Cold War in Europe trivia thread...

[torstenbel]

spot on on numbers 1 and 2 and you even got the bonus point... and of course you have already won the round, but think about number 3 a little...nothing too clever...just think about the realities of the GDR until 1989 and how you would not expect certain things to be in place on the territory and in the internal politics of any sovereign state
Cheers, Torsten.

1. 25 March 1954.

2. 08 April 1954, the reaction from the allies was to deny sovereignty of the GDR. Overall the allies continued to regard the Soviets responsible power of the Soviet Zone in Germany and do not recongize the East German government.

3. Working on number three...

[Ralph P]

Question number three is interesting and I am going to see if I am in the ballpark of what you are looking for.

3. Trade and diplomatic or more like mutual relations

well, lets ask the next questions.

Was the GDR legally a sovereign state? In answer to my own question: yes it was. And here are your questions:

1. When did the Soviet Union officially declare the DDR to be a sovereign state? The year would be sufficient, but if you know the exact date that would give you an extra point...

2. What was the reaction of the Western Powers?

3. Although, legally the GDR now was a sovereign state (at least in my opinion it was), name at least two circumstances/issues that effected souvereignty of the DDR, effectively contradicting that status...

Good luck. Cheers, Torsten.

[Ralph P]

Hey Torsten...thanks and for sure a very interesting round of historic questions you posted.

Do you want me to hold back until number three is answered or move on to the next round?

spot on on numbers 1 and 2 and you even got the bonus point... and of course you have already won the round, but think about number 3 a little...nothing too clever...just think about the realities of the GDR until 1989 and how you would not expect certain things to be in place on the territory and in the internal politics of any sovereign state
Cheers, Torsten.

[torstenbel]

do you still want to keep trying or do you want me to put down a couple of possible answers and we move on to the next round? I need to go to bed in a couple of minutes anyhow... Cheers, Torsten (ebay id german.militaria).

Hey Torsten...thanks and for sure a very interesting round of historic questions you posted.

Do you want me to hold back until number three is answered or move on to the next round?

[Ralph P]

Good night Torsten...I will start the next round of questions for the night crew who will be soon coming on the forum...

do you still want to keep trying or do you want me to put down a couple of possible answers and we move on to the next round? I need to go to bed in a couple of minutes anyhow... Cheers, Torsten (ebay id german.militaria).

[Ralph P]

Questions for the next round...Like all other rounds we have had so far. I hope my questions are not difficult...

1. What month and year was the Deutche Mark introduced into West Berlin?

2. What month and year did the Deutche mark become the only tender to be used in West Berlin?

Bonus point: What major event occured during the above timeframe?

[Mike G.]

Night Crew?

Do you guys ever work?

Man, so much happens between 6:30am and 7:00pm.
Oops, I mean 6:30 and 19:00.

Geeez. No chance at all to participate.

Hey Ralph. One thing. Are we going to give Torsten an opportunity to provide the answer to question No. 3

I hope so. I'm interested.

Now, on to your questions.

[Mike G.]

Okay,

Here are my attempts at correctly answering your questions Ralph.
.....month? You've got to be kidding, right?

By the way, very interesting questions.

1). 1948

2). 1958

3). East Germany officially (not in the eyes of the U.S.) became a separate country.

[Mike G.]

Ralph,

I'm certain about No. 1.

Just in case I'm wrong about 2 and 3, here are my second choices:

2). 1961.

3). The Berlin Wall went up.

[Soviet]

Ralph, why do you want to know the exact time in West-Berlin ? Wasn't it all the same thing in the West Zones ???

Well here are my attempt to your questions.

#1 The currency reform was introduce in 1948 to make the Marshall Plan work in the West Zones of Germany. This currency reform occured on June 20th & June 21th 1948, where each people of the West Zone obtained 40 Deutsche Mark bonus for every 60 Reichsmark exchanged.

#2 1949

Bonus point: What major event occured during the above timeframe?

Of course the Berlin Blockade !

[Soviet]

By the way I read that all Deutsche Mark were printed outside germany until 1955. It was only in 1955 that the German Federal Printing Works took over production of the national currency.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1480242.stm

[torstenbel]

Hey Ralph. One thing. Are we going to give Torsten an opportunity to provide the answer to question No. 3

I hope so. I'm interested.

well, here are some examples of what I thought could have been answers to my question 3:

- regular NVA troops were not allowed to be stationed in Berlin
- Allied military mission troops were not allowed to be checked by any DDR troops or officials
- the DDR had no control of its own airspace, allied air forces were allowed to fly over Berlin and other defined air corridors
- deminished control over the DDR's land space, as there were allied land corridors, allied border crossings and the Soviets controlled and owned their own military bases

Now, to me, any of the above contradict the notion of a sovereign state and the rights of any sovereign state and it is examples like that I was looking for in answer to my question 3...

Cheers, Torsten.

[Mike G.]

Hi Torsten,

Thanks for providing the answer to No. 3.

They are all valild points. I'm sure there are some others as well. For example, even though East Germany was closed off to the West, the DDR still had to let military and their dependents from the French, American and Britich Forces stationed both in West Berlin and West Germany, freely travel to East Berlin.

All of your points are good ones, and obvious too. I think those of us that missed it did so because we read too deep into the question.

[AR-11]

Night Crew?

Do you guys ever work?

Man, so much happens between 6:30am and 7:00pm.
Oops, I mean 6:30 and 19:00.

Oh yes, Mike, from 7:00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. CEST. And, believe me, I´m very glad, that I have a job here in Germnay.

AR-11

[Ralph P]

Hey Torsten...thanks for the follow up posts and points.

I am glad you waited till the next day to post the answers after a night of some good sleep.

Hi Torsten,


Thanks for providing the answer to No. 3.

They are all valild points. I'm sure there are some others as well. For example, even though East Germany was closed off to the West, the DDR still had to let military and their dependents from the French, American and Britich Forces stationed both in West Berlin and West Germany, freely travel to East Berlin.

All of your points are good ones, and obvious too. I think those of us that missed it did so because we read too deep into the question.