Scattered Chips

When the Big Four initialed their agreement on Berlin last September, they left East and West German negotiators to solve a devilishly complicated real estate problem: What should be done about twelve scattered chips of West Berlin that are completely or partially surrounded by territory belonging to the Communist German Democratic Republic? These "exclaves" were created when Greater Berlin was established in 1920, incorporating eight towns, 59 rural districts and 27 farms. Some bits of land were separated from the city, but came under its jurisdiction anyway. When the Allies set up occupation zones in 1944, they left these outlying farms and villages under Berlin administration. Whether cut off by the Wall, a roadway or a stretch of river, the territories and the accidental exiles who occupy them have added to the cold war intrigue that has long pervaded the city.

Symbolic Gesture. The most embattled exclave has been Steinstucken, a village with 190 permanent residents living comfortably if nervously on 31 acres 1,200 yards southwest of West Berlin. Although it legally belongs to West Berlin's Zehlendorf district, part of the

American sector, the village is completely surrounded by East Germany. But for that, it might be just another pleasant suburb. Big pines and oaks line the cobblestoned streets. The tile-roofed, many-gabled single-family houses have roughcast beige exteriors, carefully tended gardens and little fences around every yard. But Steinstucken is surrounded by armament-bristling concrete towers that allow East German "Vopos" to peer into bedroom windows.

After the war. the Communists sporadically attempted to incorporate Steinstucken into their territory. In October 1951, Vopos swept into the town, cut telephone communications to West Berlin, and posted proclamations stating that Steinstucken was part of East Germany. They left four days later after the Allies vigorously protested the action. When the Berlin Wall went up in 1961, General Lucius D. Clay made a symbolic gesture designed to calm frightened West Berliners. He took a helicopter across the "death strip" to Steinstucken and evacuated 32 political refugees; a day later, he created what may be the U.S. Army's smallest permanent armed garrison operating openly on foreign soil--a post staffed by three military policemen, who live in the basement of the mayor's house and patrol Steinstucken's perimeter.

Many problems have now been worked out. The Zehlendorf fire department, for example, can go to Steinstucken, and an electrician can enter to fix the refrigerator in the town's only grocery. Previously, both were barred. Steinstuckeners refused to apply for special G.D.R. travel permits to go to their jobs and classrooms in West Berlin and they now have West Berlin identity cards with "unhindered access" stamped on them.

Ice Cellar. Life is almost as nerve-racking for the 20 inhabitants of 125-acre Eiskeller, a farm community on the northwest tip of the city. Connected to West Berlin by a one-lane, 800-meter road, Eiskeller (Ice Cellar) belongs to the Spandau district in the British sector. The shoulderless roadway is so narrow that no gas or electric lines can be installed: though it is the coldest part of the city, petroleum for both light and heat must be trucked in. Nonresidents must travel the dirt road under British escort, because Vopos lurk just off the roadway in case anybody accidentally "invades" East German territory. Ten years ago, the Vopos so harassed and frightened a young Eiskeller boy whenever he bicycled out to meet his school bus that he finally quit going to school. The British army solved the problem by escorting him back and forth along the road every day with an armed Land Rover and a weapons carrier fore and aft of his bicycle.

Most of the exclaves are scarcely worth arguing about--unoccupied meadowlands and swamps or small farms too far into East Germany to be of much practical concern to West Berlin (see map). Two exclaves on the Havel River, Erlengrund (one acre) and Fichtenwiese (nine acres), are the sites of some 150 summer houses or cottages belonging to West Berliners. Homeowners can reach their property for a few hours' outing only through a heavy steel-plated door in the Wall. They must summon a Vopo by pressing a black plastic button beside the door. Then they must cross the sandy death strip under the watchful eyes of Vopo sharpshooters and pass through yet another door in a second wall to reach their homes. A German family carrying picnic baskets through this grim gauntlet is one of the more memorable sights of post-Wall Berlin.

Isolated Field. The East Germans have their own small exclaves in West Berlin. There is, for instance, a triangular field between the Brandenburg Gate and West Berlin's Philharmonic Orchestra building that is cut off from East Berlin by the Wall. Correcting some of the problems would require the East Germans to move several sections of the Wall. Still, the secret negotiations made possible by the Big Four agreement offer hope that one day soon Eiskeller farmers will have electricity and Steinstuckeners will no longer have to spend three days acquiring permits to transport a piece of new furniture from West Berlin to their homes.

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