WEST GERMANY S MIDWIFE

See Also: BOMBER COMMAND; FOOD Nutrition, Sir Jack Drummond; PALACES, DISAPPEARED & FORMER The Savoy Palace, The Duchy of Lancaster; PORNOGRAPHY Lord Porn; SOCIAL WELFARE; A TIMELY CHANCELLOR

For centuries the office of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster has been a position that has been conferred upon politicians to indicate either that its holder is a minister-without-portfolio or that s/he is a member of the government who has been charged with a specific task. Perhaps the single most distinguished execution of the office occurred in the late 1940s when the Labour politician Frank Pakenham held it.

Pakenham had been born the second son of a minor peer. As a youth he had proven to be intelligent and had become a politics don at the University of Oxford. His approach to his subject had not been wholly academic. In the 1930s he had been involved in at least one fistfight with members of the fascist Black Shirt movement.

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, he had enlisted in the Army but had been invalided out. This had freed him to assist the social scientist Sir William Beveridge with the economic analysis that had been necessary for the preparation of the post-war planning documents Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942) and Full Employment In A Free Society (1944). Their publications had played a major role in rallying national morale. This had been because they had set out the British state's commitment to creating a society that was more equitable once the conflict had ended.

The publisher Victor Gollancz had founded the Left Book Club in 1936 as a means of opposing fascism. During the war the businessman had learnt, through informal channels, of some of the atrocities that the Nazi regime had been engaging in. Those within the British government who also knew of them did not wish awareness of them to become known generally. Gollancz had responded to this official stance by setting up the National Committee For Rescue From Nazi Terror in 1943. He understood the distinction between Nazism and the German people. With the return of peace he appreciated that there might be a serious risk that the latter might suffer mass starvation. He publicised this scenario in order that it might be averted. George Bell the Bishop of Chichester used his seat in the House of Lords to echo the businessman's apprehensions.

The July 1945 general election saw the return of a Labour government that was led by Clement Attlee. Pakenham had stood as one of the party's candidates in the contest for the University of Oxford's two seats in the Commons. He had not been returned. The new Prime Minister offered to have a barony conferred upon him so that he could sit in the House of Lords. The lecturer's ideological outlook made him ambivalent about whether or not to accept the proffered title. His scruples were overcome when it was pointed out to him that whenever his elder sickly brother died he would be summoned to the Upper Chamber.

The premier then indulged his own sense of humour by appointing the freshly-minted peer to an Under-Secretaryship of War. He knew full well that the man had both an innate predisposition towards scruffiness and an inability to follow protocol. However, the junior minister's respectful humility enabled him to develop a good rapport with the senior military men with whom he had to deal.

Germany was under the control of the four Allied powers: the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and France. The attitude of the latter two states towards the defeated nation was one of seeking revenge. Moscow wanted the German economy to be stripped of its remaining industrial infrastructure, while Paris took possession of all of the coal that was being mined in the country. Neither Britain nor America had had portions of their territory occupied. Therefore, they were not as driven as their associates were to seek retribution.

The two Anglophone powers appreciated that the vengeful Treaty of Versailles of 1919 had played a large role in creating the conditions that had enabled Nazism first to emerge and then to flourish. However, within their political establishments there was a marked degree of ambivalence towards Germany's fate.

During the war Henry Morgenthau jnr had served as the United States Secretary of the Treasury. In large part through his influence, a powerful body of Washington opinion had embraced the idea that the German economy should be placed upon an agrarian footing. A detailed plan for how this should be done had been drawn up by Harry Dexter White. He was an economist who had been willing to actively promote Soviet interests. In September 1944, at the Second Quebec Conference, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Morgenthau had compelled Winston Churchill to accept White's scheme.1

Pakenham, in his official capacity, was required to defend the government from the criticisms of Britain's stewardship of northern and western Germany that Bishop Bell had been making in the Lords. As the minister informed himself of the issue he became increasingly disillusioned with the stance that he was being required to adopt. Within the administration he made his true views known.

In April 1947 Attlee promoted the baron. He appointed him to be the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and made him the de facto Minister for Germany. He was placed under the supervision of the Foreign Office. Ernest Bevin, the Foreign Secretary, respected the peer's intellect but was decidedly wary about his judgement. In part, this was because Pakenham appreciated the theoretical political value of generating media coverage but often seemed to have a limited grasp of how the public would perceive a story.

On the Chancellor's initial visit to Germany his aircraft taxied to the appropriate part of the airfield. A large body of journalists had gathered to meet it. The ground staff were slow to roll a set of mobile steps to the plane to enable its passengers and crew to descend to the ground. The minister decided to take matters into his own hands. He sought to lower himself from the craft. As he was in free-fall he collided with the arriving steps. He was left bloodied and more dishevelled than usual. The incident generated an international news story. Bevin's response upon hearing of it was 'Serves 'im right!'

The more fully that Pakenham understood the situation in Germany the more thoroughly he became convinced that the country should be allowed to become fully autonomous again. He came to believe that its economy should be permitted to operate properly. The analytical aspect of his intellect allowed him to appreciate that Stalin had turned the Soviet state into a totalitarian and imperialistic entity.

The principal card that the Chancellor had to play against Moscow was the fact that Britain had physical control of The Ruhr, where the large majority of Germany s surviving industrial assets were located. He systematically opposed every attempt to ship these eastwards. This was by no means a simple task. Many of the British officials who were working in Germany had no sympathy for its people's plight and did not appreciate the deeper strategic reality. These attitudes were also commonplace within government circles in London. It became a widely held view that the peer had 'gone native' .

Pakenham laboured relentlessly. After Attlee, perhaps his most important ally was General Lucius Clay, the Military Governor of the American-administered region. The soldier had reached a similar conclusion to the Chancellor about what should be done. The two men mounted a rearguard action that both prevented the removal of Germany's remaining manufacturing base and ensured that enough food was imported into the country so that its population did not succumb to mass starvation. In addition, the peer was careful to foster the revival of civil life. He encouraged the operation of political parties and the establishment of trade unions.

Bevin, in his capacity as Foreign Secretary, had to deal with the diplomatic repercussions of Pakenham's deeds. As a result, he developed the view that his own lot might be improved were the baron to be moved to another department. He understood that the Soviets were not to be taken at face value, however, he did not appreciate fully the extent to which the peer's actions were the proper response to an immediate threat. Attlee acceded to the Secretary's opinion but he did so in a way that signalled his approbation of the lord's conduct.2 In April 1948 he promoted the Chancellor, making him Minister of Civil Aviation and giving him a seat in the Cabinet.

Within Washington, Morgenthau's views had been losing ground. George Marshall, the Secretary of State, had come to the conclusion that if Western Europe was to be kept free of Soviet domination then the economies of its nation states would need to be allowed to thrive again. In June 1947 the establishment of the Marshall Plan was agreed upon in principle within the American government.

Without Pakenham's efforts there would not have been the opportunity for the scheme to have been implemented as effectively in Germany as it was to be. The country's economy would have already been denuded of its industrial capacity. Its fate, and that of Free Europe, might have been different. Churchill was conscious of the substance of the peer's achievement. He made a point of seeking him out and congratulating him upon what he had done.

The British and American German administrations launched a common currency zone on 18 June 1948. This signalled their support for the development of a Germany that was economically vibrant and thus politically autonomous. On the following day Stalin responded to this development by blockading Berlin. Thereby, he made the two million people who lived there his hostages.

The Western Allies launched an airlift to ensure that the Berliners would not be added to those who had already lost their lives to the despot's will. Again, Pakenham and General Clay found themselves to be working for a common aim. The operation proved to be able to sustain the city. Ultimately, Moscow was not prepared to go to war over the issue. On 12 May 1949 she backed down and ended the blockade. The Federal Republic of Germany was established eleven days later.

Location: King Charles Street, SW1A 2AH (blue, brown)

1 Lancaster Place, WC2E 7ED. The offices of the Duchy of Lancaster.

Website: www.bbaa-airlift.org.uk (The British Berlin Airlift Association); www.manfredjurgensen.com.au (Professor Manfred Jurgensen was a native of Flensburg, which is located on Germany's border with Denmark. For eighteen days in May 1945, the town was the final Nazi capital. Subsequently, it fell within the British Zone of the occupation. In his writings, the former academic has described how the post-conflict era was worse for children than the war itself had been. Following the re-establishment of peace German society experienced a temporary collapse of morality and decency.)

¹. Roosevelt was open to other people's ideas. Prior to his assuming the presidency, he had been regarded by many people as being a political lightweight. That he had steel in his character had come as a surprise to them.

². Attlee and Bevin respected one another. The former's premiership was built upon the latter's trust of him.

David Backhouse 2024