As winter approached, coal thefts rose dramatically. Until conditions in the city improved markedly, the needy, the desperate, the opportunists and the unscrupulous would continue their illegal activities.
Chapter Twelve
Corruption in Low Places
Black market trading and prostitution proliferated across Berlin. To some extent, the American and Soviet occupying forces were responsible for the growth of the black market as they had allowed barter-shops to operate freely. This growing trade went some way to satisfying not just the needs of the population, but the occupying troops themselves. For the average soldier serving with the occupying forces, Berlin was an opportunity not to be missed. Like many others, American G.I. Peter Wyden profited from the burgeoning black market. However, unlike many of his colleagues working on a German language newspaper for the military administration, he felt uneasy about exploiting others for profit:
My worst discomfort was ethical. I didn’t like what the occupation was doing to me and my colleagues. We were becoming corrupted and we were liking it. Quite a few were becoming rich – I mean truly wealthy. I knew no one who wasn’t trading in the black market. American PX cigarettes (rationed but generously so) were the preferred medium of exchange. A few smokes paid for anything, including women, some of them respectable. Prices were quoted as on a stock exchange for our full inventory: GI shirts and socks, even Zagnut candy bars issued by the PX, although they seemed to consist of bone glue. Army friends stationed outside Berlin were jealous of us because they couldn’t share the action. They sent us merchandise for sale on a commission basis. Anything went for preposterous prices in Berlin; among the items delivered to my office for immediate clearance were a set of used dentures and an aerial camera freshly dismounted from a Luftwaffe bomber.
Wyden was a small time player on the black market scene. Like many others, he simply wanted to get something out of a posting he had never asked for in the first place. Like many others, he was able to rationalise what he was doing, and by doing so set any qualms he had aside.
For some of those posted to Berlin, the black market was an opportunity to experience the thrill of illicit trading. In his unpublished memoir, R.A.F. radio operator John (Jack) Hanwell recounted his own experience of the Berlin black market:
At one end of the Kurfurstendamm was Berlin’s main black market area. A pack of cigarettes or a tin of corned beef could easily be bartered for jewellery and other valuables. By the early evening it was heaving with people… Through the black market, I obtained a Walther pistol with six or seven rounds in the magazine, some opal earrings with a matching necklace, a couple of Leica cameras and some porcelain crockery…
The experience of this young wireless operator is fairly typical. As such, he cannot be compared to the legendary (and probably mythical) Lance Corporal who was said to have been the proud owner of whole apartment blocks in the eastern part of the city. Whilst there were undoubtedly some very dubious activities going on, most trading on the black market was innocent enough. Soldiers are known for their love of souvenirs. There was a particularly brisk trade in wrist-watches between American and Soviet troops. Colonel Frank Howley (American sector commandant) later explained the background to this trade:
On the Russian G.I’s level, the immediate goal was a watch. Russians love watches for a number of reasons. They have always been associated in the Muscovite mind with affluence and an established, even exalted, position in life. Peasants never owned watches! A wrist-watch – well! Watches soon became a universal commodity because troops had no confidence in the Russian currency. Also, a soldier could send a watch home and his wife could barter it for a cow. Even our G.I’s realised the fortune, in Russian eyes, represented by a watch and started to sell their own watches, converting the money into American dollars, although the men were forbidden to enter these markets… A Mickey Mouse watch was worth more than a jewel-studded trinket from Cartier.
Such was the extent of trade with the Soviet occupying troops, that the authorities tended to turn a blind eye. Although, there were occasional high profile raids on established black market areas in the Tiergarten, Alexander-Platz, Potsdamer-Platz, Friedrichstrasse and the Kurfurstendamm.
In October 1945, the ban on fraternisation with the German population in Berlin was lifted. Predictably, there was an explosion in prostitution with approximately 500,000 women working the streets and clubs by the end of the year. Considering that many of the occupations available to women in the immediate post-war period involved the fetishisation of their bodies in the seedy clubs which proliferated, it is not surprising that many took the next logical step by turning to prostitution. Some dressed their activities in an aura of romance as they secretly hoped that they would be whisked away by an American or British soldier who wanted to marry them. One married British Private later recalled his feelings over an affair with an eighteen year old German girclass="underline"
I felt a bit sick at times about the power I had over that girl. If I gave her a three-penny bar of chocolate she nearly went crazy. She was just like my slave. She darned my socks and mended my things. There was no question of marriage. She knew that it was not possible.
The comments by the married Private accurately reflect the moral double-standards of the time. This eighteen year old girl was good enough for sex, but quite unsuitable for marriage. Some Germans lamented the apparent collapse in traditional moral standards. In Hitler’s Germany, a woman’s place was determined by the so-called three K’s (Kinder, Kuche and Kirche), which translated to children, home and church. One German police official stated:
It is impossible to distinguish between good girls and bad girls in Germany. Even nice girls of good families, good education and fine background have discovered their bodies afford the only real living. Moral standards have crashed to a new low level. At the present rate, in two months time I wonder if there will be a decent moral woman left.
The police officials comments display a staggering lack of understanding for the reasons why so many women prostituted themselves. Terms such as ‘good’, ‘bad’ and ‘nice’ ceased to mean anything as so many women from all strata of society could be bought cheaply. In this new world, an impoverished Baroness might struggle to find work as a waitress in a seedy club. Traditional social roles became blurred as nearly all women faced the same struggle for survival.
Wives longed for their husbands to return. However, when their menfolk finally returned from captivity, they could not comprehend what their partners had endured. They had no inkling of the initial explosion of sexual violence. Nor could they understand the desperate shortages of everyday necessities which had forced their loved ones into finding protection and sustenance in the arms of a Soviet officer or soldier. How could they have demeaned themselves in this way? Therefore, for many, there was no joyful reunion, but blame, accusation, recrimination, and ultimately, separation. When we think of the end of the war in Europe, we tend to picture the joyous scenes in Trafalgar Square or the ecstatic crowds thronging Times Square in New York. Such scenes befitted the hard fought for victory won by the Allies. In Berlin, the very different scenes witnessed by chroniclers of events characterised the trauma and degradation of defeat.