Out of Death, Life

From TIME'S Berlin staff came a firsthand report of Berlin, eleven weeks after its capture by the Russians and two weeks after the arrival of U.S. and British occupation forces:

Berlin is not a dead city. Three million people still live in Berlin and most of them will probably keep on living here and rebuild their city when they can. The arteries through which a city's life blood flows--the streets, water mains, gas mains, sewage pipes, electric lines, subways--are either intact or being repaired. The destruction above ground is impressive, but Berlin is still a city.

Community Bricks. In the center of Berlin, within a circle about five miles across, the destruction is what the army calls complete. Here the buildings are only shells or piles of brick and mortar dust. Yet even here it is only the buildings that are destroyed--not the materials of the buildings. Much of the brick and stone, including the marble walls of the Reichs Chancellery, can be used again. A sign on a brick pile says: "These bricks are the property of the city of Berlin. Persons taking them away will be punished." The bullet-clipped trees of the Tiergarten will grow again. The statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I on the Schloss-Platz has its eagles scattered about, but the old man rides as arrogantly as ever.

Toward the western suburbs, where the upper and middle classes live and where the Americans and British now rule, the damage diminishes. For blocks there is nothing more unsightly than a cardboard window pane, and the gardens are pretty and well tended. In the American sector of Zehlendorf a survey of the damage has been tabulated, and it is probably typical of the western part of the city. Eight percent of the buildings are untouched, 35% damaged, 49% in various degrees of destruction short of complete, 8% completely destroyed.

Flower Pots in the Ruins. On the east side, where the workers live and the Russians rule, the damage is greater than in the west. This part of Berlin was fought through, and some of its streets are still impassable. For block after block the houses look gutted, but so stubbornly do buildings resist destruction that in many of these houses two or three rooms are still occupied, and there are even flower pots in some of the windows.

All this represents a devastation which,

though less than that in, say, Cologne or

Frankfurt, is nonetheless enough to employ a great many Berliners in the building trades for years. The Berliner Zeitung estimates it will take 16 years to haul away the capital's rubble, 20 years and two billion dollars to replace all the destroyed homes. But there is no question that Berlin will survive, as a city and as the capital of Germany.

Until they can rebuild their city Berliners will live in hardship, but the degree of hardship can also be exaggerated. Compared to life in any city in the U.S., it would be extreme. Compared to the Parisian twelve weeks after Paris was liberated, the Berliner is not so badly off. His greatest lack is shelter, which he finds by living in cellars, in temporary wooden barracks, or, in most cases, with somebody else. This is uncomfortable in the summer. In cold weather, as the Parisians found last winter, it makes it a little less cold.

Horsemeat and Pink Water. The Berliner eats about as well as the average Parisian ate last November: enough to keep from starving, not enough to satisfy his hunger. The great difference is that the Berliner with plenty of money--and there are many of them--cannot buy the lavish black-market meals the Parisian could. A typical black meal comprises two square inches of horsemeat sausage, some potatoes and beets, two glasses of pink flavored water. Cost: five dollars.

The Berliner wears his old clothes, as the Parisian did. He pays two dollars for a cigaret, whereas the Parisian paid two dollars a pack. But the Parisian had no electricity during daylight all last winter. The Berliner has electricity during the day now. The underground is operating throughout most of Berlin, five bus lines are running and a good many streetcar lines. In Paris there are still no street cars or busses. In short, the living standard in Berlin is about as good as it is in most of Europe's cities.

Concerts and Nightclubs. There are a few nightclubs open, with bad entertainment and bad wine. Schools are open, but there are no books yet. Some moving-picture houses are running and there will be more when American, British and Russian films are available. It is possible to go to the theater, to art exhibitions and concerts by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Excellent music and factual news bulletins are broadcast by Radio Berlin until one in the morning. There are four newspapers published in the Russian zone, two by the Russians, two by German political parties (Communists and Social Democrats). Next month will appear the first paper published under the American policy of directives but no censorship.

Most of what has been done so far to give the people some degree of customary recreation was begun by the Russians, continued by the British and Americans. The people, of course, prefer the Americans to the British and either to the Russians. The Americans are easier to get along with than the British and both are represented by well-disciplined troops, whereas the Russians, in the beginning, were represented by combat soldiers who took their revenge for what happened in Russia. The Russian soldiers now policing Berlin are as well-behaved as those of their Allies, no better, no worse. It would be inaccurate not to report that many Berliners are still afraid of the Russians, especially those Germans of the upper and middle classes. But most of the stories about the Germans' efforts to get out of the Russian zone ignore the fact that there is more shelter in the British and American sectors.

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