Berlin
By CHRISTOPHER HOLLIS
I
. DO not suppose that there has ever been a military occupation so wrapped up in curious paradox as that .of Berlin. In theory, here are four occupying Powers, allied together to prevent the military resurrection .of the defeated but aggressive Berliners. In fact, there is, of course, as we all knew, the frontier between Russian and Western occupation running through the centre of Berlin. But theory also has its practical im- portance. May 16 was American Forces' Day. The Americans held a large and impressive parade on the Ternpelhof Airfield. Troops marched past. Tanks rumbled, helicopters flew. General Eddleman,, Commander-in-Chief of the U.S Forces in Europe. made a speech as forth- right and aggressive as decency would permit. It was frankly a demonstration of strength and the purpose of it was to reassure the crowd of West Berliners who lined the farther side of the airfield and who heard themselves—perhaps a little to the ironic amusement of those of them who were more than twelve years old—hailed as 'the most time-tried defenders of democracy in Europe.'
The Americans do not go in for ceremonial parades. Instead, at the end of it all,they put on a show of acrobatic drilling without word of com- mand by a speciai trained troupe of men who marched back and forth, into and out of one another, threw rifles from one to the other and caught them --more perhaps like performing seals than occupying soldiers as we usually think of them. 'C'est cririeux: commented a French officer who was watching, and so it was. But what was even more curious was the company that came to watch this parade. The German public lined the ropes and stood across on the Other side of the airfield, but in the grandstand were seated, as far. as I could gather, representatives of every nationality but the German—Americans, French, British, Russians, and even a Japanese observer and his charming wife. Russian officers sat on either side of mc. They listened to General Eddlernan's implied abuse of their country with- out motion and then sOleninly and inscrutably led the applause which greeted the act of the performing seals. 'C'etait fri!A interessant, in- Mressant,' said one of them to me and Offered me a Critnean cigarette.
After the parade the American officer at the head of Military Intelligence gave a large lun- cheon, to which he was kind enough to invite my wife and myself. Again; all nationalities seemed to be there except the German. The Russians were in evidence, courteously but quite non-committally answering through an inter- preter our questions about the Geneva con- ference.
Of course, as far as the British go, they never have in any place, from Hong Kong to Galway, been great mixers among those whom they have been called on to rule. They prefer to retire behind their own barbed wire and prepare a new cricket pitch, as they are doing at this moment in the Berlin Stadium, or listen to a military band playing over and over again the 'Eton Boating Song.' And l have little doubt that astute and prominent Berliners do not greatly mind their exclusion from social parties, whether Western
or Eastern. They think that somehow or other —no one can now quite see how—Berlin will one day again be freesfrom foreigners and that, when that day comes, it will be greatly to one's advantage if one can show that in the days of occupation one did not mix too freely with them. Yet to anyone who has seen a good deal of the Germans at work elsewhere in Europe—met them at conferences, official and unofficial—the appar- ent segregation of the social life of German and Allies is the strangest feature of Berlin. Go any- where else in Europe today: at every meeting and on every committee you will find the Germans to be its most obtrusive members, pushing their points of view, making the longest speeches. It is only in Berlin that one can go to parties and meet not a single German.
As for the fate of Berlin, that is for the moment a matter for debate in Geneva rather than in Berlin itself. Long-term prophecy is difficult. It is alike hard to see how the present arrangements will continue for long or how they will be changed. It seems fairly clear that the Russians are not prepared to go to war over Berlin and fairly clear that the West is not prepared to evacuate it without war—clear that the West will only leave it in order that Berlin should become the capital of a united Germany and clear that the Russians have no wish to see a united Ger- many. It is likely enough that we .shall in the near future see a peace treaty between the Soviets and East Germany, but I doubt if we shall 'see any other important change.
It does not really make much difference to the \ West whether there is such a peace treaty, so long as the rights of the West in Berlin are respected. One can hardly imagine a world war over who shall stamp some travel documents that are going to be stamped by somebody anyhow. At present on the Gleinickebunde Bridge from Berlin to Potsdam, which marks the frontier between East Germany and the American zone, there are both Russian troops and East German police. The traveller with a British pass ostentatiously shows his passport and pass to the Russians and ignores the Germans. I am somewhat of an expert on what happens then, for it so .happened that on our pass the wrong number of our car had been inserted. At first the Russians were quite definite that we could on no account enter East Germany at all. Then there was endless telephoning for instructions. It was at last decided that a British officer should go on into Potsdam to see an official there while we remained kicking our heels on the bridge. The officer eventually returned, having got the pass amended. Then there was further telephoning to confirm that this emenda- tion had really been made by the Russian official and that the British officer had not cooked the change himself. A situation that would in any event have been more ridiculous than not was rendered sheer farce by the fact that our host was driving a borrowed car with whose gears he was not familiar, with the result that every time that the Russians told him to come forward, he went into reverse and shot rapidly backwards in the direction of the imperialist West behind him. But at the end we got through with no greater damage than that we were three-quarters of an hour late for luncheon. I could not but reflect that at the Mandelbaum Gate in Jerusalem I would not have had a hope in hell of getting-through at all.
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