Russia's New Puppet
By W. H. EDWARDS* NOW that after a profusion of threats and a torrent of abuse directed against the already well-established German Federal Government at Bonn, the People's Council of the Eastern zone—a motley of elected and nominated delegates—has con- stituted itself without election or mandate as the Lower House of a German Democratic Republic claiming to represent the Germans of the four zones ; now that figuring as a self-appointed Parlia- ment it has already elected a Prime Minister and fixed the date for the election of a President, it is worth while examining in some detail what are the policies and who the personalities involved. No bare outline of recent events in the eastern sector of Berlin conveys a clear impression of the international and domestic back- ground of the manoeuvres that led to this final constitutional fissure. Neither does it furnish the necessary information about the wire- pullers behind the stage of this political puppet-show.
The international aspects of the East German State movement are more intelligible than the part played by the German actors in this travesty of democracy. The Notes addressed by Moscow and its satellites to the Western Powers about the alleged illegality of the German Federal Republic clearly indicated that the Cominform was convinced of the urgent need to provide a potent counter-attraction to the powerful rallying-force of the Bonn Government. When Dr. Adenauer appointed the most influential and popular exile from Eastern Germany, Jakob Kaiser, as Minister responsible for exploring all peaceful means of reuniting Germany the Russian and German political advisers of the Occupation Authority in the Eastern zone could not mistake or disregard the purport of this writing on the wall. The stubborn resistance of Marshal Tito to the concentrated Cominform assault, the purges and mock-trials in other satellite countries—latest of all Czechoslovakia—and the collapse of the nefarious anti-Socialist strikes in Finland further underlined the expediency of consolidating and strengthening other sections of the belt of States behind the Iron Curtain.
These obvious considerations underlying Russian policy found an eager response from those German politicians in the Eastern zone who have made a far from precarious living by betraying every fundamental political, economic and cultural interest of the millions they claim to represent. The genuine life-long Communist Wilhelm Pieck, who thanked the Kremlin for having benevolently " fathered " the new State, is now cast for the role of President, although he was never an outstanding figure in the pre-Hitler Communist Party. 'Thalmann, Rosenfeld, Neumann and Ruth Fischer (now, of course, a convinced opponent of Communism) made use of "poor Emperor William "—Pieck's nickname in the party—as stooge or locum tenens at provincial party rallies. He is now to be pensioned off as a nominal President, thereby giving the freest possible scope to Otto Grotewohl, his junior partner in the leadership of the Socialist Unity Party (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands), who has already been elected as Prime Minister of the provisional Cabinet.
This former Socialist, who led the core of the Social Democratic and trade union groups of the German underground into the Com- munist camp when the S.E.D. was founded in 1946, is the most ambitious and ruthless politician post-war Germany has produced. He not only voluntarily offered the Russians an unlimited supply of reparations in kind out of current production, but also indicated the most effective means to extort them. Grotewohl is the instigator of the partial dismantling of the East German railway main lines, and has supplied the Russian atom experts with the pick of German skilled workers as indented labour for the important uranium mines in Saxony. Questioned after his various visits to Moscow as to whether he had made any inquiries about the fate of the German prisoners of war, he replied cynically that he had been too much occupied by the festivities and theatrical side-shows provided for foreign visitors. It is an open secret in German political circles that the proposal to submerge the Socialist underground organisations in the Communist Party would have been rejected if Dr. Schumacher *Dr. Edwards (who is a German) was before the war Editor of the Vossisehe Zeitung. had offered to cede the leadership of the Social Democratic Party in all zones to Grotewohl.
Grotewohl, the ex-Social Democrat, has been most ably assisted in creating his stepping-stone to power, the People's Council, by the former Socialist Ulbrich, now the virtual Minister of Economic Affairs in the Eastern zone, and by Jakob Kaiser's successor as leader of the Christian Democrats behind the Iron Curtain, Otto Nuschke. Ulbrich's record as administrator does not bear any close scrutiny. He has complied with every wish or instruction of the Russian authorities, without making the slightest attempt to mitigate any disastrous effects or hardships brought about by the systematic spoliation of the industries of Saxony and Thuringia. The invention of the " joint " German-Russian enterprises, run, of course, primarily and often exclusively in the Russian interests, is claimed by the S.E.D. as his outstanding achievement.
To appreciate the scintillating personality of Otto Nuschke, it is necessary to revert to pre-Hitler political history. This fecund journalist, who for many years edited a fourth-rate Berlin sheet, the Berliner Volkszeitung, has always been regarded as one of the grave-diggers of the Democratic Party founded by Naumann, Reuss and Petersen in 1918. After the death of Naumann and Petersen he systematically thwarted by unsavoury intrigues the selection as party leader of any outstanding personality who might stand a chance to counter Hitler's rising tide. When Heuss and Bliicher revived the Democratic Party after the capitulation, they wisely cold-shouldered Nuschke, who suddenly discovered the market value of a vociferous Christianity and transferred his allegiance to the Christian Democrats of the Eastern zone. Kaiser's experience with Nuschke was not more fortunate than that of the Democrats. It is extremely doubtful whether the Russians would have driven Jakob Kaiser into exile if Nuschke had not promised to place the party machine at the unreserved disposal of the Russian sponsor of the People's Council, Major-General Tulpanov [see page 493] who has now been recalled to Moscow.
These German wire-pullers of the puppet-show, with whom no one from Western Germany but Communists would shake hands or associate, and who carefully abstained from presenting them- selves at any election meeting held in the .Western zone in August, are the midwives of the Democratic Republic that claims to speak for Germany as a whole. Their moral mandate and the political mandate of the stooges they may install as Ministers is non-existent, because they are respected by nobody, not even by the majority of their constituents in the Eastern zone. If they could still rely on a residue of moral authority they would not have violated Article 51 of the constitution they drew up in March. This article specifically provides that the Lower House of the Parliament shall be "elected by universal suffrage." Instead of complying with this essential provision of their constitution, the wire-pullers have postponed elec- tions to the Lower House until October 15th, 1950. In the mean- time the People's Council, consisting of elected members and of nominated delegates of trade unions, co-operatives, youth organisa- tions and housewives' clubs selected at random by Grotewohl and Nuschke, is to function as a substitute for an elected Parliament.
Just as significant as the lack of moral qualifications of these commissars is the atmosphere and the environment in which the People's Council enacted its formal self-appointment. Strong police reinforcements from various towns in the Eastern zone were tempo- rarily concentrated in the Russian sector of Berlin, and heavily.- armed Russian units paraded the streets, until the People's Council had obeyed the orders of its Soviet controllers. In one of the remaining buildings of Goering's Air Ministry Wilhelm Pied( addressed the People's Council and read out the so-called Manifesto of the National Front consisting of the 26-point programme of the S.E.D. condensed conveniently into 20 points, appealing in the most approved style of the local underlings of Goebbels "to every former follower of Hitler" to swell the ranks of the supporters of this new edition of the nominated Nazi Reichstag.
The only attraction—and that of very doubtful value—the new move might have for the Germans on the Western side of the Iron Curtain derives from the announcement that the inflated .cabinet (18 Ministers against the 13 in Bonn) will include a Minister of Foreign Affairs. The most painstaking journalists have hitherto
failed to discover who has been successfully screened for this post by the authorities in Moscow. In Western Germany favourites in the betting market are Gerhard Eiskr, the returned Communist exile from America, who recently slipped through the meshes of the international extradition laws, Field-Marshal Paulus and, at longer odds, ex-Ambassador Nadolny.
A government without mandate, a self-appointed Parliament which violates the constitution on the first day of its application, and a set of political leaders open to every kind of persuasion can hardly be held to possess the authority to represent abroad a nation to which they dare not appeal through the ballot-box at home.
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