THE DIVISION OF EUROPE INTO EAST AND WEST

Germany, Symbol of the Cold War

Although the Allies shared the aim of establishing democracy in Germany and preventing Nazi resurgence, the Soviets and the Western Allies had widely diverging views on how this was to be achieved. The discord among the occupying powers became particularly visible in their joint administration of Berlin. From 1947, these difficulties lead increasingly to autonomous rule over each of the four sectors.

In the Soviet occupied zone, the German Communist Party (KPD) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) were forcibly merged, creating the Party of Socialist Union (SED) which in October 1946 won just over half the votes in state parliament elections. Against the backdrop of the conflict between the USSR and Tito''s Yugoslavia, which set off on its own path to socialism, the SED had to abandon its “Special German Path to Socialism” and was transformed into a “new type” Stalinist party modelled on the Soviet Communist Party. Economic conditions were marked by rapid agricultural reform and by the dismantling and confiscation of factories.

The western powers soon began to perceive the Soviet Union as a threat, causing them to develop an interest in strengthening Germany and providing support to rebuild the country. In a speech in Stuttgart on September 6, 1946, US Secretary of State James F. Byrnes appealed, among other things, for the “swift formation of a provisional German government”. Soon after, Britain's Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin emphasised his government's “almost total agreement” with America''s position. In January 1947, against Soviet and French protest, Britain and the United States created a joint zone. The stated aim was to achieve close economic and administrative union between the two original zones, in the hope that eventually, in the interests of stability, Germany could be treated as a single economic unit. The creation of this double zone was in fact the first step towards founding the Federal Republic and thus towards the division of Germany. In the face of growing East/West tension, France joined the other two western zones in 1948, ending its efforts (based on the experience of two World Wars) to prevent Germany from being treated as a single entity.

In June 1948, with the introduction of a common currency for the western zones, all hope of a politically and economically unified Germany faded far into the distance. When the Deutschmark was introduced as a means of payment in West Berlin, the Soviet Union responded with a blockade, severing all routes into the west of the city with the exception of three air corridors, and stopping deliveries from the Soviet occupied zone. For almost a year, until May 12, 1949, the western sectors of Berlin were supplied by airlift, with a British or American plane landing every three minutes. During this operation, a sense of common purpose developed between the western occupying powers and the affected Germans. In the propaganda war against the East, the surrounded bastion of West Berlin became a symbol of the defence of freedom.

In the hope of resolving the German Question at a later date, a provisional constitution for the western zone was adopted in May 1949, named the "Basic Law" to emphasise its intended temporary status. This laid the foundation stone for the Federal Republic of Germany. This coincided with the founding of the German Democratic Republic in the Soviet occupied zone in October 1949. The division of Germany into two separate states was not officially recognised, but in the years that followed, it was consolidated as a result of their conflicting political and economic systems.

The outbreak of the Korean War confirmed suspicions on the part of the United States that the aim of Soviet politics was to destroy the governmental and social structure of the non-Soviet world. In the words of Memorandum 68 of the National Security Council in the spring of 1950, the aim of the “slave state” of the Soviet Union was to “destroy freedom”. This document went on to form the basis for US foreign policy. To avert this threat, the military power of the West was to be increased. The USA therefore expressed its wish for a rearmament of West Germany to strengthen the western defence alliance. Due to the parallels – Korea, too, was a divided country – debate over the defence of western Europe flared up again. The fact that West Germany established its own army within the framework of the western alliance just five years after the end of World War II was the most controversial aspect of the Federal Republic’s integration into the West, both within Germany itself and among its neighbours. On the basis of its experience in previous wars, France expressed serious reservations about the rebuilding of an independent German army and proposed an alternative: The integration of Germany’s army into a European force bound to the political institutions of a united Europe under the control of a European defence minister. Finally, this proposal was rejected in 1954 by the French National Assembly, mainly due to the restriction of powers over national armed forces. The need for control of German armament was taken into account by the Western European Union (WEU) created in 1954, under whose auspices the rearmament of Germany took place. Henceforth, NATO became the dominant factor in western security policy.

The Birth of People’s Democracies

In the years between 1945 and 1949, the Soviet bloc countries saw the establishment of Communist systems with a more or less democratic outer face. All states in the Eastern part of Europe, from Poland in 1947 to Hungary in 1949, became “people''s democracies”. Yugoslavia''s break with Moscow in the summer of 1948 lead the Kremlin to multiply its efforts at extending dominance over Eastern Europe. Repressive measures were first applied to the right of the political spectrum, before being extended to Social Democrats, whose parties were forcefully integrated into the Communist Party. Finally, purges were carried out within the independent national Communist parties, mostly accompanied by spectacular show trials, where those in the dock were accused of Titoism, Trotskyism or nationalism. Subsequently, the Communist Parties were oriented completely towards Moscow.

In economic terms, state control over industry was extended rapidly, partly for ideological reasons and partly to meet reparation demands on countries formerly allied with Germany, i.e. Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria. In all cases, this restructuring was carried out in the form of Soviet-style 5-year plans. The creation of a Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) laid the foundation for the establishment of separate economic blocs. This institution, founded in 1949 on a Russian initiative prompted by its rejection of the Marshall Plan, organized trade relations between the member states, as well as harmonizing their individual economic plans, resulting in mutual economic links and dependencies.

The formation of military blocs was finally cemented by the creation of the Warsaw Pact. When West Germany became a member of NATO on May 5, 1955, this provided the USSR with an opportunity to have representatives of seven Eastern European states sign a pre-prepared treaty on friendship, cooperation and mutual support, with the USSR maintaining military supreme command. The Warsaw Pact was also used by the Kremlin as an instrument of political control. When Soviet troops marched into Prague in 1968, for example, this was legitimised by the terms of the treaty, which obliged the signatories to intervene in cases where the cohesion of the Communist world came under threat.