Berlin was taken by Russian soldiers, partly. The intense fighting in the city center was actually largely done by Polish soldiers from a Polish Corps under Soviet command. These were the men fighting the remaining 10,000 German combatants in a 10 square mile area. The famous picture of the Reichstag capture by Soviet troops was taken the day after the German combatants broke out of Berlin (they had one day of ammo left) and only the few diehard volunteer nazis chose to stay behind and seek death in combat.

But, the US soldiers, were very nearby, in Magdeburg, at the Elbe. It's about 100km from Berlin, 60 miles. You can drive it in an hour. American soldiers were physically present in Berlin in May 1945. A few days after surrender of the Germans. But the first Berliner civilians fed by military units were fed by Russian field kitchens. The first bread distributed was by Soviet command.

I'm pretty sure the only Americans in Berlin in May were POWs.

According to "Outpost Berlin" by Henrik Bering (1995), the division of the city was agreed by the London Protocols in September, 1944. Eisenhower had forbidden Americans to cross the Elbe, because the other side was Soviet turf. The first American force sent to Berlin was a party of 500 men and 150 vehicles which departed Halle on June 17. This advance party got as far as Babelsberg, but then were forced by the Soviets to return to Halle. American troops did not enter Berlin until July 1.

<link>

...agreements that you're talking about, US military, and civilian, personel had free access to Berlin, East, West, and all of Germany. In fact, during the Berlin crisis, the American leadership wanted to know whether the tanks lined up on East German roads were manned by East Germans or Russians, or who? An American officer got in his car in West Berlin, drove through Checkpoint Charly into the Commie world, past the machine guns, tanks and all that Commie armor, and drove to a tank column that was lined up for miles on a country road outside Berlin (where the real armor assault would have occured). He got out of the car, walked to the nearest tank, which was buttoned up, like they all were, and listened. They spoke German, not Russian. Thus the US came to know that the Berlin crisis and the display of military might was not that serious, just a political maneuver, because Soviet troops had not been committed and staged for invasion. That knowledge was used by the White House in their decision making.

My point is, you are making judgements that are removed from reality, based just on treaty announcements. I got news for you, go back to school, so you can learn that dates and events in the newspaper is only the official face of history, not the real happenings of what went on. History 101, part-time correspondence students from active military have that kind of view of history.

>>I got news for you, go back to school

Do I really have to? I studied German history eight years at the Free University in Berlin, before getting a Master's degree in 2005. What do you know about it, wise guy?

...what you say, then you either are retarded, which doesn't look like it, or your are just making up a lie. a GOP vet clown? hm, me thinks that's it.

...at the FU after unification. yup, that's it, and you're not a German, but an American.

a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Trottel.

Ich sitze hier in meiner Bibliothek voller deutsche Bücher, und alle erzählen die gleiche Geschichte! Von welchem soll ich dem Kind etwas beibringen? Wie wäre es mit "Berlin 1945, Eine Chronik in Bildern" von Antonia Meiner (2005)? Auf Seite 82 steht: "Anfang Juli kamen die britischen und amerikanischen Besatzungstruppen nach Berlin, Anfang August folgten die französischen." Auf der nächsten Seite ist ein Foto davon. Reicht es? Willst noch mehr?

My first time to use the google translater, what a hoot. I remember reading science fiction when I was a teenager back in the 1950's, never thought I would get to live it.

I used to have a lot of fun with Babel Fish:

English: The Great Depression had brought a host of problems to the publishing industry.
German: Der große Tiefstand hatte einen Wirt von Problemen zur Verlags- Industrie geholt.

English: Having ascended without waiting for the lift, we found ourselves in quite a pickle.
German: , steigend, ohne den Heber zu warten, fanden uns wir in durchaus einer Essiggurke.

German: Heutzutage gibt's im Tiergarten aller Art von Strassenmusikern.
English: Nowadays gibt's in the zoo of all kinds of road musicians.

German: In seinen Memoiren bezeichnete Bernd sich selbst als eine fuehrende Figur des IG Farben-Prozesses.
English: In his memoirs Bernd called itself as a prominent figure industrial union of the color process.

What can one answer to that? I lived through, what you read about. You must not even have been a glimmer in your fathers eyes when those events took place. By the way, I don't contradict that Eisenhower issued general orders not to advance beyond the Elbe before the German surrender, and that American troops didn't officially arrive in Berlin. But US recon missions were in Berlin in May, shortly after the German surrender. How do I know this? I've heard from German soldiers that tried to surrender to them. LOL. Only to be turned over to the Russians. At the time around May 1945, there was general chaos, as to where the lines of demarcation were, who had jurisdiction over which district. The only time that American troops did not travel freely on East German roads was during the 1948 Blockade. But that applied only to US supply convoys. Instead they supplied Berlin by air. Later, during the sixties when the wall was up and during the Berlin crisis, US troops made a public display of sending a military convoy down the autobahn from West Germany into Berlin. This was a public display to let the Soviets know, not to try the 1948 Blockade again. Meanwhile, from 1948 until the fall of the wall, American military personel traveled to East Berlin freely. Although, the Berlin Brigade was under special security restrictions, and generally GI's stationed in Berlin were not free to travel through Communist East Germany. I guess the US military personel in the East must have been there on official business. I don't know what their specific orders were. I was civilian and I saw plenty of GI's in uniform in East Berlin and East Germany.

Also, unterhalte Dich mal mit ein paar Leuten, und gib den Buechern mal ein bischen Ruhe.

>>I lived through, what you read about.

If you lived through 1945 in Berlin, you're a whole lot older than I think.

Ich habe ja viele Berliner kennengelernt und viele Geschichten aus dieser Zeit gehört, aber niemand hat mir erzählt, dass die Amerikaner dabei waren. Z.B. ist die alte Nachbarin, Ruth, im April bis zur Elbe geflohen, und sie hat gar keinen Amerikaner gesehen, bis sie dem Fluß erreicht hat. Es war streng verboten, den Fluß zu überqueren, und außerdem wurde die Stadt seit 24. April ganz eingekesselt. Wären Amerikaner trotzdem so weit gekommen, hätten sie mit schwerem Kampf rechnen müssen.

US-sowjetische Beziehungen in der Nachkriegszeit haben nichts mit der Sache zu tun.

intersurfa:

But the first Berliner civilians fed by military units were fed by Russian field kitchens. The first bread distributed was by Soviet command.

Sure - they were feeding civilians up front and raping them in the back rooms.

It was a problem the Soviets never solved, how to keep their soldiers from raping people. Eventually, they moved them all into big, fenced-in bases where they were isolated from the civilian population. These were like miniature Soviet cities, with huge apartment blocks holding thousands of people, with stores and even playgrounds for the children, but the inmates seldom saw a German. After the Berlin Wall fell, the Russians packed up, with hearty "auf Wiedersehen" speeches to the natives they had hardly ever seen, and went home. Pretty soon, they were raping people in Chechnya, and this time the victims were Russian citizens. The Russians dealt with the rape problem by murdering everyone who objected.

<link>

<link>

<link>

<link>

TheyCallMeBruce:

Sure - they were feeding civilians up front and raping them in the back rooms.

Good lord! So now commie soldiers are singled out as rapists? I suppose Muslim terrorists are the new rapists....we know what they did on the planes before they crashed them into the WTC.

I suppose our red white and blue all-American soldiers would never, ever do something bad like that. When they are not killing evil insurgents they are passing out candy to little Muslim kids and never raping any women or anything.

bsharporflat:

TheyCallMeBruce:

Sure - they were feeding civilians up front and raping them in the back rooms.

Good lord! So now commie soldiers are singled out as rapists?

Yes, they are, or more specifically, Red Army soldiers. Try reading a little history sometime - or hell, just bother to Google:

<link>

bsharporflat:

I suppose our red white and blue all-American soldiers would never, ever do something bad like that.

Not on anything remotely approaching the same scale, and not with official approval. (Quote from Stalin in the above-linked article: "Can't he understand it if a soldier who has crossed thousands of kilometres through blood and fire and death has fun with a woman or takes some trifle?")

Life in the Red Army had always been rather like life in one of the nastier maximum security prisons in the US, except without guards, and everyone has an assault rifle. WW2 just pulled what few stops there were out.