Forgotten Heroes of the Berlin Airlift - Ernst Reuter
In late August 1948, the Western Allies believed Stalin had signaled a readiness for compromise on the "Berlin crisis." The military governors were instructed to meet again in the Allied Control Council and hammer out the details in the first week of September. Historians later characterized the resulting negotiations as nothing more than the usual Soviet tactics of misleading and bamboozling their counterparts, but at the time rumors of a "breakthrough" were rampant. It was at this moment, when the West seemed eager to "do a deal" with Stalin that Ernst Reuter threw down the gauntlet and forced the West to respect the wishes of the Berliners. Speaking before a crowd of roughly 300,000 Berliners assembled in front of the Reichstag, Reuter called out: Today is the day on which not the diplomats and generals speak and negotiate. Today is the day on which the people of Berlin lift up their voice. ... It is time for the world to see what Berlin...