The Price of Recognition

On the eve of winning the international recognition they have sought for 23 years, the East Germans were acting with peculiar furtiveness about their diplomatic coup. Last week West Germany's foreign policy troubleshooter Egon Bahr, newly named Minister for Special Tasks, arrived in East Berlin to sign the basic treaty providing for formal diplomatic relations between the two states. He was whisked by fast car from Schoenefeld Airport to the Council of Ministers building for a hasty signing ceremony with East German State Secretary Michael Kohl. The event was carried live on West German television but not on Eastern broadcasts. Nervous party bosses forbade East Berliners to gather in the streets, apparently fearing politically embarrassing demonstrations of solidarity with West Germany.

Although the East German government was not trumpeting the good news to its citizens, the treaty opens the way for international acceptance of the German Democratic Republic, long a pariah state acknowledged only by the Communist and Arab blocs and scattered sympathizers. In the 43 days before the treaty was signed, 15 countries, led by Pakistan, accorded recognition to East Berlin. Last week they were joined by Greece and Cyprus--bringing the total of nations that recognize East Germany to 49. Denmark, Canada and Australia are expected to follow suit. France, Britain and the U.S. will probably exchange ambassadors with East Berlin before the two Germanys enter the United Nations next fall, though as occupying powers in Berlin they do not accept East Berlin as part of East Germany, and will demand a separate provision to that effect.

East Germany's new status presents the international community with a number of major legal conundrums. The two Germanys have been trading freely with each other, a practice that gives East Germany the benefit of Common Market membership and saves it more than $125 million a year in customs duties. But according to the Treaty of Rome, members of the European Economic Community cannot make bilateral agreements with other European countries. Lawmakers at EEC headquarters in Brussels were told by their governments to find some solution, but have not yet produced one.

A second juridical problem turns on the question of whether East Germany is a successor state to the Nazi Reich. The treaty accepts the presence of two separate nations on German soil, implying that there are now two such successor states. That in turn provides a legal base for claims against East Germany for war damage and confiscation by the Nazis as well as by the Communists.

Until now, West Germany has claimed that it is the only true German state and has paid out a total of 40.4 billion marks in war-related claims (the equivalent of $12.6 billion at the current rate of exchange for the mark, which has fluctuated between 23-c- and 31-c- since the payments began). Those payments included 3.45 billion marks to Israel. East Germany argues that it is not a successor state to the Reich but a new one, and disclaims any responsibility for damage done by the Nazis. That argument is undermined by the fact that the regime paid 64.4 billion marks in war reparations to the Soviet Union, and 100 million marks to Yugoslavs used as forced labor by the Nazis.

Most Western countries gave up claims against Bonn for war reparations in 1953, when they signed in London an agreement postponing the matter until there was a final peace settlement with Germany--meaning indefinitely. Finland, which did not sign the agreement, is now asking both Germanys for an unspecified sum to cover damage done in Lapland by the retreating Wehrmacht in World War II. East Germany has offered to negotiate with the Finns, but the Bonn regime has replied that it is bound by the 1953 agreement.

There are other claims to provide work for the diplomats who will soon be arriving in East Berlin. The Swiss are demanding more than $25 million for property and capital confiscated by the Nazis. Holland is anxious to talk about payment for a Royal Dutch Shell refinery nationalized by the Communists, as well as several factories owned by Unilever until 1945. One country that will probably not demand compensation from East Germany is Israel; to do so would only invite a public refusal.

Such claims are unlikely to delay recognition of East Germany, although envoys assigned there might wish otherwise. East Berlin does not have enough apartments or offices to accommodate a pride of diplomats, and all hotel rooms are booked up. The government is building a dozen four-story houses in the diplomatic quarter, apparently allotting them by date of recognition. Other apartments are also being built, but they will not be completed until 1974. The U.S., Britain and France all theoretically own property in East Berlin, on the sites of their prewar embassies. The U.S. is not likely to get its property back; it is located next to the Wall.

A more pressing problem for East Germany is finding diplomats to send abroad. Isolated for decades, the country lacks trained emissaries, a shortage that might be compounded by defections. Any East German has a claim to West German citizenship. Once clear of the Berlin Wall, he would need only to walk into a West German embassy and pick up a passport. The East German regime has gone to such lengths to keep its people at home that this possibility can only make it more nervous about the impact of recognition.

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