Upon his return to Germany, Reuter joined the
Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and was named the First Secretary of its Berlin section. He embraced a position on the left wing of the party endorsing an open rebellion in March 1921 in central Germany and placed himself hereby in opposition to the leader of the party,
Paul Levi. Although Reuter was seen as a favorite of Lenin, he was expelled from the party in 1922. He moved briefly to the
Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD), and then returned to the Social Democrats for good. In 1926, Reuter entered services in the government of Berlin and was responsible for
transportation. Accomplishments were the foundation of the
Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), the introduction of a unified ticket for public transportation, and extensions of the
Berlin subway system. portrait, 1932 From 1931 until 1933, Reuter was the mayor of
Magdeburg where he fought lack of housing and jobs due to the economic crisis. He also was elected as a member of the
Reichstag. In 1933, with the
Nazis now in power, he was forced to resign his positions and was brought to the
concentration camp (KZ)
Lichtenburg near
Torgau. He was released through the English efforts at the
University of Cambridge, where we would go into exile, before continuing on to
Turkey in 1935 where he stayed until the end of the Nazi era. In
Ankara he lectured at the
University of Ankara, introduced
urban planning as a university discipline, and served as consultant to the Government.
Post-war Berlin After the end of World War II, Reuter returned to Berlin, and was elected in 1946 to the Magistrate (governing body) where he oversaw initially the Transportation Department. In 1947 he was elected
Lord Mayor (Oberbürgermeister) of Berlin but in the deepening crisis of the
Cold War, the Soviet government withheld their necessary consent. Reuter is most notable for his stance during the Cold War in Berlin. During the Soviet-imposed
Berlin Blockade (1948/49), the western part of city was sustained by the
Berlin airlift that was established by the American Military Governor,
Lucius D. Clay. In response to the threat, the citizens in the western sectors had to come together. Ernst Reuter became their spokesman and leader, a symbolic figure of the Free Berlin. Reuter's speech in front of the burned-out
Reichstag building on 9 September 1948 received wide acclaim, where he faced a crowd of 300,000 and appealed to the world not to abandon Berlin. In the election that was conducted in the western part of Berlin two months later, his popularity gave the SPD the highest win ever achieved by any party in a free election in Germany, with 64.5% of the vote. As mayor he formed a grand coalition government with the next two largest parties to demonstrate West Berlin's unity. Reuter's appeal to the West did not go unheard. The
airlift saved the city from starvation, and Reuter became only the second German postwar politician (after
Konrad Adenauer) to be placed on the cover of
Time magazine. When the new state constitution became effective for the western sectors of Berlin, Reuter was re-elected and on 18 January 1951 and became what was now called the Governing Mayor (Regierender Bürgermeister) of
West Berlin. He served in this function until his death. Under his aegis, the
Free University of Berlin was founded, as the
University of Berlin was in the Soviet sector and under communist rule. In 1953 Reuter established the "Bürgermeister-Reuter-Stiftung" (Mayor Reuter Foundation) to assist refugees coming to West-Berlin. A few months after the
uprising of 17 June 1953 in
East Berlin, Reuter died from a sudden heart attack in West Berlin. He was 64 years old. His funeral was attended by more than 1 million people and he was honored with an
Ehrengrab (honorary grave) in the
Waldfriedhof Zehlendorf.
Quote •
"Ihr Völker der Welt ... Schaut auf diese Stadt und erkennt, dass ihr diese Stadt und dieses Volk nicht preisgeben dürft, nicht preisgeben könnt!" (People of this world... look upon this city and see that you should not, cannot abandon this city and this people) —Reuter's speech from 9 September 1948 (German) == Family ==