Thande
Donor
All right, as it's the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, here's a thought for you: what if Berlin was never divided in the first place?
Say instead at Yalta that the Soviets get all of Berlin (and Vienna) with no four-power commissions, and to compensate the Soviet occupation zones of Germany and Austria proper are a bit smaller. Perhaps the Soviets might leave Germany with a bit of Silesia and Pomerania at the expense of Poland just to ensure the eventual East German state is big enough to be feasible.
Anyway: no divided Berlin, which means no Berlin Wall, no Berlin Airlift and no "Ich bin ein Berliner" for a start.
How will the Cold War go differently?
Will Austria still be reunited and neutralised?
Without the Berlin Airlift, will the Cold War ice over so quickly?
Will there be fewer dangerous near misses due to no tank confrontations across Berlin?
What would East German culture be like with united Berlin as its capital?
Would West Germany still choose Bonn with the signal that they see Berlin as the capital of an eventually reunited Germany, or would they plump for a realistic capital like Frankfurt?
Discuss.
Say instead at Yalta that the Soviets get all of Berlin (and Vienna) with no four-power commissions, and to compensate the Soviet occupation zones of Germany and Austria proper are a bit smaller. Perhaps the Soviets might leave Germany with a bit of Silesia and Pomerania at the expense of Poland just to ensure the eventual East German state is big enough to be feasible.
Anyway: no divided Berlin, which means no Berlin Wall, no Berlin Airlift and no "Ich bin ein Berliner" for a start.
How will the Cold War go differently?
Will Austria still be reunited and neutralised?
Without the Berlin Airlift, will the Cold War ice over so quickly?
Will there be fewer dangerous near misses due to no tank confrontations across Berlin?
What would East German culture be like with united Berlin as its capital?
Would West Germany still choose Bonn with the signal that they see Berlin as the capital of an eventually reunited Germany, or would they plump for a realistic capital like Frankfurt?
Discuss.