144. Air gram From the Department of State to the Mission at Berlin0
G–65. Deptel 533 to Berlin, rpt info to Bonn 2399. Following is text of letter from Mayor Brandt to Secretary handed U.S. Delegation to NATO Ministerial Meeting in Istanbul
Begin Text. Berlin-Schöneberg, 26 April 1960.
His Excellency
Christian A. Herter
Secretary of State
Washington 25, D.C., USA
Dear Mr. Secretary: If I write to you today shortly before the beginning of the summit conference in Paris, I do so first of all in order to thank you again for the decided rejection by the American Government and the American people of the claims made by the Soviet Union in regard to Berlin and presented in the form of an ultimatum. To this attitude of the United States, it already took up during the blockade of Berlin, we owe that our freedom was maintained.
Only by means of your generous assistance granted to Berlin during the past years and by the protection you have afforded to this city it was, and still is possible to do the reconstruction work of which you got an idea in the summer of the past year and which to a great extent represents a German American team-work.
We are well aware that your assistance of the capital was granted to a people, whose fault essentially contributed to the situation which today is the subject of international disputes. But we have honestly been endeavoring to put our life on a new basis.
Please allow me to submit to you again in brief before the summit conference our opinion of the questions concerned. When doing so, I feel sure that we agree in regard to the most essential items.
Berlin hopes that at the summit conference in Paris and on the occasion of further conferences of the responsible statesmen of the major powers the international problems will be brought closer to a solution in order to come to a relaxation of the tension prevailing in the world.
[Page 374]I trust, however, you will understand that I resist tenaciously the obvious aim of the Soviet policy to enforce a special solution for Berlin without preparing the way for the real possibilities of a solution of the German question and the more essential international problems. As long as the Soviet Union denies the German people the right to self-determination the present status of Berlin must remain unchanged, since only in this way the two and a quarter million people of West Berlin are guaranteed the maintenance of their freedom. Should the Soviet Union enforce the continuation of the division of Germany, a change for the worse of the status of Berlin in accordance with the Soviet demands would lead to new additional conflicts in Germany and Europe.
We agree with you that a final settlement of the Berlin question is only possible in connection with the German question, with which it is inextricably entangled. We should, therefore, be pleased if the German people for the purpose of the realization of this aim would be given an opportunity to make use of its national right to self-determination.
We feel sure that a false decision of the West in the Berlin question would have disastrous effects. It would not only affect the people of Berlin and the people of the Soviet occupied zone of Germany. It would also entail a shifting of the power in Europe in favor of the Soviet Union securing for the latter a strong initial position for a future settlement concerning the whole of Germany. In addition to this a success of the Soviet Union in the Berlin question would be prejudicial to the whole western policy.
In the event of an interim agreement on Berlin being seriously discussed at the summit conference, two basic prerequisites should in our opinion be observed at any rate:
- 1.
- The original occupation right of the three Western Powers and the supreme responsibility resulting there from must continue in force, as only in this way a dangerous weakening of general western interests will be avoided and the personal freedom of the people of Berlin and the maintenance of their democratic rights is secured.
- 2.
- Within the framework of the supreme authority of the three Western Powers the close linking West Berlin has achieved during the past twelve years by the integration in the legal and financial system of the Federal Republic and its belonging to the currency and economic area of West Germany must continue.
These two prerequisites are the keystones of our life in freedom. From these prerequisites also results the right to the unhampered traffic routes between Berlin and the Federal Republic. As regards this item, it would, however, be advisable to conclude additional agreements for safeguarding the surface traffic, and the traffic by sea and by air in order to do away with obscurities and to remove difficulties. Moreover, nothing [Page 375] should be done by which this city is divested of its function to be meeting place of the people from both parts of Germany.
On the occasion of his address to the Berlin House of Representatives on 11 January 19601 Federal Chancellor Dr. Adenauer has expressly associated himself with this opinion of the Berlin Senate regarding the Berlin question as summed up above in a few items. I may assure you that the people of Berlin place unswerving confidence in the Government of the United States and the American people.
Next week Senator Dr. Paul Hertz will stay a few days in Washington and—I hope—meet you when you are back from Istanbul. He will gladly be at the disposal of your staff for a discussion of the questions we both have at heart.
My best compliments to you,
Yours sincerely, Willy Brandt. End text.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 396.1–PA/5–1160. Official Use Only. Drafted and approved by Hillenbrand and cleared by Calhoun. Also sent to Bonn. On May 2 the Mission reported that the Berlin Senat Protocol Chief had also delivered a copy of the letter to it on April 29. (Air gram G–352; ibid., 396.1-PA/5–260) On April 27, Brandt wrote a similar letter to McCloy, who forwarded a copy of it to Dillon on May 2. (Ibid.)↩
- For text of this address, see Dokumente, Band 4, 1960, Erster Halbband, pp. 48–52.↩