Opera Government

The Admiralspalast, on Friedrichstrasse in the Soviet sector of Berlin, is a traditional house of light opera. One night last week there was a performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's The Czar's Bride. A few hours earlier, in the afternoon, the Communist lackeys of Russia put on a go-minute political show which might have been entitled The Rape of Berlin.

'With only the flimsiest pretense of democratic procedure, the Communists set up a "people's government" of Berlin. They repudiated the anti-Communist City Assembly, legally elected two years ago, and claimed authority over the whole city, although well aware that they would exercise it in the Soviet sector alone.

Wry Berliners called it the "opera government." General Lucius D. Clay, the U.S. commander, called it a "rump government" and refused to recognize it. The political division of Berlin into two cities, begun last June, was now complete.

White Cards. The Soviet action had been forced by circumstances. As provided by the Berlin constitution agreed on by the four powers after the war, new city elections were due to be held last Sunday. The Communists had taken a sore beating in the last elections (1946), winning only 20% of the popular vote and placing only 26 of their men on the 130-member Assembly. Now, with their prestige at its lowest ebb, they could not afford another free election. So Marshal Vasily Sokolovsky informed the Western commanders that Russia would boycott the Sunday elections; there would be no balloting in the Soviet sector.

The Russians ordered the 26 Red members of the Assembly to the Admiralspalast, and filled out the rump convention with some 3,000 hand-picked delegates from Communist-controlled trade unions, splinter parties, women's and youth's groups. Each delegate was given a white card, to make the voting look impressive when they raised their hands. The leader, proposed that the present "undemocratic, reactionary city administration be dismissed." The white cards fluttered like snow on the wind; the vote in favor was unanimous. A candidate was proposed for mayor, and again the white cards waved. A list of proposed city councilors was quickly rattled off; was everybody in favor? The white cards said yes.

"Self-Evident Suppositions." The new mayor was plump, balding Friedrich ("Fritz") Ebert, renegade son of a famed father. The elder Ebert was the first president of the Weimar Republic, a vigilant democrat who was credited with squelching the Communist uprising of 1918. Fritz, the son, opposed Hitlerism at first and spent years in a concentration camp, but finally weakened and worked under the Nazis as a publishing house director. He is now generally known as a drunkard, a weakling and a turncoat. Many Germans expect the Russians to give him the heaveho as soon as they have exploited his name.

The Communists evidently felt that the authority of the "people's government" needed bolstering. They said it was provisional; Red Mayor Ebert promised "free" elections as soon as "self-evident suppositions" could be established (doubletalk meaning "as soon as a Communist victory could be safely rigged").

Vote of Confidence. Nevertheless Britain, France and the U.S. went calmly ahead with preparations for free elections in their sectors. The Communists mounted a campaign of intimidation to prevent West Berliners from voting, or at least to cut down the size of the vote. The Red press revived its old warnings that the West would soon abandon Berlin--hinting that anyone so rash as to cast a vote would pay the penalty when Russia took over.

The West reacted by seeing to it that every Berliner entitled to vote had a chance to vote. The Socialists ran well ahead of the middle-of-the-road Christian Democrats and Liberal Democrats, as everyone had expected; but since all three parties were united in steadfast resistance to Red tyranny, the size of the total vote was the thing of greatest importance.

It was a whopping 86.2%. This huge turnout was not only a demonstration of courage, it was a vote of confidence in the West and a mandate, if any were needed, for the West to stay in Berlin.

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