Challenge: Nobody has the intention of building a wall, really nobody /No Berlin wall

oberdada

Gone Fishin'
I have been thinking for a while, if there are any possible ways of avoiding the Berlin wall, without changing the Fact that Berlin (West) was an outpost of the west surrounded by the GDR.

I have acouple of ideas, but I want to give it to the board first.

Rules: Pod after June 17th 1953
FDR and GDR have to exist.
Cold War still on (more or less)
Can not lead to a collaps of the GDR.
Western Allies keep their occupation zones in Berlin.


One option, that I consider almost ASB, but Adenauer considered it, is giving up West-Berlin for the parts of Thuringia and Saxony that the Western allies controlled before the Treaty of Potsdam. But I think this is so unlikely, and so uninteresting for a further timeline that I ruled that out.
 
The western allies thought that if the east were to build a wall, it would be *around* Berlin and not through it.

Maybe the DDR would build such a wall *around* Berlin, and require anyone not deemed politically reliable to move out. So, East Berlin becomes a Potemkin Village open only to top Party/Military bigwigs, while the regular government apparatus are relocated to a newly built city just outside. All the excess real estate in East Berlin are then rented to West Germans at low prices in Deutsche Marks, and the DDR charges zero taxes for all capitalist businesses who relocate from the west. East Berlin then becomes a de facto Special Economic Zone.

They would justify it by claiming that the capital of the DDR needs to put on its best impression against fascist infiltrators.
 

oberdada

Gone Fishin'
The western allies thought that if the east were to build a wall, it would be *around* Berlin and not through it.

Maybe the DDR would build such a wall *around* Berlin, and require anyone not deemed politically reliable to move out. So, East Berlin becomes a Potemkin Village open only to top Party/Military bigwigs, while the regular government apparatus are relocated to a newly built city just outside. All the excess real estate in East Berlin are then rented to West Germans at low prices in Deutsche Marks, and the DDR charges zero taxes for all capitalist businesses who relocate from the west. East Berlin then becomes a de facto Special Economic Zone.

They would justify it by claiming that the capital of the DDR needs to put on its best impression against fascist infiltrators.

That is one Option I had in mind, one problen is, we are talking about a little bit more than 1 Million people here that would have to be relocated.

The Special Economic Zone is an interesting idea, but I can't imagine that as early as 1961, maybe in the 80s, but still, West-berlin was already subsidiesed quiete a bit, so I don't think it would work.
The Wall around (East)Berlin would of course be longer but through easier territory.


And I can't see the GDR abandoning their Capital.
 
Millions more people were relocated just 15 years prior, so it won't be unprecedented. East Berlin will still be officially "Haupstadt der DDR", but only the politically reliable will be allowed to enter it.

Maybe, only the politically suspect will be forced to move out, and the rest of the proles will be allowed to stay as long as they keep an immediate family member outside Berlin to discourage defections. Or, anyone who visits the west without the Party Committee's permission will be fired from their state job, and ineligible for hiring. This creates less upheaval while still creating an illusion of freedom to travel. Western journalists who come to create trouble are trailed by the Stasi, and on the first pretext, asked to go back. Just a thought.
 

oberdada

Gone Fishin'
Option: More Liberal politics in the GDR

In Summer 1961, migration from Eaast to West in OTL ha d been growing for years, up to the point where the GDR would sooner or later run out of people and would economically colaps.
So if the GDR cooled down with the Ko-agriculture farms, allowing more freedom at the universities, maybe the brain drain wouldn't be so tough...
 
The problem is, a too liberal regime in the DDR will invite a Soviet reaction. A too hardline regime will cause a faster flow of refugees. So the only way for the DDR regime to survive is to prevent outmigration. That *could* be done without a concrete wall, though.
 
In Summer 1961, migration from Eaast to West in OTL ha d been growing for years, up to the point where the GDR would sooner or later run out of people and would economically colaps.
So if the GDR cooled down with the Ko-agriculture farms, allowing more freedom at the universities, maybe the brain drain wouldn't be so tough...

This, there was a reason for the Berlin Wall. If it isn't there East Germany's population collapses. The Warsaw Pact knew it was going to take a PR hit for it but decided to do so that the population of Eastern Europe doesn't all go west or at least so many that its economy is defunct.
 
Rather than basically taking everything that wasn't nailed down, the Soviets decide to actively help rebuild the DDR (but not too much that it wouldn't still be politically subservient), with the DDR itself being more internally democratic? I recognize that's a rather difficult attitude for the Soviets to have.
 

oberdada

Gone Fishin'
This, there was a reason for the Berlin Wall. If it isn't there East Germany's population collapses. The Warsaw Pact knew it was going to take a PR hit for it but decided to do so that the population of Eastern Europe doesn't all go west or at least so many that its economy is defunct.

Of course there was a reason, the question is, how could the GDR be more atractive, there were people moving from West to East as well, and people moving back East as well. The GDR will not be able to stop it altogether or even reverse then trend, but there is a lot that Pankow could do to slow it down...
 

oberdada

Gone Fishin'
Rather than basically taking everything that wasn't nailed down, the Soviets decide to actively help rebuild the DDR (but not too much that it wouldn't still be politically subservient), with the DDR itself being more internally democratic? I recognize that's a rather difficult attitude for the Soviets to have.

A little bit more internal democracy is unlikely, but not impossible, the Polish Seyn had, if I am not mistaken, also one or two smal opposition parties.

But I think a more liberal GDR is only possible if a wall is conpletely out of the question.
 
A little bit more internal democracy is unlikely, but not impossible, the Polish Seyn had, if I am not mistaken, also one or two smal opposition parties.

But I think a more liberal GDR is only possible if a wall is conpletely out of the question.


Some Eastern European countries had non-Communist parties but they were token parties that ran candidates unopposed and were controlled by the Communist Party. It looked good on paper but it was like Chevy and Cadillac basically the same party with a different labels like Chevy and Cadillac are the same company with different names..
 
Some Eastern European countries had non-Communist parties but they were token parties that ran candidates unopposed and were controlled by the Communist Party. It looked good on paper but it was like Chevy and Cadillac basically the same party with a different labels like Chevy and Cadillac are the same company with different names..

Yep, United Front parties. Even North Korea has those things.
 

oberdada

Gone Fishin'
Some Eastern European countries had non-Communist parties but they were token parties that ran candidates unopposed and were controlled by the Communist Party. It looked good on paper but it was like Chevy and Cadillac basically the same party with a different labels like Chevy and Cadillac are the same company with different names..

The GDR had those too. But I could imagine especially CDU and LDPD to have a bit more autonomy.
But that is not really what this thread is all about...
 
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