Berlin Reds Set Up Separate City Administration

Northern Advocate, 1 December 1948, Page 5

Berlin Reds Set Up Separate City Administration

LONDON, Tue. (10 a.m.). —Russian-backed Berlin Communists today established a separate city administration in opposition to the democratically-elected anti-Communist City Government. They thus virtually completed the political division of Berlin between East and West.

The deputy chairman of the Berlin Assembly, Communist Ottomar Geschke, told a special meeting of the assembly, held in the Soviet sector and which the pro-Western parties boycotted, that the Communist “democratic” bloc demanded the dismissal of the present administration.

The bloc also demanded the formation of a provisional administration, prior to the general elections. The bloc had passed a resolution stating that the present administration had “failed to fulfil its obligations by disregarding the vital interests of the city.”

The meeting adopted the bloc resolution and unanimously elected Fritz Ebert, a member of the Socialist Unity Party, as provisional Lord Mayor of Berlin.

Communists in Berlin, meanwhile, held large-scale demonstrations against the municipal elections, which are due to be held on December 5, and which the Russians have banned in their sector.

Ebert told the meeting that, with the election of the new magistral the elections due to take place on December 5 in the Western sectors had become completely senseless. He was applauded when he said the new magistrat was responsible for the whole of Berlin, regardless of sectors. “We intend to break down sector barriers and ensure the proper administration of the entire city,” he said.