APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110020-1
Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Blücher, and Yorck are again in place on broad, tree-lined Unter den Linden, the Fifth Avenue of prewar Berlin. Goethe, despite his aristocratic tendencies, is made to seem a democratic progressive and thus a progenitor of the East German ethos. The greatest prize of all is Berlin, long promoted as "the capital of the German Democratic Republic." For years, East German authorities intimated that it was only a matter of time before they took over the entire city, but with the General Relations Treaty they finally admitted the right of West Germany to represent West Berlin. Nevertheless, they seek whatever advantage they can derive from the fact that their capital is the city—part of it, at least—that throughout Germany's history as a nation-state was its political and cultural heart and soul.
Germany, centrally located as it is, has served as the crossroads of Europe. Historically it has been a battleground and an arena of conflicting cultures. Primarily Western-oriented, it also has displayed a fascination with the East. It has preyed upon its neighbors and in turn has been a prey. That Germany should now exist is two parts is not extraordinary. More often than not it has existed in a state of disunity.
The territory which became East Germany is situated principally on the central North European Plain and is dominated by Berlin, a focus of land and inland waterway transportation routes. Generally scenic though not spectacularly so, the country ranged in north-south perspective from flat to gently rolling terrain. Only in the south and southwest is their high ground with elevations up to 3,300 feet. A rail network, so extensive as to be likened to a national trolley, constitutes the backbone of the transportation system. Good highways, lengthy canals, and modern oil and gas pipelines help speed traffic. The two great navigable rivers, the Elbe and the Oder, lead respectively to the ports of Hamburg, West Germany and Szczecin, Poland. Cool to cold winters, mild summers, prevalent cloudiness, and frequent precipitation constitute the weather pattern. Generally variable within fairly narrow limits, the weather at times turns sufficiently capricious to disrupt crop growing, an endeavor already beset by soils low in fertility. The subsurface endowment—primarily brown coal, potash, sulfur, fluorspar, natural gas, and uranium—is insufficient to maintain an advanced industrial society, and East Germany must look largely to Soviet suppliers to meet its energy and raw material requirements.
Looking outward, East Germany finds its setting to be equally bleak. To the west stands a powerful German rival. To the south lies a potentially unstable Czechoslovakia, and to the east a proud, nationalistic Poland comes between East Germany and its patron, the U.S.S.R. As the westernmost of the European Communist states, East Germany has developed a "front line" mentality. Party functionaries have visualized themselves as members of an outpost holding back the tide of "Western imperialism." On a broader front, regime leaders have at times displayed suspicions of all their neighbors and performed as if East Germany were virtually beleaguered. In a sense it is. East Germany is smaller in area than any adjoining state and surpasses only Czechoslovakia in population. In these circumstances it is perhaps not surprising that East German authorities suffer some sense of insecurity.
Within a compact area of almost 42,000 square miles there exists a population of slightly over 17 million, a figure that has remained virtually static since the building of the Berlin Wall. The people are a Nordic-Slavic blend, and thus exhibit the tall, blond, blue-eyed and short, brunet, brown-eyed characteristics of both groups. East German society is homogenous, however, being some 99% Germanic in makeup and outlook. Only a tiny Slavic minority, the Sorbs, form an exception. Even if they are highly integrated into the Germanic lifestyle, despite the government's attempts to portray them as a treasured minority.
The regime has largely destratified the old Germanic society, eliminating the former ruling class and bringing the middle class under control by economic strictures. The working class in theory dominates the system, but in practice Communist authorities—somewhat distrustful of worker loyalties—speak for it. Thus, a party-managerial elite constitutes the true dominant class.
The old Teutonic family portrait of the iron-willed father, domestic-servant mother, and submissive children has also been drastically altered. Women have been granted equal rights with men, and are no longer kitchen-bound. Nurseries, schools, and youth groups are heavily responsible for child-rearing by "approved methods." Originally unpopular, such policies have been increasingly accepted by a populace which with the passage of years has perceived that it had little choice but to come to terms with the regime.
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110020-1
