austin-murphy-the-triumph-of-evil

124
THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL
cially important in the economic reconstruction of West Germany in the
years fo llowing World War II (Apel, 1966).
On the other hand, the much poorer Soviet Union did not have suf·
fi�ient �ealth to offer such noble assistance to East Germany. Instead,
With the1r own country wrecked by World War II, the Soviets required
t�e East Germans to make enormous reparation payments as compensa·
t1�n for all the damage and killing that the unified Germany had com·
m1tted. In and apart from the differences in damage inflicted by World
War II on the Soviet Union and the USA, the Soviets had inherited a
des�rately poor country in 1917 when they first took power from the
previous feudal leaders of Russia (with national income per capita equal
to I I 12 that of the USA at that time, as documented in Chapter I ),1 and
they never could have offered the assistance that the USA provided to
the West Germans.
�s a result of the difference in the post-War fo reign economic
ass1sta?ce/reparations, West Germany very quickly became the much
w�alth1er country (Apel, J 966).8 This situation provided West Germany
With an excellent economic weapon with which to strike at East Ger·
many. In particular, the West German government provided working-age
East Germans who moved to West Germany with significant amounts of
money and other benefits in order to emigrate to West Germany (retir·
ees were not given such incentives). For instance, free loans and other
state assistance of up to 160,000 West German Marks (about $100,000)
were offered to each East German emigrant worker, along with a scarce
apartment and reimbursement fo r any property that remained behind in
East Germany (Der Tagesspiege/, J 990t). In addition, East German emi·
grants to West Germany were also provided with instant West German
citizenship, � hich allowed them to obtain West German jobs. Being
much . wealthier and much larger (and being supported by their USA
occupiers), West Germany could provide such incentives almost with·
out limit. In . o�er a decade's time, the result was a large net exodus
of several m1lhon people out of East Germany, which, net of the sev­
eral hundred thousand West Germans who emigrated to East Germany,
represented a �oss of over 10% of the East German population (Apel,
I 966). Ac�ordmg to West German propaganda, this population move·
me ? t provided �est Germany with evidence of the "superiority" of
their country, their government, and their economic system. In addi·
CHAPTER 3
125
tion, many of the people who left East Germany were highly skilled
individuals (like doctors, nurses, and engineers), who were very difficult
and costly for East Germany to replace (Diedrich, Ehlert, and
Wenzke, 1998). The East German morale and economy suffered as a
result (Apel, 1966).
Besides engaging in a deliberate policy to buy up East Germany's
skilled work force, the economic war was also fought with other tools.
For instance, West Germany was also able to utilize its superior wealth
to promote extensive illegal black market currency trading and smug­
gling operations that also contributed to damaging the East German
economy (Murphy, 1992b ). Many such operations were conducted by
the West German secret police itself (Schmidt-Eenboom, J 993).
THE BERLIN WALL
This situation continued until 1961, at which time the East German
government came to the conclusion that the process of damaging their
economy and emptying their country of skilled workers could no longer
continue.9 In 1961, East Germany set up rules that forbade their citi­
zens from traveling to West Germany without special permission. In
addition, travel restrictions were placed on West Germans going into
East Germany in order to prevent a continuation of the black market
currency trading and smuggling that were damaging the East German
economy, to inhibit spying by Western secret police, and to stop out­
right sabotage activities committed by Western secret police (Blum,
1995). Because of the economic crisis caused by the emigrations and
black market trading, many East Germans supported the government's
restrictive policies at the time (Lahann, 1998).
The travel restriction rules were enforced by barbed wire, minefields,
walls, and soldiers along the entire border with West Germany. Although
many of these barriers had existed since the early 1950s (and about 150
�ple had been killed in the border area prior to 1961 ), the final bar­
ncr between the two countries was erected in 1961 in Berlin (Diedrich,
Ehlert, and Wenzke, 1998). Berlin was a large city of several million
people that was partially in West Germany and partially in East Ger­
�any. The part in West Germany was called West Berlin, while the part
111 East Germany was called East Berlin. After 1961, the city was not
only divided politically by different ruling governments, it also was