Keys of the City

For six days after arriving in Berlin (TIME, July 16), U.S., British and French occupation troops stood outside the door like embarrassed guests. The Russians were not ready to turn over the keys to the city.

On the seventh day, the deadlock over administrative procedure was broken. To a conference hurried Russia's Marshal Georgi Zhukov, the U.S.'s Lieut. General Lucius D. Clay and Britain's Lieut. General Sir Ronald M. Weeks. An official statement said "useful decisions [were] reached in an atmosphere of complete and mutual understanding." Correspondents passed the word along that Marshal Zhukov, hitherto inhibited by the presence of the Kremlin's strong-arm troubleshooter, Vice Commissar of Foreign Affairs Andrei Vishinsky, had received more discretionary authority and was using it to speed up cooperation. Soon it was announced that:

P:A four-power administrative council, the Kommandantur* would be organized. Its chairmanship would rotate (every 15 days) among the Russian, U.S., British and French military governments.

P:Each power would be responsible for food and fuel for the inhabitants of its zone. This meant that Americans, British and French must haul most of their supplies from west of the Elbe, a comedown from the original Anglo-U.S. contention that Berlin's outlying regions, which are under Russian control, should be Berlin's breadbasket. The Russian part of Germany was seriously short of supplies and could not support all Berlin.

P:No new laws or regulations would be proclaimed for Berlin without unanimous consent of the four powers. This gave the Russians veto power over any change in the administrative system they had already set up.

Cordiality & Cocktails. Next day the Kommandantur held its first meeting, at Red Army headquarters. Russia's Colonel General Alexander Gorbatov presided. Other representatives: for the U.S., Major General Floyd L. Parks; for Britain, Major General Lewis O. Lyne; for France, Major General Geoffrey de Beauchesne. Said the BBC: "Cordiality prevailed."

Right after the meeting came cocktails. In his requisitioned Dahlem villa Colonel Frank L. Howley, military governor of Berlin's U.S. zone, threw a party for 100 Allied officers. The Russians, unaccustomed to cocktail protocol, drank on & on, stayed on & on--but no dinner was served. Tactful U.S. interpreters finally hinted that the party was over. General Gorbatov politely shook hands with all his fellow-guests, then led away the puzzled Russians.

Ribbons & Spoils. Next morning the U.S. and British military governments took full command of their respective sectors. (The French had to wait, as guests of the British, until their slice of Berlin was precisely determined.) Local Russian commanding officers paid courtesy calls on their Allied opposites. Britain's Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, in a ceremony attended by 100 stately Grenadier Guardsmen went to the Brandenburger Tor, there awarded Marshal Zhukov the "Honory Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath."

G.I.s and Tommies at last took over their respective billets, Red Armymen withdrew into the Russian zone, together with wagonloads of German furniture and other souvenirs. At week's end U.S. and British officials froze civilians in their zones so that there could be no large-scale emigration of civilians from the Russian zone.

*German for "residence of the commander."

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