Barber-Lyashchenko Agreement

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The Barber- Lyashchenko Agreement (also Barber-Lyashchenko Agreement based on the English version of the treaty and in the German translation of it or Gadebusch Treaty ) of November 13, 1945 was a Soviet-British agreement to clean up the borders between Mecklenburg and Schleswig-Holstein .

agreement

Area swap card

It was signed by the British Major General Colin Muir Barber (Plenipotentiary of the Headquarters of the British Army of the Rhine ) and the Soviet officer of the same rank Nikolai Grigoryevich Lyashchenko (Plenipotentiary of the Commander-in-Chief of the Red Army ) at Gadebusch Castle in Gadebusch .

The reasons of the British occupying power for the exchange of the areas were the poor accessibility of the areas belonging to the British occupation zone as well as strategic considerations. The British occupying power stated: “The area east of the Schaalsee is economically constricted, difficult to reach and from a strategic point of view undesirable. There are poor road conditions in the Dechow and Thurow area, and it is strategically unfavorable. ”The newly added area has good roads and is strategically very favorable.

Areas east of the Ratzeburg Lake and the Schaalsee were exchanged . In this way, the neighboring communities of Ratzeburgs Ziethen , Mechow , Bäk and Römnitz came to the Duchy of Lauenburg and from the Soviet zone to the British zone on November 26, 1945 . They previously belonged to the Mecklenburg district of Schönberg , which was part of Mecklenburg-Strelitz until 1934 . In exchange, the Lauenburg communities of Dechow , Groß and Klein Thurow (now part of the community of Roggendorf ) and Lassahn (now part of the town of Zarrentin am Schaalsee ) came to the Soviet occupation zone. The agreement stipulated that the evacuation of the areas had to be completed on November 28, 1945 at 1 p.m. Berlin time.

This exchange was not reversed in the course of German reunification after 1990.

Relocation

The result of the agreement was the resettlement of the population from the area abandoned by the British military government . It made it possible for the German residents and Soviet citizens of the territories that fell under Soviet jurisdiction to remain free or to leave; stateless persons were without exception resettled. However, the British commander Ashworth informed the district administrator of the Duchy of Lauenburg: "No farmer [...] will be allowed to keep more than one horse if he prefers to remain under RUSSIAN control on his farm [...]" a cow, a sheep, a pig, a cart, a plow, a harrow and other implements. Those who stayed were also not allowed to keep reserves for more than 30 days. Fishing boats were to be brought to the western bank of the Schaalsee.

The population of Lassahn was informed on November 14, 1945, that of Dechow and Thurow on November 15, 1945 of the intended exchange of territory. First, on November 16, 1945, cattle and agricultural implements began to be transported away. British amphibious vehicles were used, as well as tanks, horse-drawn vehicles and the Stintenburg peninsula ferry. 1130 cattle, 309 horses and foals, 406 sheep and 554 pigs were removed from Dechow alone.

Resettlement began on November 23, 1945 and ended three days later. The resettled people were housed in the Schmilau refugee transit camp , in the Schützenhof and in the Ratskeller in Ratzeburg and in the Farchau and Tüschenbeck castles . Nobody was allowed to find quarters for themselves. Only those who could live with relatives or acquaintances did not have to follow the organized accommodation. The prerequisite for this, however, was that the mayor of the chosen place of residence gave his express consent. In Dechow, 120 out of 1,237 people stayed, in Thurow 79 out of 256. On the morning of November 27, 1945, the British military governor made a final tour of the evacuated area.

The population in Ziethen, Mechow, Bäk and Römitz increased considerably. To the previous 268 inhabitants of Ziethen 340 were added, Mechow grew from 104 to 230, the population of Bäk rose by 204 to 454. Römnitz, which until then had 51 inhabitants, grew to 91 inhabitants. An area of ​​about 2,442 hectares in the southeastern area of ​​the Ratzeburg lake with Hohenuchte, Mechow, Römnitz, Wietingsbeck and Ziethen fell to the British zone.

Mecklenburg fell with the area around Groß Thurow, Klein Thurow and Dechow a total of 1,460.89 hectares, of which 119.65 hectares were forest and 41.42 hectares of water. The area east of the Schaalsee around Lassahn, Bernstorf , Hakendorf, Stintenburg, Stintenburg-Hütte and Techin was 3419.81 hectares with 405.88 hectares of forest and 773.59 hectares of water, which essentially comprised the eastern part of the Schaalsee.

Further exchange agreements

On September 17, 1945, the Wanfried Agreement on the exchange of territory between the American and Soviet zones of occupation was concluded. Another agreement of the occupying powers in 1945 concerns the British sector of Berlin and the surrounding Soviet occupation zone, it led to the exchange of parts of Staakens for Groß-Glienicke and Engelsfelde .

literature

  • Klaus von der Groeben : The Mecklenburg real estate assets in the communities of Ziethen, Mechow, Bäk and Römnitz. History of the change of area and the trustee management since 1945. Load equalization bank, Bonn-Bad Godesberg [1982].
  • Kulturamt (Ed.): On the development of the inner-German border between western Mecklenburg and the Duchy of Lauenburg in the years 1945–1990 . In: Ramona Piehl, Horst Stutz, Jes Parschau: Insights 4, history and stories along the inner-German border in Northwest Mecklenburg . 2nd Edition. Northwest Mecklenburg District, 2001.
  • Hartwig Fischer: The exchange of territory from 1945 , in: Heike Fischer, Hartwig Fischer: Border opening and German unity. World history on your doorstep. Photo documentation of the opening of the border in 1989/90 between the Duchy of Lauenburg and Mecklenburg . Extended 4th edition, Ratzeburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-00-047379-1 , pp. 18-21.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.kmrz.de/barber.htm German translation of the contract
  2. ↑ Uwe Krog: Area swap from 1945 continues to have an effect at Schaalsee until today  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Lübecker Nachrichten of August 11, 2005@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.ln-online.de  
  3. ↑ Ramona Piehl, Horst Stutz, Jens Parschau: Insights 4 - History and stories along the inner-German border in Northwest Mecklenburg . P. 28. The archive of the Duchy of Lauenburg district is named as the source .
  4. ↑ Ramona Piehl, Horst Stutz, Jens Parschau: Insights 4 - History and stories along the inner-German border in Northwest Mecklenburg . P. 32.