Just how rapidly artistic and cultural life revived in Berlin can be demonstrated in the remarkable figure of some 120 premières being hosted in the city between July and December 1945. By early 1946, there were approximately 200 stages and halls available in the city for artistic performances. However, the co-operation of the Allied occupation forces was doomed to failure as long buried ideological differences came to the fore. Over the next two years, the various cultural instruments created by the four occupying powers began to mirror the increasing divide between east and west.
Chapter Fourteen
Hearts and Minds
The Allied sponsored cultural revival in Berlin was but one element in winning the battle for hearts and minds. Whilst the Western powers aimed to replace Hitler’s dictatorship with freedom of expression within a democratic multi-party system, Stalin had other ideas. His decision to send the German Communists back to Berlin represented his own attempt to win over the hearts and minds of the German people by creating a national party of the workers that would also appeal to the intelligentsia. His ultimate goal was to complete the revolution of 1848 by eliminating feudalism in a united Germany. The revolution would be subject to political control from Moscow. To this end, the so-called ‘Moscow emigrates’ were the perfect conduits for his planned social remodelling.
The group chosen for the mission was led by Walter Ulbricht. All were dedicated Communists and totally loyal to their masters in Moscow. By and large, Stalin and Beria regarded the group as no more than ‘useful idiots’. Nonetheless, Ulbricht and his group had something to prove as they had been subject to withering attacks regarding the German Communist Party’s lack of opposition to Hitler. The main task of the group was to support the Soviet occupation authorities and to convince the people that Stalin was their liberator, not their enemy. Little did the group know at this time of the terrible suffering of the civil population at the hands of their ‘liberators’. Their illusions would soon be shattered.
On 27 May 1945, the group arrived in the devastated city. Such was the level of destruction that greeted them, that their task appeared at first to be utterly futile. Markus Wolf (later head of intelligence) was a member of the group. Given the pseudonym ‘Michael Storm’, he worked as a journalist and propagandist for a Soviet controlled radio station. The topics of rape, the fate of German prisoners of war in the East and the future boundary lines with Poland were never to be broadcast. As these were all topics which were of intense interest to the German population he was able to quickly glean from numerous sources the full picture of what the early stages of the Soviet occupation had meant. In his diary he wrote:
Our frontoviki have wrought havoc. All women raped. Berliners have no more watches… Then came the experience, the reality, and as a result the absolute majority of Germans, especially those east of the Elbe, were very, very anti-Soviet.
Wolf’s reflections accurately characterise the prevailing mood amongst the population. Yet, none of this mattered to Ulbricht, his immediate superior. This charmless, ambitious and unscrupulous individual was totally guided by his loyalty to Stalin and Soviet policy.
The goals of the German Communist Party had been laid out as, ‘The establishment of an anti-fascist, democratic republic with all democratic rights and freedoms for the people’. However, Ulbricht’s vision was somewhat different. His plans for the new Germany were based around authoritarian leadership and strict controls over all elements of civil society. Nonetheless, he understood the requirement for a democratic façade, stating that, ‘It must appear democratic, but we must control everything’. Ulbricht went on to create the foundations for a virtual dictatorship by pressurising the Social Democrats to merge with the Communists (on his terms) which subsequently led to the creation of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. Ulbricht’s dictatorship marked the beginning of a new era in German politics. A line had been drawn under the National Socialist era. With the establishment of incompatible systems of government in those areas of Germany controlled by the democratic powers in the West and the Soviet Union in the East, a new era had begun.
Chapter Fifteen
The Balance Destroyed
To the general public in America and Great Britain, Stalin was known by the affectionate title of ‘Uncle Joe’. This appellation gave the impression that the Soviet leader was a genial, benevolent figure whose life and work was devoted to serving the interests of his people. In reality, nothing could have been further from the truth, as behind his somewhat unremarkable and benign appearance lay almost unfathomable levels of viciousness and jealousy which arose from his love of power. Wearied to near exhaustion by the demands of war, Stalin was nonetheless determined to rebuild his shattered state. Therefore, the last thing he wanted was another war. The engine of history would take care of the capitalist nations in due course.
Stalin firmly believed that time was on his side, as the greedy and rapacious Americans and British would enter into conflict with each other as they sought to dominate world trade. All he had to do was sit back and wait for the inevitable clash which would result in the destruction, or the fatal weakening of these rival powers, then, and only then would a rejuvenated Soviet state step in to claim the spoils. His thinking was clearly influenced by Marxist-Leninist ideology which argued that capitalist states could only cooperate for a limited period as their self interests would inevitably come to the fore sooner or later. Stalin remained stubbornly wedded to the dialectics of Marxist-Leninist ideology. His assertions regarding the inevitability of a clash between competing capitalist states were published in Pravda:
Some comrades affirm that in consequence of the development of international conditions after the Second World War, wars among capitalist countries have ceased to be inevitable… These comrades are mistaken. They see the external appearances which glitter on the surface but they fail to see those profound forces which, though at present operating imperceptibly, will nevertheless determine the course of events… It is said that the contradictions between capitalism and socialism are greater than the contradictions between the capitalist countries. Theoretically this is of course true. It is true not only now, at the present time, but it was also true before the Second World War. And this the leaders of the capitalist countries did more or less understand. Yet the Second World War began not with a war against the USSR, but with a war among the capitalist countries.
After the First World War it was believed that Germany had been finally put out of action… Yet in spite of this Germany revived and rose to her feet as a great power… It is typical in this regard that none other than Britain and the USA should have helped Germany to revive economically and to raise her economic war potential. Of course, through helping Germany to revive, they intended to direct her against the USSR. However, Germany directed her forces in the first place against the Anglo-French-American bloc. When Hitler attacked the USSR, The Anglo-French-American bloc not only failed to join with Hitler, but, on the contrary, were obliged to enter into a coalition with the USSR. Consequently, the capitalist countries struggle for markets and their desire to crush their competitors turned out to be actually stronger than the contradictions between the camp of capitalism and the camp of socialism… It follows that the inevitability of wars amongst the capitalist countries remains.