In
each period of the Allied involvement in Berlin there were difficulties
to surmount. Whether great or small, the issues that we coped with
became a kind of underlying musical theme for each time. As this
theme played, the life of the city and of its soldiers as described elsewhere
in this website continued in a reassuring rhythm. This section of
the Berlin 1969 website looks at the underlying themes from 1969 through
1971.
The soldiers of the initial Allied occupation dealt with an unknown situation which evolved rapidly - they went to Berlin to do one thing and ended up doing something else. Soldiers in the 1950's coped with the stresses of a city which was trying to rebuild itself, while being gradually carved into two pieces.
In the early 1960's, the Berlin Wall dominated our situation, built by a government which the West did not recognize and about which the East was ambivalent.
From 1969 until 1989, small, difficult problems occupied the Allies' attention-- student radicalism of "die 68er Generation", international terrorism, developing relations with the now universally recognized government in East Germany-- and then the onrushing collapse of Soviet-style Communism brought a single issue to the fore again.
In my son's World History college textbook, the time in Berlin from 1969 through 1971 was dealt with in a single sentence. From the point of view of those of us there at the time, it seemed more complicated than that. The four Allied Powers were negotiating a treaty on the status of Berlin. The German Democratic Republic (East Germany) was on edge, clearly determined to assert its sovereignty and fearful of a sell-out by its Soviet protectors. Soviet and GDR leaders wrestled with their own conflicting views. The German Federal Republic (West Germany) was carrying out its own negotiations with Eastern European countries, including the Soviet Union and Poland. The latter negotiations added to the nervousness of the GDR authorities.
Into this setting came a new factor, beyond the control of any of these governments. The German edition of student radicalism blossomed in 1969. When I arrived at the Lichterfelde West Bahnhof on June 3, 1969, my Army taxi took me through the Free University Campus, a place where terrorist cells were already taking their first actions. Initially, this activity was given little notice in the western nations, obsessed as they were with their own student radicals.
From a legal standpoint, the activities of student radicals were a German internal matter. However, the Allies had to deal with two specific effects of radical actions. The obvious problem was the matter of terrorism. U.S. facilities and personnel could be easy targets. The less obvious problem was the potential consequence of civil disturbances. We understood that if demonstrations could become large AND violent, and if the Western Allies' forces could be drawn into the turmoil, then the sovereignty-obsessed government of the GDR might feel the need to intervene. Or, conversely, if Western forces were held aside from major disturbances, pressure would build in West Germany for action. And then in the midst of all this, a right-wing fanatic shot a Soviet soldier in the British sector, almost as though to assert that the Right should be radical, too.
The following pages will show aspects of the "minor" troubles which marked my time in Berlin and they will show how progress toward a resolution of the unusual situation in Berlin continued. Updated 6 Jan 06.