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Blockade & Airlift. It was an uphill battle. But Reuter's position was sound in the light of subsequent events. His position today as one of the top three West Germans is the result of the clarity of his thinking and the staunchness of his principles.
In the critical days before the Russian blockade, he vowed: "We will defend ourselves with all our means against the attempt to make us slaves and helots." When the blockade was imposed, he cried: "People of Berlin! Go the straight road. Only if we are determined to run every risk can we win the life that alone is worth living—be it ever so poor—a life in freedom."
Such determination, and the determination of the Berliners that it typified and toughened, brought results. The U.S. and Britain mounted the huge and magnificent airlift effort. While the struggle raged in the air, it also crackled on the ground. In August 1948 Communist hooligans raided the City Hall, which was in the Soviet sector. As they burst in on Reuter, he waved them away: "Can't you see I've got work to do?" When the City Hall finally became untenable, Reuter led the municipal administration (minus the Communists) to Western Berlin. The split of the city into East and West was now final. In the December 1948 elections in the Western sectors, the Socialists racked up a big victory and Reuter at last became officially the Oberbürgermeister. This time there was no question of a Russian veto.
For all its privations and worries, the year of blockade was a glorious time in Berlin. The common struggle brought out the best in every man. It also brought hope to all Germans, west and east. It welded the non-German West into sufficient unity to create the Bonn government and the North Atlantic Treaty.
Grumble & Worry. The 18 months since the airlift victory have slowly tarnished Berlin's shining sense of strength and achievement. The Russians lifted the big blockade, but came back with nagging little ones. They staged nerve-racking blusters, such as last Whitsuntide's giant Red youth rally. They pushed an industrial speed-up and other possible war preparations in East Germany (see cut). Most ominous, they rapidly expanded the 50,000 men in the Bereitschaften, the tank-equipped "alert units" within East Germany's so-called police force that numbered well over 200,000.
By last week, Berlin's Western sector had five months' supply of coal on hand and a six months' supply of grain and cereals. Along the Kurfürstendamm, against the grey bomb rubble, sidewalk cafes with flower-decked tables and shops with smart new chromium & glass fronts looked valiantly hopeful. But by & large, Berlin's economy was not healthy. It still had 294,000 jobless, a whopping 600 million-mark annual budgetary deficit. West Berlin was getting little aid from the Bonn government.