CHRISTMAS PERMITS FOR WEST BERLINERS TO VISIT EAST BERLIN.

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
CIA-RDP79T00429A001200060007-4
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
S
Document Page Count: 
2
Document Creation Date: 
December 19, 2016
Document Release Date: 
May 12, 2005
Sequence Number: 
7
Case Number: 
Publication Date: 
December 7, 1963
Content Type: 
IM
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PDF icon CIA-RDP79T00429A001200060007-4.pdf153.12 KB
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Approved Forease 2005/09.&C r P79T00421200060007-4 F77 I OCI No. 2480/63 CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY Office of Current Intelligence 7 December 1963 CURRENT INTELLIGENCE MEMORANDUM SUBJECT: Christmas Permits for West Berliners to Visit East Berlin. 1. The Ulbricht regime long has been pressing the West Berlin Senat to authorize talks between Governing Mayor Brandt or his representative and a top-level East German official, with a view to se- curing implied Senat recognition of the GDR's "sov- ereignty" underlining the GDR's claim that West Berlin has a "special" status and weakening its ties with the Federal Republic. The Ulbricht re-. gime-now.is:seeking to use the possibility of Christmas visits for West Berliners with their re- latives in East Berlin to put additional pressure on the Senat for talks. 2. On 5 December the Senat received a letter from GDR Deputy Premier Alexander Abusch, offering to establish machinery by which West Berliners could secure GDR permits to visit the Soviet sector during the holiday season (15 December-5 January). Abusch, however, attached conditions which are well known to be unacceptable to the West Berlin Senat and the three Western Powers. The letter states that the GDR is prepared to establish issuing facil- ities in West Berlin, where West Berlin citizens could receive permits for visits to "the capital of the GDR" during the period and expresses the hope that Brandt "deems it necessary to discuss imple- mentation of the measure" with Abusch, either in East or West Berlin. 3. The Senat two years ago ejected East Ger- man permit offices which were being set up in West Berlin, and obtained an order from the Allied Kom- mandatura forbidding the establishment or operation of such offices. Apart from this the Senat has State Department review completed Approved t" leas 429A0012000600 25X1 25X1 ? Approved For ease 2005/0 79IQW9 1200060007-4 firmly resisted offers for talks with GDR repre- sentatives at any level which would imply West Ber- lin's recognition of the Ulbricht regime. Mayor Brandt, however, has indicated that he would be agreeable to talks with an official of the East Berlin municipal government even though he also be- longs to the GDR government, but provided it was clear that this individual was acting only within his capacity as an East Berlin official. 4. The present East German maneuver neverthe- less places the West Berlin Senat in a difficult position. The Senat and the West German government have been trying for a deal whereby Bonn would give the GDR badly needed financial aid in return for a concession on visits by West Berliners to the Soviet sector. Various moves either through interzonal trade channels or other levels to reach such an agreement, however, have been blocked by the GDR's insistence that any concession be in return for some form of recognition of East German "sovereignty." 5. On 30 November, West German Minister for All German Affairs Erich Mende renewed Bonn's offer of a loan, spelling out among the four conditions the demand that West Berliners receive the right to visit friends and relatives in East Berlin, "just as citizens of the Federal Republic do." East Ger- man media immediately stigmatized the offer as an insult to East German "sovereignty." Soviet Ambas- sador Abrasimov took up the matter with Ambassador McGhee in their 4 December talk in West Berlin, sharply criticizing the conditions of Mende's offer. When McGhee remarked that travel seemed a basic human right, Abrasimo suggested that the Allies urge Brandt to negotiate the question of internal Berlin travel with the East German government. 6. In this situation, the Senat officials ap- parently feel they cannot afford to leave the Abusch letter unanswered and have asked Bonn for immediate guidance. Meanwhile, in the absence of Brandt and his deputy Albertz, Senat officials are considering an unsigned and unaddressed aide memoire expressing regret that the East German offer is limited in time and declaring that permit-issuing facilities would be acceptable only if the operation did not constitute an exercise of GDR sovereignty on West Berlin's terri- tory. -2- I Approved For Release ZUUWELBRLPYKDP791UU429AO01 200060007-4 25X1 25X1