Subject: Re: Berlin enclaves & territorial exchanges
Date: Jun 03, 2002 @ 14:10
Author: lnadybal ("lnadybal" <lnadybal@...>)
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--- In BoundaryPoint@y..., "anorak222" <wolfi.junkmail@s...> wrote:
> Hi!
>
> --- In BoundaryPoint@y..., "lnadybal" <lnadybal@c...> wrote:
> > Re: The treaty says that it was ceded to the "Westsektoren
Berlins"
> >
> > It seems it should have read "ceded to the American Sector of
> > Berlin", to which it was adjacent. I don't see how it could have
> been
> > made part of all three.
>
> Of course. But I think you are more pedantic than the treaty makers.
> In all the treaties of that time, including the original four-power-
> agreement, "Westsektoren Berlins" is the standard wording for "West
> Berlin", probably carefully designed by diplomats in order to find a
> wording that both sides could live with. The wording used for "East
> Berlin" is much more complicated, because there was even more
> dissense if it was even subject of the treaties, and how to call it.
> But that's a different subject.
>
> So they used "Westsektoren Berlins" all the time, even if the
> resulting sentence made no sense on closer look.
>
> > Clearly the intent of the treaty
> > was to cause any Russian occupation rights in Steinstuecken to
> cease -
> > because the Russians had certain residual rights in the Western
> > sectors even after they pulled out of the Kommandatura or the
> > Kontrolrat (were they the same thing?).
>
> No. Kommandatura = supreme Allied authority for Berlin. Kontrollrat
=
> supreme Allied authority for Germany.
>
> On the contrary, until 1990
the
> Western Allies insisted on Four Power control of all Berlin,
> including the Soviets, and (well, symbolically - they didn't expect
a
> yes) invited the Soviets to rejoin the Kommandantura. In the
> meantime, they granted the Soviets rights as a consequence of their
> participation, e.g. military patrols access to West Berlin (presence
> the memorial in Tiergarten included, but also regular jeep patrols),
> which the Soviets used, and Western patrols in East Berlin, which
the
> Soviets granted.
>
> A self contradictory position on the Soviet side, because partly
they
> contested the fact that a common occupation of the city still
> existed, partly they used their rights which grew out of it. But
that
> was how it was.
>
> > Thus, Steinstuecken became a
> > little area among the west sectors that had a slightly different
> > occupation regime in existence, than the rest of the western areas
> > had.
>
> I don't think so.
>
> > Re: Facts: In 1945 Germany was carved into 4 occupation zones, and
> > Berlin as a "5th zone" to be occupied jointly.
> >
> > I have a German post-war map showing a two-part Polish sector.
>
> Huh? Unless you speak of Schlesien/Pommern/Ostpreußen, which were
> ceded to Poland and Russia, I don't know what you're talking about.
I
> have a map from the 12 Sept. 1944 London conference UK/USA/USSR,
> which already shows the occupation zones as they later came to be,
> including all of Berlin as an enclave in the Soviet zone. The only
> detail this map omits is the annexation of Eastern Germany to
> Poland/Russia, since that was decided at a later conference (Yalta).
> No Polish zone west of Oder/Neiße border was ever contemplated, to
> the best of my knowledge.
>
> > You can't
> > say really, that Berlin is in the mix as a "5th Zone", even with
""
> > around it. The zones in Berlin were never occupied "jointly" and
> > unlike the Bizone (Vereinigte Wirtschaftsgebiet) in the West,
there
> > was no "unification of zones" in Berlin.
>
> Oh yes, quite! That is the point! The sectors of Berlin were not
> meant to be governed separately from each other like four
independent
> cities. Instead, Berlin was meant to be kept as one, with a city
> government under a joint administration of all four Allies (the
> Kommandantura). Also ist was meant to be separate from the other
> occupation zones. All of this follows from the London conference of
> 1944.
>
>
> > Re: West (Western Allies, West Berlin city govt. and FRG govt.):
> > Berlin is not part of either German state, but still an occupied
> > territory under Allied control.
> >
> > But, was it not a part of "Germany the nation" that was defeated
> that
> > remained under occupation?
>
> Well, "Germany the nation" is not a judicial entity. There was no
> state identical to its territory at that time.
>
> [Berlin in FRG]
>
> > That the Allies
> > "suspended" the passage meant only that they were saying to the
> Bonn
> > government - lay claim to whatever you want as a sovereign - we're
> in
> > charge here right now".
>
> Yes. And since they legally were, they had every right to say so.
>
> > Re: No such suspension happened towards the GDR constitution
> (guess
> > it was pretty much ignored).
> >
> > You mean you don't think the Russians told the East Germans their
> > constitution didn't apply in E. Berlin or did you mean that the
> Allies
> > didn't suspend the DDR constitution for the area of East Berlin
(or
> > West Berlin or both?).
>
> The first: Neither the Russians nor the Western Allies told East
> Germany that their constitution didn't apply to Berlin. But that
> doesn't mean they agreed to it.
>
> Of course their suspension of the Western constitution applied to
all
> of Berlin.
>
> > The Russians wanted to assert that the west
> > had the DDR to deal with as a sovereign,
>
> I think so.
>
> >and the DDR constitution, did
> > it ever assert sovereign rights of the East German Republic over
> the
> > West sectors (or Gross Berlin)?
>
> The constitution doesn't make that clear, it just says "Berlin". But
> from East German publications/propaganda of the 1950s it becomes
> clear that they originally meant all of Berlin which they claimed as
> territory and capital. For example, they said "the Western parts of
> our capital" when referring to West Berlin(!). So at that point in
> time the position were rather symmetrical, since the West laid
> formally claim on East Berlin too.
>
> Later the East German position pedalled back gradually. Since the
> 1960s they laid claim to East Berlin only, and treated West Berlin
as
> foreign territory. Since then the positions became asymmetrical,
> because there was no change in the West German position.
>
> > I don't think the DDR ever asserted that the western Allies were
> > occupying the territory of the DDR, did it?
>
> Yes they did, in the 1950s.
>
> > W. Berlin was a "special
> > entity" to the DDR government - the maps they published showed the
> > west sectors often as a vast empty space, not a piece of their
> country
> > with the roads, buildings, etc., overprinted with the words "DDR
> > territory under occupation".
>
> That's the later position after they pedalled back.
>
> > Re: ...also East Berlin is not part of the GDR, much less her
> > capital.
> >
> > But, if the Russians could do in their sector what they wanted
> > (Russia was sovereign over it's zone) it could have allowed the
> East
> > Germans to establish a "regierungsitz".
>
> Well according to the Western position, Berlin was to be controlled
> jointly. Therefore a unilateral act was impossible, including a
> separation of one sector out of the common Berlin territory.
>
> >In effect, such a situation
> > would have made the DDR a country whose capital was not in it.
>
> That is precisely the Western position. State visits of West German
> government members therefore never took place in East Berlin (go
> through the chronicles, you won't find a single one), because the
> West wouldn't agree to it. Embassies of NATO members in East Berlin
> (which they held nonetheless), were named "Botschaft _bei_ der DDR"
> (Embassy _with_ the GDR) instead of "_in_ der DDR". The subtleties
of
> diplomatic language.
>
>
> > This
> > is akin to Washington D.C. not being in the united states (written
> > small). The united states are 50 in number and the "District" of
> > Columbia is not in them. Go figure! I leave the "united states"
> > every day when I go to work.
>
> It's not quite the same. DC isn't a "state" of the USA, its internal
> status is different. But it's undisputed that DC is territory under
> sovereign control of the USA.
>
> > How could what the sovereign did in the case of Berlin be
"illegal"?
> > The Russians became the sovereign over E. Berlin by right of
> conquest
> > - their sovereignty was absolute (notwithstanding that it was
> supposed
> > to have been shared with the Allies in more ways than it was at
the
> > end).
>
> The sharing, to which they agreed by signing the London treaty, is
> the point.
>
> OK ... anyone still reading? :)
>
> Regards
>
> wolfgang