Fighting the Cold War in Post-Blockade, Pre-Wall Berlin: Behind Enemy Lines (Routledge Studies in Modern European History)

As fought in 1950s Berlin, the cold war was a many-headed monster. Winning stomachs with enticing consumption was as important as winning hearts and minds with persuasive propaganda. Demonstrators not only fought the police in the streets; they were swayed one way or another by cultural competition. Western espionage agencies waged brazen but surreptitious covert warfare, while the Stasi fought back with a campaign of targeted kidnapping. This book takes seriously a complex borderscape, which narrowed but did not stem the flow of people, ideas and goods over an open boundary. Assessing the licit and the illicit, the book stresses the messy and entwined nature of this war of a thousand cuts (or miniscule salami slices). While brinkmanship was orchestrated by the elites in Moscow and Washington, the effects of such intense psychological pressure were felt by ordinary Berliners, who sought to carry on with their mundane, but border-straddling everyday lives in spite of the ideological bifurcation. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents List of Figures List of Tables Newspapers consulted Abbreviations Acknowledgements Introduction The Berlin border as an object of ‘critical border studies’ The cold-war border in Berlin Behind the lines The ludic nature of the ‘War of Nerves’ Policing the outpost, frontier city Aims and rationale Notes Bibliography Part I: A messy and entangled border complex Chapter 1: Brinkmanship and intransigence at the frontier Ironing out the kinks in the Iron Curtain Riding to the rescue: Sending in the cavalry Theodolites at dawn The crowded focal point of Potsdamer Platz Pawn in the Cold War: Staaken The Ring around Berlin is tightened (May 1952–November 1958) Inadvertent military and civilian incursions Conclusion Notes Bibliography Chapter 2: Enclaves and exclaves Entangled jurisdictions and cross-border responsibilities Soviet ‘Enclaves’ An archipelago of freedom surrounded by a sea of repression (and vice versa) Mexican standoff in June 1952 Steinstücken: ‘Little Island of Freedom’ Annexation An outlaw existence beyond the law Barbarians at the garden gate Conclusion Notes Bibliography Chapter 3: S-Bahn incidents The UGO strike (May 1949) Extraterritorial legal limbo Continued overlapping jurisdictions and conflicts over responsibility for policing the S-Bahn Reappearance of an old struggle between the Extreme Left and Extreme Right Accidental border crossing Kidnapping from the S-Bahn in broad daylight Flag warfare Conclusion Notes Bibliography Part II: Shadow-boxing feints and real incursions Chapter 4: The paramilitary response to threatened invasions Expected invasion Fighting with honey rather than vinegar: Coffee and cake policy Soldiers in police uniforms: Force B/riot police (Bereitschaftspolizei) Conclusion Notes Bibliography Chapter 5: Policing demonstrations and protests near the border Major incursion (15 August 1951) 1953 Uprising Operation Eisenhower: Food relief Rubber truncheon warfare against communist cosh boys Local control and allegations of corruption Conclusion Notes Bibliography Part III: Contagious capitalism and ideological subversion Chapter 6: Illicit smuggling Price dumping and economic war Ban on cross-border shopping (November 1952) Professional trafficking Conclusion Notes Bibliography Chapter 7: Wanderers between two worlds Cultural warfare in pursuit of legitimacy The magnetic attraction of West Berlin Border cinemas Comic book killers Cross-border partying Conclusion Notes Bibliography Part IV: Covert warfare in cold-war Berlin Chapter 8: The murky world of espionage The Stasi Soviet agents in the West Berlin police Espionage case histories Freelance, non-governmental espionage agencies The Fighting Group Against Inhumanity (KgU) Conclusion Notes Bibliography Chapter 9: The art of kidnapping Linse kidnapping (July 1952) Kidnapping by force Policemen dragged over the border Bauer case (Christmas 1952) The Truschnowitsch case (April 1954) Renewed kidnappings by criminals Use of drugs Conclusion Notes Bibliography Chapter 10: Impact of the Berlin Wall The ‘Berlin Crisis’ of 1958–1961 The Berlin Wall (13 August 1961) Continued escape attempts Shoot to kill The Fechter riots (August 1962) Conclusion Notes Bibliography Conclusion A new type of psychological warfare or ‘War of Nerves’ Democracy and dictatorship Notes Bibliography Index "As fought in 1950s Berlin, the Cold War was a many-headed monster. Winning stomachs with enticing consumption was as important as winning hearts and minds with persuasive propaganda. Demonstrators not only fought the police in the streets; they were swayed one way or another by cultural competition. Western espionage agencies waged brazen but surreptitious covert warfare, while the Stasi fought back with a campaign of targeted kidnapping. This book takes seriously a complex borderscape, which narrowed but did not stem the flow of people, ideas and goods over an open boundary. Assessing the licit and the illicit, the book stresses the messy and entwined nature of this war of a thousand cuts / miniscule salami slices. While brinkmanship was orchestrated by the elites in Moscow and Washington, the effects of such intense psychological pressure were felt by ordinary Berliners, who sought to carry on with their mundane."-- Provided by publisher