THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY SCHREYER HONORS COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY MORE THAN THE MAUER: THE PROMOTION OF THE IDEOLOGICAL CONFLICT OF THE COLD WAR THROUGH THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EAST AND WEST BERLIN 1949-1961 MARTA MILLAR FALL 2018 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for baccalaureate degrees in History, International Politics, and German with honors in History Reviewed and approved* by the following: Daniel Purdy Professor of German Studies Thesis Supervisor Kathryn Salzer Associate Professor of History Honors Adviser * Signatures are on file in the Schreyer Honors College. i ABSTRACT Though the division of East and West Berlin is primarily associated with the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961, the physical division of the city was already apparent in the months after World War Two ended. Instead, the clash of Cold War powers over the decimated city’s reconstruction was an earlier, yet equally stark division of Berlin. While the borders of occupied Berlin had been established on paper, the Western Allies and the Soviet Union both sought to advance their claim on the city and on the future of Germany through architectural developments that would assert their ownership over the identity of Berlin. This paper examines how the ideological struggle of the Cold War between 1945 and 1961 motivated the development of rival city centers, building styles, and housing projects in East and West, and how joint efforts at reconstruction were quickly waylaid even before the city government was divided. In particular, the creation of Stalinallee in the East and Hansaviertel in the West exemplified each side’s commitment to using the soft power medium of architecture to establish their ideological superiority. My research demonstrates that the physical manifestation of the contending architectural styles of East and West Berlin promoted the city’s split identity in the years before the Berlin Wall divided the city. It further examines the post-war narratives that arose during the reconstruction process, and the impact of this ideological conflict on the psyche of the German people, who sought to regain a sense of identity amid the manipulation of Cold War superpowers. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................... v Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2 Challenges Faced by All of Berlin .............................................................. 5 The Nazi Plans for Berlin ................................................................................................. 7 Allied Occupation and the Division of the City ............................................................... 11 The Scope of the Destruction ........................................................................................... 17 Joint Efforts at Reconstruction ......................................................................................... 24 Chapter 3 Reconstruction in East Berlin ...................................................................... 28 The Heart of Berlin – The Historical City Center ............................................................ 28 Communist Intentions for Reconstruction ....................................................................... 37 Stalinallee: The Showpiece of the East ............................................................................ 40 Building Theories Applied to Berlin ................................................................................ 53 Chapter 4 Reconstruction in West Berlin .................................................................... 62 Building Anew: Response to Eastern Losses ................................................................... 64 Hansaviertel and Interbau 1957: The West Strikes Back ................................................. 67 Completion of Interbau .................................................................................................... 81 The Ideological Background of the West ......................................................................... 87 Chapter 5 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 91 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................ 96 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Map of Divided Berlin. The red line highlights the divide between the sectors controlled by the Western Allied Forces and the Soviets. ................................................................ 29 Figure 2: The Stadtschloss in spring 1946 ............................................................................... 32 Figure 3: The Fourth Portal of the Stadschloss in 1950 ........................................................... 34 Figure 4: Egon Hartmann’s prize-winning draft for Stalinallee, as displayed at a 1951 press conference hosted by the Democratic Magistrate of Greater Berlin at the Berolinahaus 42 Figure 5: Henselmann's Hochhaus an der Weberwiese in 1952. ............................................. 43 Figure 6: The Altes Stadthaus, designed by Ludwig Hoffman. ............................................... 45 Figure 7: The Frankfurter Tor on June 10, 1968. Parallels can be drawn between the towers and that of the Altes Stadthaus. ............................................................................................... 45 Figure 8: Draft of Strausberger Platz in 1952 .......................................................................... 46 Figure 9: View of Strausberger Platz in May 1954.................................................................. 46 Figure 10: Draft by Henselmann in September 1951 for the high-rises along Stalinallee ....... 47 Figure 11: Corbusierhaus in the present-day. .......................................................................... 75 Figure 12: Ground-level of the Corbusierhaus Berlin, which shows the v-shaped stilts that support the building. ..................................................................................................................... 76 Figure 13: Walter Gropius’s contribution to Interbau – a curved, nine-story residential building with balconies looking towards the Tiergarten. ............................................................... 77 Figure 14: Model of Hans Schwippert's tower for Interbau. .................................................... 79 Figure 15: Present-day picture of Schwippert's Interbau building. .......................................... 79 Figure 16: An aerial image of Hansaviertel, which shows the attention to greenery, open spaces, and the diversity of the buildings sprinkled about the exhibition in 1962. ...................... 83 Figure 17: View of Stalinallee overlooking Strausberger Platz, demonstrating the impressive and orderly concrete stretch of boulevard. .............................................................................. 83 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Daniel Purdy for his guidance, expertise, and assistance this past year. I enjoyed our many conversations together over the course of this project, from your critiques of the European perceptions about skyscrapers to your attempts to be stern with me and remind me to stop researching rubble and start writing. I would also like to thank Dr. Kathryn Salzer for her assistance, instruction, and genuine care about the well-being of her students. Additionally, I would like to thank Dr. Tobias Brinkmann for his guidance in the early stages of this project and ever-helpful feedback. In addition to the supportive faculty at Penn State, I would like to acknowledge Dr. Claudia Gatzka of the Albert- Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, whose course on the post-war reconstruction of Germany and Italy first introduced me to this topic during my summer studying abroad in 2016. Finally, I would like to say thank you to my friends, my family, and Ben, for your support and patience throughout this year. 1 Chapter 1 Introduction By the end of the Second World War, the city of Berlin had suffered more destruction than any other city in Germany. Hundreds of thousands of buildings had been reduced to rubble or damaged beyond functional use over a decade of disfigurement that had begun under the encouragement of Nazi urban planners. Yet this charred and damaged skeleton of a city soon fell under the intense focus of the world’s leading superpowers, the victorious Allied forces. There was considerable uncertainty about whether Berlin would remain the capital of Germany after 1945, but passionate efforts to claim the capital soon commenced despite its questionable worth. Between 1948 and 1949, the British and American forces would devote an unfathomable amount of resources to the Berlin Airlift in order to maintain the vitality of West Berlin after the Soviets attempted to cut off the city from the rest of West Germany and force the West to relinquish its claims. In the East German Democratic Republic, a celebration of Stalin and socialism was trumpeted through the creation of Stalinallee – “the first socialist street in Europe.” The West German government responded by pouring an exorbitant amount of money into an elaborate, international building exhibition with funds they