Editorial Note
At a Berlin press conference on September 18, Mayor Reuter, in response to Grotewohl’s appeal for all-German elections on September 15, stated in part:
“As the Governing Mayor, I can not very well give an official answer to Herr Grotewohl’s proposal for holding elections in the whole of Germany. Such an answer should in the main be given only by the Federal Government, that is to say by the Federal Parliament. But if Herr Grotewohl’s proposal is prompted by a spirit of sincerity, then the holding of an election in Berlin would offer just the right testing ground for the holding of free elections in the whole of Germany later, owing to the absence, in Berlin, of a great many problems regarding elections for the whole of Germany which would first have to be solved on a Federal basis. In Berlin, the issue is less involved. We have an electoral law, we have a constitution. Elections can be held at any time.”
Grotewohl responded to Reuter’s suggestion in a speech at Fuerstenberg on the following day, stating, inter alia:
“Among all the arguments aimed at rendering the proposals of the People’s Chamber ineffective and at tearing them to shreds, there is one which I regard as the most ridiculous of all. Western papers are presently all playing the same tune: we want to put Grotewohl in a tight spot so as to make him show his true colors: we want to expose him by making him state his attitude to the question of holding elections in the city of Berlin. His answer will clearly prove that every statement he made has been nothing but an empty maneuver.
What actually are the circumstances relating to the elections in. Berlin? In the People’s Chamber we have not raised the question of elections for Berlin because we demanded elections for the whole of Germany, which means that Berlin will be included. Hence what sense would there be in demanding separate elections for Berlin? After all, our proposal for general elections is not concerned with municipal elections. We have not demanded that elections be held in Munich, Cologne, Hamburg and Berlin. Rather have we stipulated general elections for the whole of Germany so as to bring about the unification of Germany. And the unification of Germany naturally applies to the capital as well, that is to say the different sectors of Berlin must be unified. I am of the opinion that the question regarding elections in Berlin can be discussed by an all-German conference as sensibly as all other questions, and I am convinced that those of our compatriots in Western Germany who are guided by common sense will understand the real significance of this slogan about elections in Berlin. It is being used for the sole purpose of distracting the attention of the German people from the all-important issue raised by the People’s Chamber—that of calling for an all-German representation—and of sidetracking it in order to destroy the big effect of our appeal. We certainly do not intend to complacently follow these gentlemen up this dead-end street. Rather, we insist that the question of elections ought to be discussed and dealt with at an all-German conference. Those gentlemen in Berlin presently engaged upon hatching such proposals would spend their time more profitably in deciding which of their representatives they intend to send to all-German consultations.”
For excerpts from Reuter’s statement, see Documents on German Unity, volume I, pages 234–235; for the text of Grotewohl’s speech, see Grotewohl, Im Kampf um DDR, pages 480–492; for documentation on Grotewohl’s appeal and the question of German unity, see pages 1747 ff.