European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 1, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                \ a r. Is \ a  o c c Quot a Toa Etc a lending a hand to Unity a Berliner reaches Over a Border Fence at checkpoint Charlie in an attempt to share his Joy about the fall of the Berlin Wall with icy East German  become on germans come together at last by Joseph Owen staff writer it was probably the bleakest moment in German history. Foreign armies had flattened the towns and blackened the landscape. The conflict had killed millions. Trampled or unattended harvests had left the survivors starving and destitute. A Laid on us is the greatest task there has been for centuries a said the French defense minister. The victors had to make peace a for the whole of Europe and establish it so securely that any aspiration of disturbing it must remain  he was talking about the peace of Westphalia which ended the thirty years War in 1648. But his words describe Europe after world War ii just As Well. In both cases the victors decisions left Germany fractured for decades. Yet this Phoenix among nations Rose from its ashes in the Early 18th Century under prussian influence and this week it is consummating another National resurrection. But this German unification is happening under circumstances that did not exist during past German mergers. It Wasny to achieved through War for example. Charlemagne Frederick the great Otto von Bismarck and Adolf Hitler All used wars to help forge their empires. By contrast the current German merger occurs in the most relaxed european political climate of this Century. In addition anti militarism has become a powerful Force in postwar West German politics. Finally Germany a division intended As a temporary Aid to postwar military occupation ended up having Little to do with other europeans fears of a United Germany. It had become a prop on the stage of another conflict the cold War. That last circumstance helps explain Why the division lasted until this week. But there were other reasons. . And British leaders in the midst of fighting world War ii gave Little thought to postwar Germany. A1943 British Cabinet study recommended slicing it into British . And soviet occupation zones but the wars outcome was then so Uncertain that the study was shelved. A in those Days a common opinion about Russia was that she would not continue the War once she had regained her frontiers a Winston Churchill wrote m a Triumph and  but As the allies began to close in on Germany they began to think More about the country a future. When Churchill and president Franklin Roosevelt agreed on occupation zones in september 1944, the soviets already had expelled the germans and invaded East Prussia and Poland. The plan to set up american British French and soviet occupation zones became final when soviet Leader Josef Stalin agreed to the idea at Yalta in february 1945. Germany surrendered the following May. A the one common denominator uniting Russia America Britain and France was their determination to keep Germany under military occupation in order to prevent a resurgent threat to their Security a British political scientist Avi Sulaim wrote in a the United states and the Berlin blockade 1948-1949.�?� a but no specific time limit was placed on the duration of their presence and military occupation acquired a momentum of its own which tended to crystallize the division of  the German question was More Complex in the late 1940s than today. Germany was hacked into nine pieces the four occupation zones Allied administered Berlin the Saarland a French protectorate Northern East Prussia under direct Oviet Rule and two areas ruled by Poland. At the Potsdam conference in the summer of 1945, the allies agreed to treat Germany As a single economic unit. In mid-1946, . Secretary of state James Byrnes angered the soviets when he said the three Western zones should become a single economic area. In 1947, the . Marshall plan began funding Industrial reconstruction in the three zones a and discouraging support for communism. The soviets tried unsuccessfully to rid Berlin of the Western allies by blockading the City in 1948 and 1949. These postwar actions prolonged and encouraged the division of Germany. The three Western zones finally did merge in 1949, becoming the Federal Republic of Germany. It was both a step toward and away from unification because the soviets reacted by creating the East German state and making Berlin its capital. The West German Constitution called for a reunited Germany but leaders on both sides quickly found self serving reasons to preserve the split. East German communist Leader Walter Ulbricht thought himself vindicated after years of obedience to Moscow. And West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer was passive about unification seeking to better West Germany a fortunes by deepening ties with other Western democracies. Adenauer disliked the East anyway. Former Chancellor Willy Brandt wrote that when Adenauer travelled to Berlin a the always had the uneasy feeling once across the Elbe a that he was a almost in  a Hope of unification flared briefly in Early 1953 when Stalin died. His successors saw East Germany As an economic Burden. Churchill told Adenauer that the soviets might Cut a Deal if the germans ceded claims to the far Eastern areas under soviet and polish control. But other events poisoned East West continued on Page 4 the stars and stripes special report Page 3