Captive East Germany

Report Outline
Concern Over the Situation in Berlin
Red Rule of East Germany Since War
Economic Troubles of the Red Republic
Soviet Russia's Goals in East Germany

Concern Over the Situation in Berlin

Berlin has become a partitioned city. Closing of the border between its eastern and western sectors has not only barred the route over which every day hundreds of East Germans were fleeing to the West. It has also broken virtually the last remaining contacts between East Germans and West Germans, East Berliners no longer can rely on the protection of postwar agreements that were intended to give Greater Berlin a four-power status and to assure its people full freedom of communication. East Berlin, whose district of Pankow was already the seat of government of the so-called German Democratic Republic, has been made in effect an integral part of East Germany. And East Germany now must be considered no less a captive nation than other Soviet satellite countries.

Choking Off of Refugee Flow from the East

Secretary of State Dean Rusk declared a few hours after the sector borders had been sealed on Aug. 13 that “Limitation on travel within Berlin is a violation of the four-power status of Berlin and a flagrant violation of the right of free circulation throughout the city.” Observing that the action had “doubtless been prompted by the increased flow of refugees in recent weeks,” Rusk said:

Having denied the collective right of self-determination to the peoples of East Germany, Communist authorities are now denying the right of individuals to elect a world of free choice rather than a world of coercion. The pretense that communism desires only peaceful competition is exposed; the refugees, more than half of whom are less than 25 years of age, have “voted with their feet” on whether communism is the wave of the future.