GERMANY: Fourth Reich

The outlines of a Fourth Reich emerged in Russian-occupied Germany last week. The Russians announced that they had organized a complete German government for their zone.

The new German Premier: Marshal Georgi Zhukov. His deputy prime minister: one Leo Skrzypczinsky, described as a former German factory owner who spent four years in a concentration camp. A political unknown, without party affiliation, Skrzypczinsky was recommended by the Communists. Under Premier Marshal Zhukov were twelve ministries (one for each division of the Soviet Military Government), each headed by a Red Army officer. Under each Red Army officer was a German state secretary (selected from lists submitted by the four “antifascist” parties). As state secretaries, the Russians picked five Communists, three Social Democrats, two Christian Democrats, one Liberal Democrat, one nonparty member.

Among the Germans: Paul Wandel, editor of Berlin’s Communist newspaper Deutsche Volkszeitung; Willi Schroeder, onetime Communist deputy in the Mecklenburg provincial government, Edwin Hörnle, oldtime Communist leader and Reichstag deputy; Eugene Schiffer, 85, Liberal Democrat and once Reich Finance and Justice Minister; Dr. Wilhelm Fitzner, Social Democrat, a lawyer who had served a three-year term in a concentration camp; Dr. Ferdinand Friedensburg, 58, Christian Democrat, former Berlin police official and ex-head of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute; Helmut Lehmann, Social Democrat, freed from a concentration camp by the Russians last April.

To those who cannot imagine a revolution without barricades, what had taken place in Russian-occupied Germany was rather puzzling. But one fact was inescapable: about a third of Germany was now under a Communist-controlled government.

Next: an All-Germany Government. To the Allied Control Council the Russians also informally suggested names for an all-Germany civilian administration. But U.S. and British occupation authorities were still struggling to find German industrial, business and professional leaders for zonal posts. Before Potsdam, the Americans had set up local regimes and a Bavarian provincial administration. The emphasis was on “denazification.” Political parties, trade unions, and political meetings (which the Russians encouraged) were forbidden. Now that has been changed. And last week General Dwight D. Eisenhower told the press: Germans in towns and rural areas will elect local officials of their own choosing before winter. In the British zone, Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery said: “We aim at the restoration of local self-government throughout Germany on a democratic basis.” But the western Allies had nothing to compare with Russia’s new German government which, at least on paper, gave to some 16,000,000 Germans a greater responsibility in government than they enjoyed in any other Allied zone.

In the political occupation of Germany, the U.S. and Britain still lagged several versts behind the Russians.