American Sector, Berlin, Wednesday, August 4 Quite unscientific surveys show that the Berliners want a quick end, even if it means pushing through armed land convoys. Local lawyers polled have called the Air Operation “magnificent” but complain it’s “purely defensive” and a “surrender” of Western rights. Americans seem to have won the popularity context among the civilian German leaders, who find us more “sympathetisch” than the French, who are consumed by domestic politics right now, who don’t have air supply capacity, and who are seen as all too ready to abandon the city – an unfair comparison because all the Allies and the German civilian administration continue to believe the air operation is only a holding action. The scandal about one fully loaded plane bringing in good wine for the officers’ mess remains raw, even though provisioning the French garrison is in the discretion of the French themselves. Despite PM Bevin’s unwavering support of the air operation and the British delivering about 1000 tons of supplies daily and having raced the concrete runway at Gatow to completion these last few weeks, even the unfriendly and arrogant Berliners think the British are aloof and uncooperative. No love is lost there! One Briton, Harrington reports, was resentful of what the British see as the closeness between the Americans and Germans, who, he complained “fly to the Americans” who seem “prepared to agree to the most outrageous suggestions without adequate thought,” and who actually regard the Germans “as Allies.” The resent is aggravated by the British flight crews being kept to the same rations the residents of the British Isles are having to suffer, and that their rations are almost the same the Berliners get delivered to them, almost for free. For their part, the Berliners are known for their Berliner Schnauze, coarse humor and outspokenness rather like the New Yorkers from the Bronx, for their Frechtheit and mordant sense of life. A few months after the war’s end, and the occupation was established, complete with structures to suppress the black market and fraternalization, a reworking of the German national anthem, “Deutschland ueber Alles” (Germany above all else) went the rounds, according to Michael Simmons who did the translation: Deutschland, Deutschland ohne Alles Ohne Butter ohne Speck Aund das bisschen Marmalade Frisst uns die Besatzung weg. Germany, Germany ain’t got nothing Got no butter go no ham And now the occupying forces Have gone and pinched our spot of jam. It’s comical to hear the Viennese talk about Berlin, who see the city as only 80-100 years old in its current form. They’ve coined the phrase “parvenupolis” for Berlin and have their own version of the national anthem: Es gibt nur eine Kaiserstadt Es gibt nu rein Wien Es gibt nur ein Raeubernest Und das heist Berlin. There’s only one imperial city There’s only one Vienna There’s only one robbers’ den, And that’s called Berlin.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 04:41:39 +0000
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