Foreign News: Nationalization

Berlin’s City Council (of whose five key members three are Communists) decreed the confiscation of all property owned by Nazis and “all other persons who took an active part in the propagation of Naziism, who committed vile acts against others” or made profits from the Nazi regime. Purely personal belongings were exempted; businesses, houses and lands were presumably affected. Since the Nazis had bought up, confiscated or controlled most German business and industry, this decree was equivalent to a nationalization of property. Said the Berlin radio: “The importance of the decree is likely to reach far beyond Berlin, although it applies only to Berlin at present.”

A similar feeling was broadcast by Berlin Communist Leader Walter Ulbricht. Said he: the “united front” program for a democratic, anti-fascist Germany should be adopted “from the Oder to the Ruhr, from Mecklenburg to Wiirttemberg.” This was far beyond the Russian zone. It was also something for the Potsdam parley (see INTERNATIONAL) to ponder upon.

In the Russian zone, political reorganization was speeded up. To German provincial administrations chosen a fortnight ago (TIME, July 16), Marshal Georgi Zhukov last week added carefully picked county administrations (Landratsdmter). The reason given for the Russian haste was the harvest. A winter of famine faced the Germans. Crop forecasts were 45% below normal, and even that figure might be cut by a shortage of harvest hands, sickles, binding wire. All political organizations, said the Berlin press, were helping to draft thousands of Berliners for the farms of Brandenburg.