ABSTRACT
The fourth chapter explores how the remigré network exploited the Outpost narrative to deal with three crises in 1953. It examines the reasons for the remigré network's resilience and the narrative's political utility in reacting to these crises. The workers' revolt against the German Democratic Republic (GDR) regime seemingly confirmed the validity of the Outpost narrative, but the Soviet Army's bloody crackdown in East Berlin on June 17 starkly demonstrated the limitations of the narrative to bring social change to the GDR. At the same time, their left-wing leanings brought the network's American members into the crosshairs of Senator Joseph McCarthy. On September 29, the network experienced another blow when Mayor Reuter, its most prominent member and the public embodiment of Berlin's defiance of Soviet demands, died suddenly. This chapter traces the network's response to these cascading crises. While the suppression of the June 17 uprising dashed the network's hopes for a quick implosion of the GDR, the network reframed the events as a moral victory for freedom within the terms of the narrative. The network acted against McCarthyism by trumpeting the anti-Communist credentials of its actions in West Berlin. Bereaved of Reuter, the German Social Democratic members of the network rallied around remigré Willy Brandt to realize their vision of a Volkspartei, or big-tent party. Guided by this vision, the Social Democratic Party of Germany would break out of its prewar demographic confines within the working class and transform into a stridently anti-Communist, pro-American, left-of-center party to attract broader public support.
