Senate Reserve
Encyclopedia
The Senate Reserve was a stockpile of food and other necessities which the Senate
of West Berlin
was required to maintain in case of another Berlin Blockade
. It was dissolved after German reunification
.
, which governed under their authority, to establish stockpiles of staple foodstuffs, medication, coal, fuel, industrial raw materials and other daily necessities. The intent was that in case of another blockade, "normal" life could be maintained in West Berlin for at least 180 days, that is, six months, and thus a blockade would no longer make sense. (There was also a West German national foodstuffs reserve, the Bundesreserve, of which a large part was stored in West Berlin, and periodic attempts to encourage the West German populace in general to participate in Aktion Eichhörnchen, "Operation Squirrel", and maintain a stock of necessities. However, these were generally unsuccessful and the term was used mockingly of the Senate Reserve.)
In 1953 it was decided to enlarge the reserve; Eleanor Lansing Dulles
came to the city to assist in this and witnessed the disturbances of 16/17 June 1953
.
The Senate Reserve stored approximately 4 million tonne
s of goods for decades. There were at one stage more than 700 storage facilities in West Berlin, comprising 624,000 square metres of open land and 423,000 square metres of inside storage; most of them were secret, and very few people possessed detailed knowledge of the reserves.
After the Berlin Wall
fell and the Cold War
ended in 1989, the Senate Reserve was dissolved. Berlin was legally required to obtain the highest possible value for the goods should the reserve be partially or wholly eliminated. However, at the suggestion of the mayor, 90,000 tonnes of foodstuffs, medications and other goods were donated free of charge to the Soviet Union
as humanitarian aid.
Old stock which had been replaced was sold at low prices to the population by the Berlin Senate. Cookery books sometimes referred to ingredients, such as tinned beef, as 'Senate Reserve'.
There were continual problems with obsolescence and changing standards, substandard supplies, and pilferage.
The roughly 1,000 items included in the Senate Reserve, for a population of 2 million West Berliners and detailed in a 16-page list, included:
The reserve was to supply a diet of 2,900 calories daily to each normal citizen; during the blockade it had been 1,800.
After the Four-Powers Agreement of 1971, amounts of some items were reduced and the consumer items such as bicycles, clothes and shoes were sold.
(state printing house), which is headquartered in Berlin-Kreuzberg, printed ration cards and coupon
s:
Senate of Berlin
The Senate of Berlin is the executive body governing the city of Berlin, which at the same time is a state of Germany. According to the Constitution of Berlin the Senate consists of the Governing Mayor of Berlin and up to eight Senators appointed by the Governing Mayor, two of whom are appointed ...
of West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
was required to maintain in case of another Berlin Blockade
Berlin Blockade
The Berlin Blockade was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War and the first resulting in casualties. During the multinational occupation of post-World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway and road access to the sectors of Berlin under Allied...
. It was dissolved after German reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
.
History
After the Berlin Blockade of 1948/49 and the Berlin Airlift to keep the inhabitants of the western sector supplied, the three Western Allied commanders-in-chief required the Senate of BerlinSenate of Berlin
The Senate of Berlin is the executive body governing the city of Berlin, which at the same time is a state of Germany. According to the Constitution of Berlin the Senate consists of the Governing Mayor of Berlin and up to eight Senators appointed by the Governing Mayor, two of whom are appointed ...
, which governed under their authority, to establish stockpiles of staple foodstuffs, medication, coal, fuel, industrial raw materials and other daily necessities. The intent was that in case of another blockade, "normal" life could be maintained in West Berlin for at least 180 days, that is, six months, and thus a blockade would no longer make sense. (There was also a West German national foodstuffs reserve, the Bundesreserve, of which a large part was stored in West Berlin, and periodic attempts to encourage the West German populace in general to participate in Aktion Eichhörnchen, "Operation Squirrel", and maintain a stock of necessities. However, these were generally unsuccessful and the term was used mockingly of the Senate Reserve.)
In 1953 it was decided to enlarge the reserve; Eleanor Lansing Dulles
Eleanor Lansing Dulles
Eleanor Lansing Dulles was an author, teacher and United States Government employee. She was a member of a diplomatic dynasty which spanned three generations. Her grandfather, John Watson Foster, served as United States Secretary of State under President Benjamin Harrison...
came to the city to assist in this and witnessed the disturbances of 16/17 June 1953
Uprising of 1953 in East Germany
The Uprising of 1953 in East Germany started with a strike by East Berlin construction workers on June 16. It turned into a widespread anti-Stalinist uprising against the German Democratic Republic government the next day....
.
The Senate Reserve stored approximately 4 million tonne
Tonne
The tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...
s of goods for decades. There were at one stage more than 700 storage facilities in West Berlin, comprising 624,000 square metres of open land and 423,000 square metres of inside storage; most of them were secret, and very few people possessed detailed knowledge of the reserves.
After the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
fell and the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
ended in 1989, the Senate Reserve was dissolved. Berlin was legally required to obtain the highest possible value for the goods should the reserve be partially or wholly eliminated. However, at the suggestion of the mayor, 90,000 tonnes of foodstuffs, medications and other goods were donated free of charge to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
as humanitarian aid.
Contents
The value of the stored goods was approximately 2,000 million DM in the early 1980s, approximately 1,600 million DM when the Senate Reserves were liquidated in 1990. The regular "rotation" in which goods were replaced with fresh supplies cost several million DM annually. The government of the Federal Republic defrayed the high costs of the goods and the turnover.Old stock which had been replaced was sold at low prices to the population by the Berlin Senate. Cookery books sometimes referred to ingredients, such as tinned beef, as 'Senate Reserve'.
There were continual problems with obsolescence and changing standards, substandard supplies, and pilferage.
The roughly 1,000 items included in the Senate Reserve, for a population of 2 million West Berliners and detailed in a 16-page list, included:
- 189,000 tonnes of wheat
- 44,000 tonnes of meat
- 19 live cattle
- 7,130 tonnes of salt
- 11,800 tonnes of cooking fat
- 96 tonnes of mustard
- 291,000 pairs of children's and teenagers' shoes
- 380 tonnes of rubber soles and heels for shoe repair
- 20.9 tonnes of glue
- 18 million rolls of toilet paper
- 10,000 chamberpots
- 35 million plastic cups
- 4 million lightbulbs
- 5,000 bicycles
- 25.8 million cigars
- 1,000 tonnes of animal fodder (oats)
The reserve was to supply a diet of 2,900 calories daily to each normal citizen; during the blockade it had been 1,800.
After the Four-Powers Agreement of 1971, amounts of some items were reduced and the consumer items such as bicycles, clothes and shoes were sold.
Ration cards and coupons
To enable orderly distribution of goods to the populace in an emergency, the BundesdruckereiBundesdruckerei
The Bundesdruckerei is a German manufacturer for banknotes and stamps, identity cards, passports and visas, driving licences and vehicle registration certificates....
(state printing house), which is headquartered in Berlin-Kreuzberg, printed ration cards and coupon
Ration stamp
A ration stamp or ration card is a stamp or card issued by a government to allow the holder to obtain food or other commodities that are in short supply during wartime or in other emergency situations...
s:
- Up to 1 year of age: Infant Card, Milk Card A, Special Supplies Card, Soap Card
- 1–3 years of age: Child Card, Potato Card 200, Milk Card B, Special Supplies Card, Soap Card
- 4–5 years of age: Child Card, Supplementary Card C, Potato Card 200, Milk Card B, Special Supplies Card, Soap Card
- 6–8 years of age: Child Card, Supplementary Card D, Potato Card 300, Special Supplies Card, Soap Card
- 9–13 years of age: Basic Card, Supplementary Card B, Potato Card 500, Special Supplies Card, Soap Card
- 14–19 years of age, female: Basic Card, Supplementary Card B, Potato Card 500, Special Supplies Card, Soap Card
- 14–19 years of age, male: Basic Card, Supplementary Card A, Potato Card 500, Special Supplies Card, Soap Card
- 20 years of age and above: Basic Card, Potato Card 500, Special Supplies Card, Soap Card
- Adults and young people 16 years of age and above: Smoker Card
- Adults and young people 18 years of age and above: Supply Card A
- Children, young people and adults: postage coupons for parcels (12 parcel postage stamps)
Storage
Storage locations for the Senate Reserve included:- Glass warehouse in Alte Jakobstraße, completed in 1968, today the Berlinische GalerieBerlinische GalerieThe Berlinische Galerie is a museum of modern art, photography and architecture in Berlin. It is located in Kreuzberg, on Alte Jakobstraße, not far from the Jewish Museum.-History:...
- Eiswerder Island in the HavelHavelThe Havel is a river in north-eastern Germany, flowing through the German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. It is a right tributary of the Elbe river and in length...
: items including dried onions and clothing - Former annexe of Sachsenhausen concentration campSachsenhausen concentration campSachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...
in Berlin-Lichterfelde: construction materials - The Fichte-BunkerFichte-BunkerThe Fichte-Bunker is a nineteenth-century gasometer in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin, Germany that was made into an air-raid shelter in World War II and subsequently was used as a shelter for the homeless and for refugees, in particular for those fleeing East Berlin for the West...
, a gasometerGasometerA gas holder is a large container where natural gas or town gas is stored near atmospheric pressure at ambient temperatures. The volume of the container follows the quantity of stored gas, with pressure coming from the weight of a movable cap...
which had been converted into an air raid shelter - until 1990 - The so-called Speerplatte, a large concrete area constructed as parking for the Albert SpeerAlbert SpeerAlbert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office...
division of the National Socialist Motor CorpsNational Socialist Motor CorpsThe National Socialist Motor Corps , also known as the National Socialist Drivers Corps, was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party that existed from 1931 to 1945. The group was a successor organization to the older National Socialist Automobile Corps, which had existed since the beginning...
in Charlottenburg-NordCharlottenburg-NordCharlottenburg-Nord is a neighborhood in the northern part of the district Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Berlin, Germany. As of 2008 its population was of 17,327...
: coal - A 1937 industrial building in Berlin-Reinickendorf, originally part of the Borsig complex: coffee, sugar, wheat, on occasions coal
- Former festival hall in LübarsLübarsLübars is a German locality within the borough of Reinickendorf, Berlin.-History:First mentioned in 1247, it was an autonomous municipality merged into Berlin in 1920 with the "Greater Berlin Act". As a part of West Berlin bordering East Germany, Lübars was crossed, from 1961 to 1989, by the...
Old Village (today the LabSaal): fertiliser (potash) - Warehouse at Tempelhof Airport
- Former bunker at Anhalter Station
- Warehouse at the Westhafen harbour in MitteMitteMitte is the first and most central borough of Berlin. It was created in Berlin's 2001 administrative reform by the merger of the former districts of Mitte proper, Tiergarten and Wedding; the resulting borough retained the name Mitte. It is one of the two boroughs which comprises former West and...
- Warehouse at 'Victoria Mill Works' in Cuvrystraße
- Disused railway yard in SpandauSpandauSpandau is the fifth of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. It is the fourth largest and westernmost borough, situated at the confluence of the Havel and Spree rivers and along the western bank of the Havel, but the least populated.-Overview:...
: anthracite (moved to KladowKladow-Geography:The district of Kladow is bordered by the District of Gatow to the north, by the Havel to the east and southeast and by the State of Brandenburg to the west and south west. The neighbouring village of Sacrow and main part of Groß Glienicke are located in Brandenburg...
in summer 1989) - Former brewery in Berlin-Neukölln (today Werkstatt der Kulturen): toilet paper, etc.
- Wasteland on Töpchiner Weg (now Gerlinger Straße) in Buckow (Berlin-Neukölln): anthracite