If Adenauer's 1962 proposal for Berlin is enacted...

Adenauer proposed a swap of West Berlin for return of (West) German territory to the Line of Control from May 1945, possibly with an ultimate peace treaty as well. This was pondered by both sides though ultimately not enacted. If somehow it comes to pass, does it really deflate Cold War tensions and what might Europe look like today?

Map of approximate territorial shifts with Berlin going wholly Communist:
 

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Adenauer proposed a swap of West Berlin for return of (West) German territory to the Line of Control from May 1945, possibly with an ultimate peace treaty as well. This was pondered by both sides though ultimately not enacted. If somehow it comes to pass, does it really deflate Cold War tensions and what might Europe look like today?

Map of approximate territorial shifts with Berlin going wholly Communist:
Interesting… though is all of Berlin really THAT valuable that the Soviets would consider allowing NATO be that many miles closer? And how does the DDR gain from losing all that industrial land in southwest Saxony?
 
Sounds like a bad deal for East Germany, but how they felt about it would mean nothing to the Soviets. I would think history continues as OTL, but with West Germany's economy stronger and the East's somewhat weaker. Less East German defectors make it to the west.

Berlin was governed by the four power agreement, I imagine it would be difficult for all sides to reach a deal that everyone would be happy with. The US wouldn't want to give up their foothold in the East.
 
It's rather peculiar: the residents of the southwest DDR will be liberated from Communism, but the residents of West Berlin get handed over to Communism.

In any case, I can't think of any cases in the modern era of a nation voluntarily giving up a large part of its sovereign territory and population.
 
It's rather peculiar: the residents of the southwest DDR will be liberated from Communism, but the residents of West Berlin get handed over to Communism.

In any case, I can't think of any cases in the modern era of a nation voluntarily giving up a large part of its sovereign territory and population.
Let people move by a deadline? There were precedents for letting Protestants/Catholics move to states where the Prince shared their religion back during the wars religion in Germany. You can dredge those up.
 
Any chance that either the US or the Soviet Union would have gone along with this?

My own opinion:

(1) The US, just possibly, though JFK would have to brave GOP charges that having sold out the Cubans at the Bay of Pigs he was now selling out the people of West Berlin.

(2) The USSR--No.

I just don't see the Soviets swapping important industrial areas of the GDR--and easing the Fulda Gap military threat to the West--- for a West Berlin that will probably be largely depopulated as its residents flee to the Federal Republic. Moreover, the very fact that the West was making such an offer would be seen as a sign it recognized West Berlin was indefensible--so the Soviets would feel they would eventually get it anyway. Even if they couldn't, it was useful to keep West Berlin around as a hostage.
 
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Probably if the deal go through they will swap a lot less of the territory envisioned, probaly only Thurigia and little more, still for both side is a mean to ease the tension and avoid future incidents, especially if a final peace treaty is signed
 
Let people move by a deadline? There were precedents for letting Protestants/Catholics move to states where the Prince shared their religion back during the wars religion in Germany. You can dredge those up.
So the USSR is supposed to give up imporant industrial areas of the GDR, ease the threat against the West on the Fulda Gap, and end the possibility of using West Berlin as a hostage in future crises [1] in order to get--some nice empty buildings in a depopulated West Berlin?

[1] "Berlin is the testicles of the West. Every time I want to make the West scream, I squeeze on Berlin."--Nikita Khrushchev https://books.google.com/books?id=AHsGJxAJTU0C&pg=PA134
 
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Did the East German leadership not go along with the Oder-Neisse line?
Officially they recognized Oder-Neisse in 1950. Obviously they were not happy about this, but had nothing to say. Still, there were hopes among East German rulling circles, that border may be revised (if, say, Poland rebels against USSR and East Germans helps Soviets to put down rebellion and are rewarded with lands east of Oder-Neisse).
 
Did the East German leadership not go along with the Oder-Neisse line?

Of course the East German leadership would have to go along with what the Soviet Union decided, but anything that weakened the GDR vis-a-vis the "imperialist" West--as this deal certainly would on balance--would be bad for the USSR as well as the GDR. Their interests here were identical. OTOH, the Oder-Neisse line did not harm the USSR in any way--if it weakened the GDR it was in favor of the USSR and the Polish People's Republic...
 

Capbeetle61

Banned
Of course the East German leadership would have to go along with what the Soviet Union decided, but anything that weakened the GDR vis-a-vis the "imperialist" West--as this deal certainly would on balance--would be bad for the USSR as well as the GDR. Their interests here were identical. OTOH, the Oder-Neisse line did not harm the USSR in any way--if it weakened the GDR it was in favor of the USSR and the Polish People's Republic...
Wasn't East Germany largely deindustrialized from mass Soviet looting post-WWII, though? As for the Fulda Gap against the West, didn't the Czechoslovakian border remain unaltered by this proposal?
Officially they recognized Oder-Neisse in 1950. Obviously they were not happy about this, but had nothing to say. Still, there were hopes among East German rulling circles, that border may be revised (if, say, Poland rebels against USSR and East Germans helps Soviets to put down rebellion and are rewarded with lands east of Oder-Neisse).
And I suppose that they somehow expected the expellees in the West to move back?
 
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Wasn't East Germany largely deindustrialized from mass Soviet looting post-WWII, though? As for the Fulda Gap against the West, didn't the Czechoslovakian border remain unaltered by this proposal?

By 1962 it was a heavy industrial powerhouse, especially in the areas proposed to be handed to the West. As @David T says this proposal is very unbalanced, especially as West Berlin will be 90% depopulated.
The only way this deal could work is the area to be transferred to the West is seriously reduced and the West agrees to prevent West Berliners fleeing. Adenauer wouldn't be able to agree of course but the Soviets would love to see the political chaos that would come from the West forcibly handing people over. But more seriously in the absence of serious changes prior to 1962 the "acceptable terms" Venn diagram doesn't cross over so it's not going to happen.
 

Capbeetle61

Banned
By 1962 it was a heavy industrial powerhouse, especially in the areas proposed to be handed to the West. As @David T says this proposal is very unbalanced, especially as West Berlin will be 90% depopulated.
The only way this deal could work is the area to be transferred to the West is seriously reduced and the West agrees to prevent West Berliners fleeing. Adenauer wouldn't be able to agree of course but the Soviets would love to see the political chaos that would come from the West forcibly handing people over. But more seriously in the absence of serious changes prior to 1962 the "acceptable terms" Venn diagram doesn't cross over so it's not going to happen.
Many West Berliners would have certainly fled, but estimating depopulation rates to be up to 90% is absurd. Even the Soviet advance across Germany during 1944-1945 didn't produce that many refugees. East Germany still did have a lot of heavy industry remaining in 1962, but arguably, it was a shadow of its former powerhouse self.
 
East Germany still did have a lot of heavy industry remaining in 1962, but arguably, it was a shadow of its former powerhouse self.
You are quite mistaken. East Germany (I mean the territory of the DDR, without the territories lost to poland) had an extremly notable lack of heavy industry before the war, with its industrial economic sector being disproportionally dominated by light industries (mostly textile and food).

Of that little, most was lost until 1949 for reparations. It was in the 50s that a concsious effort was made to re-industrialize east germany, with a clear focus on the formerly lacking heavy industry. In the 50s, this was mostly metal industry in the widest sense (steel, coal, machine parts), in the 60s joined by petrochemie. This was, at least from the POV of "heavy industry good" successful, and the entire industrial sector, especially in heavy application, was much more developed and valuable in 1962 then at any time before.
 
East Germany in the early 1960s had already failed to keep up with the booming west, but it still had a relatively strong and developed industrial sector by world standards. Of particular note, East Germany was highly developed in the context of the Soviet bloc; even Czechoslovakia lagged somewhat behind the DDR.

Going to the POD in question, I think it very unlikely that the Soviets would see any benefit to this deal. Not only does the Soviet Union lose the pressure point of West Berlin and West Germany become more defensible, but it destabilizes East Germany and for what? If depopulation is a concern, then East Germany following the loss of Thuringia (and more?) and the depopulation of West Berlin will be even worse off than OTL.
 
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Capbeetle61

Banned
You are quite mistaken. East Germany (I mean the territory of the DDR, without the territories lost to poland) had an extremly notable lack of heavy industry before the war, with its industrial economic sector being disproportionally dominated by light industries (mostly textile and food).

Of that little, most was lost until 1949 for reparations. It was in the 50s that a concsious effort was made to re-industrialize east germany, with a clear focus on the formerly lacking heavy industry. In the 50s, this was mostly metal industry in the widest sense (steel, coal, machine parts), in the 60s joined by petrochemie. This was, at least from the POV of "heavy industry good" successful, and the entire industrial sector, especially in heavy application, was much more developed and valuable in 1962 then at any time before.
Saxony, Thuringia, Anhalt and Berlin were major centres of heavy industry under the Third Reich. The majority of those armaments was shipped off to the Soviet Union after WWII. Heavy re-industrialization efforts e.g. metal and petrochemicals harmed the development and value of the East German economy more in the 50s and 60s than any conscious benefits that it produced.

As this map below clearly shows:
 
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