control would be of greater value in generating goodwill with the USSR than it would be as part of the emerging Western security system. In reality, it emboldened the Soviets, who saw the Americans as pushovers, until this was checked by the hardline stance of Dewey and a myriad of other presidents since.
Contemporary cartoon from the aftermath of the Berlin Crisis
Whilst the leadership of Walter Ulbricht in the GDR was as abysmal as one would expect from attempts to ape the repression and forced Stakhanovism of the High Stalinist USSR, the destalinisation process which was initiated by Khrushchev's anti-Stalin clique gave rise to an alternative faction in the East German
Volkskammer, led by Wilhelm Zaisser and Rudolf Herrnstadt. The first priority of this faction was ensuring the integrity of collective leadership, as despite Ulbricht's expulsion from power, there remained a number of potential autocrats amongst the Politburo, most notably Erich Mielke, who would head the state security apparatus, the
Staatssicherheitdienst (SSD). The SSD would become an extremely effective security organisation, with international reach, high levels of professionalism and sophisticated technical ability, especially under the oversight of spymaster Markus Wolf. The Zaisser-Herrnstadt faction abolished the Central Committee Secretariat (previously occupied by Ulbricht) to end its erosion of Politburo authority, replacing it instead with a Presidium at the head of the Politburo, which would consist of two party chairmen and four other members. The post of General Secretary was replaced by the First Secretary, who would oversea the party organisation. Zaisser nominated Herrnstadt for this position by surprise, although he refused and Zaisser ended up in the position.
Zaisser's tenure saw a greater diversification of the East German economy and fostered a closer relationship between workers and the state-owned enterprises they served. With Ulbricht deposed, there was little appetite for Soviet-style collectivisation, which led the GDR to join the likes of Poland, Hungary and Yugoslavia as de-collectivised socialist states. Herrnstadt and Zaisser were both less concerned with mimicking Soviet-style communism than with creating a party which was optimal for the particular conditions present in the
Volksrepublik. This included advocating a less repressive stance towards the intelligentsia and middle classes, with Herrnstadt raising a few Muscovite eyebrows with his comments that the GDR is not just a worker's state, it is "
ein Staat für Arbeiter, Bürger und Wissenschaftler" ("one state for workers, bourgeois and scientists"). Herrnstadt also orchestrated a programme for consultation with factory employees, laying the foundation for innovative management techniques which resembled a less-extreme version of Yugoslav workers' self management, in line with Zaisser's preference for "humanistic socialism". They also kept a close eye on the development of the Soviet cybernetic economy to gauge its potential viability in the GDR.
First Secretary Wilhelm Zaisser
A less-savoury feature of the GDR was travel restrictions to which East Germans were restricted. The inner German border became increasingly militarised as the GDR sought to halt emigration to the FRG, whilst the FRG became increasingly concerned about the potential infiltration of spies and saboteurs. On 26 May 1952, the
Volksrepublik implemented what it called a "special regime on the demarcation line" justifying the restrictive measures as necessary to "keep out spies, diversionists, terrorists and smugglers". A restricted zone (
Sperrzone) five kilometres wide was created in which only those holding a special permit could live or work. Over 8,000 East German civilians living along the border were forcibly resettled in
Aktion Ungeziefer ("Operation Vermin"). Another 3,000 preemptively fled to the west. Throughout the 1960s the GDR continued to tighten the border regime. From July 1962, the GDR declared the entire Baltic coast a border zone, with special powers for local security personnel in the area, whilst in the late 1960s the decision was made to upgrade border fortifications to establish a "modern frontier" that would be more difficult to cross. Barbed-wire fences were replaced with expanded metal barriers; directional anti-personnel mines and anti-vehicle ditches hindered movement; tripwires and electric signals helped detect potential escapees; all-weather patrol roads enabled rapid access to any point along the border; and wooden guard towers were replaced with prefabricated concrete towers and observation bunkers, usually equipped with light machine gun emplacements. In 1961 the border police, the
Deutsche Grenzpolizei ("Grenzers") were integrated into the military command, becoming the
Grenztruppen der DDR within the
Nationale Volksarmee. On the other side of the border, the FRG was guarded by three separate entities: the
Bundesgrenzschutz (Federal Border Protection Service); the
Bayerische Grenzpolizei (Bavarian border police) and the
Bundeszollverwaltung (Federal Customs Administration).
Illustration of typical inner German border fortification
For its first fourteen years, the FRG was dominated by Konrad Adenauer and his Christian Democratic Union party (CDU). Dubbed "
der Alte" ("the old man"), he was initially considered to be a caretaker chancellor, but turned out to be wilier and more instrumental than expected. Formed by his experiences as a youth during the aftermath of the 1870s Kulturkampf, Adenauer's social views were a manifestation of his lifelong hatred of "Prussianism". In his mind, National Socialism was a natural development of Prussian militarism and statism. He sought to build an alternative form of German conservatism, based around Christian (particularly Catholic) social teaching about the role of an individual within society and the importance of the state in respecting individual autonomy. He had constructed the CDU as a replacement for the
Zentrum party, seeking to take it "out of the tower" by appealing to Protestants and German nationalists and create broad-based support.
Konrad Adenauer being a little too open with voters
Adenauer stirred international controversy with his stance on denazification. He saw denazification as unnecessary and counterproductive to the goal of establishing a well-run German state. Many government bureaucrats had been members of the NSDAP for career purposes, and Adenauer recognised the importance of these people for the day-to-day operation of government. One of Adenauer's closest aides, Hans Globke, had drafted anti-Semitic laws during the Nazi era, leading to accusations from SPD parliamentarian Adolf Arndt that Globke "committed mass murder with paragraphs". Adenauer also oversaw Reinhard Gehlen's installation as head of the
Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND, Federal Intelligence Service), as well as campaigning for the release of the Spandau Six [131] securing the release of Baron Konstantin von Neurath and Reichsadmiral Karl Dönitz. In October 1950, Adenauer received the Himmerod Memorandum, drafted by four former Wehrmacht generals which linked freedom for German war criminals and public statements from the Allies that Germany didn't commit war crimes as "psychological preconditions" for the rearmament of Germany, a move which had been encouraged by British and American leaders. The leader of the Himmerod group was identified as General Hermann Foertsch, protege of the rabidly Nazi
Generalfeldmarschall Walther von Reichenau, who had issued the notorious Severity Order explicitly demanding the annihilation of Jews on the Eastern Front of the Second World War. In 1951, Eisenhower, recognising the political necessity of such a move, made a declaration that war crimes committed reflected on the individuals involved, not the Wehrmacht as a whole. Whilst stopping short of absolving the Nazis for their sins, such statements assisted the GDR and Soviet Union in portraying the West as militarists, as well as creating the false impression in the Western public consciousness that war crimes were limited to the SS, ignoring the complicity of the Wehrmacht commanders in carrying out genocidal acts. These political stances gained Adenauer the support of the powerful and vocal interest group of German expellees from the east, the
Heimatvertriebenen. Adenauer's nationalist policies in regards to rearmament, anticommunism and refusal to recognise the Oder-Neisse Line as Germany's legitimate borders appeased the
Heimatvertriebenen who would otherwise have opposed his efforts to integrate into the West.
Public meeting of Heimatvertriebenen in Stuttgart to protest the Oder-Neisse Line
One of Adenauer's more significant policies, but one of the most popular, was his decision to integrate the FRG into the European Coal and Steel Community. It was his view that Germany and France should form a common front against European communism and insulate themselves against potential backstabbing from the "Anglo-Saxons" of the UK and USA. Despite Adenauer's distrust of the English, he hoped that English involvement in a European Economic Community would allow their free market leanings to counter the
dirigiste policies of the French. As it would turn out, political complications in the Anglo-French relationship arising from the 1961 putsch that installed the military junta in Paris would prevent the United Kingdom from being integrated into the continental system, as it came to be known, with the exception of NATO integration. Many ordinary Germans were suspicious of economic integration, viewing it as a French Trojan horse intended to extend the Occupation Statute. Adenauer's tenure saw economic development taking centre stage with the
Wirtschaftwunder ("economic miracle") as the cornerstone of his Politik der Stärke ("policy of strength") that sought to entice East Germans to defect for a better quality of life in the
Bundesrepublik. In fact, the social market policies pursued under Adenauer's government were not of his design, but of his Economic Minister Ludwig Erhard, who often clashed with Adenauer, particularly over whether to pursue a Europeanist or Atlanticist route. West Germany's economic revival caught the world, and the German public, by surprise. Real wages doubled between 1950 and 1963, with a 20% fall in working hours during the same period, and a fall in unemployment rates from 8% in 1950 to 0.4% in 1965.
In 1953, Adenauer's CDU won the federal elections in coalition with Franz Blucher's
Freie Demokratische Partei (FDP). Under this term, German restitution laws, the
Bundesentschädigungsgesetz, allowed some victims of Nazi persecution to claim restitution. In reality, very few who deserved restitution were compensated. For example, out of 42,000 applicants who had survived Buchenwald, only 700 were granted compensation. Furthermore, it explicitly excluded non-Germans and implicitly excluded communists, homosexuals, gypsies and family of victims. In 1955, in exchange for the release of the last German prisoners, the
Bundesrepublik established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. The USSR was the exception to the Hallstein Doctrine, which held that the FRG wouldn't have diplomatic relations with states which recognised the GDR.
Adenauer vocally supported the British-French-Canaanite attack on Suez in 1956, and was outraged by US condemnation of the campaign. Adenauer came to the conclusion that the United States would continue to prioritise its own interests over that of Europe. Having decided that the United States is in essence a fair-weather friend, his determination to build a strong and lasting security relationship in Western Europe was reinforced. He suggested to colleagues in France and Italy that their countries should jointly develop and produce nuclear weapons and delivery systems, which started to eventuate in the mid-1960s. He was supported in these views by Franz Josef Strauss, the leader of the Bavarian-based Christian Social Union and the so-called "German Gaullist" faction in the Bundestag.
The CDU won the 1957 election easily and were further boosted by the reintegration of the Saarland into West Germany. In September 1958, de Gaulle and Adenauer met for the first time and would become close friends and allies. Despite his personal preference for de Gaulle, the latter's overthrow would not prevent Adenauer from dealing with Maurice Challe and his co-putschists. Adenauer considered running for the position of
Bundespräsident at this time, but pulled out when he discovered that under the Basic Law, the president held far less power than had been the case under the Weimar Republic. His withdrawal from that campaign reflected poorly on the old politician due to the blatant obviousness of the abortive power-grab. Under US pressure to create somewhat of a constructive relationship with Eastern European states, but unable to recognise the Oder-Neisse Line and Czech Sudetenland due to the
Heimatvertriebenen maintaining importance in political matters, Adenauer began secret talks to draft non-aggression pacts with Poland and Czechoslovakia. In late 1959, the CDU was embarrassed by international media picking up on (as it turns out, unfounded) rumours that Theodor Oberländer, Minister of Refugees, had commanded the ethnically-Ukrainian
Nachtigall ("nightingale") battalion which was in Lviv on 2-4 July 1941 when a large pogrom occurred, with the implication that he was involved in war crimes.
Chancellor Franz Josef Strauss, giving an empassioned speech about the necessity of combating communist subversion
In the 1961 election, failing to achieve a majority, Adenauer had to include the FDP in a coalition government, but the FDP demanded that Adenauer had to give up the chancellorship before the end of his turn and replace the foreign minister. In 1962, scandal emerged when Strauss had five Der Spiegel journalists arrested, charging them with espionage for publishing a memo exposing inadequacies in the Bundeswehr. Adenauer defended Strauss and despite pressure to do so, refused to dismiss Strauss [132]. Adenauer tried to block Ludwig Erhard, his Economic Minister and architect of the
Wirtschaftwunder, from becoming chancellor but failed. In October 1963, he turned over the chancellorship to Erhard, although Adenauer remained chairman of the CDU until his resignation in December 1966. Erhard tried to orient the FRG towards an Atlanticist policy, he proved to be fairly inept at international relations. He attempted to buy reunification of Germany from the USSR for a $25 billion 'loan' that he never expected to be repaid. The USSR flatly refused. In 1966, Strauss, having masterminded (with Adenauer's involvement) a merger of the CSU and CDU, became chancellor of a CDU (now including the CSU) and SPD alliance, rising to the chancellorship [133]. Strauss strengthened ties between France and Germany, whilst virtually throwing away most ties with the British. He also diplomatically antagonised the GDR, and as was revealed years later, initiated the program of BND support for Croatian terrorists, who became increasingly active in the 1970s and 1980s.
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[131] IOTL, the Spandau Seven, but ITTL, the Soviets accepted Grand Admiral Erich Raeder's offer to advise them on naval affairs.
[132] IOTL, Strauss was expelled.
[133] IOTL, Kurt Georg Kiesinger became chancellor and the CSU didn't merge with the CDU.
