East Germany: Spitzbart in Trouble

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According to hopeful rumors and guesses, the Russians were about ready to abandon old Spitzbart (pointed beard), who is hated for his brutal methods and slavish subservience to Moscow, and replace him with someone more palatable. Runs the argument: now that the Wall is up to prevent major population leakage, Moscow might well be prepared to strengthen its satellite by trying a softer approach with the stubborn, restive East German people. Ulbricht's party organ, Neues Deutschland, noted the rumors of a Khrushchev-Ulbricht rift by elaborately denying it.

Meanwhile, a Western intelligence officer summarized: "All the characteristics for a general uprising are present in East Germany—just as much as they were there in 1953. But there isn't going to be an uprising because of the presence of Soviet troops, because of the fact that 1953 failed, and because East Germans know that the West, which did nothing about Hungary or the Wall, cannot help them."