European Document/West of the Wall
McGurn, William
EUROPEAN DOCUMENT
WEST OF THE WALL
Berlin, the guidebooks all agree, does not get very hot, but at this conference for German and American journalists the 90-degree heat wave is the major source of...
...Even as late as one or two a.m...
...On the first evening of the conference, during a dinner with Ambassador Arthur Burns at the Harnack House, U.S...
...Rather, this seems to bolster the Germans' sense of superiority to the Russians, reaffirming the feeling that they better than the Americans know how to handle Moscow...
...Over its 22 years of existence the only changes have served to make it both technologically and psychologically more forbidding...
...Recently it has been redecorated, in a style one guest described as neo-bordello: heavy maroon carpet and drapes, set off by pink and white...
...the Germans are bemused at the keen interest the Americans display for the Green Party, who despite their two million votes in the last election are considered to be of minor importance...
...EUROPEAN DOCUMENT WEST OF THE WALL Berlin, the guidebooks all agree, does not get very hot, but at this conference for German and American journalists the 90-degree heat wave is the major source of complaint...
...There is a pause, for translation...
...Over on the other side, reaching some 1,209 feet up into the skyline, is the East Berlin TV tower...
...But we continue to sweat...
...A German asks me about Will Rogers, and after a day of INF discussions I yield to an overwhelming temptation...
...At the moment, U.S...
...Nevertheless, to suggest that the shamefully blatant crudeness of the Soviet presence only intimidates the Germans would be a mistake...
...Herr Tietz is about 35 years old, charming, and as he informs me a "practicing capitalist" in the Schumacher mold-the proprietor of a small Rent-A-Van concern...
...After building it the East Germans discovered to their chagrin that on sunny days the light striking the orb produces a giant cross, visible for miles...
...These words are from a Berliner, inside the Reichstag, with a view of the Wall quite literally over our shoulders...
...officials, even while celebrating the 300th anniversary of Germans in America, worry over the "new generation" of Europeans who have no memories of the Second World War...
...In response to my query as to whether he is against all nuclear weapons or would accept German nuclear weapons, he says, yes, he could accept German nuclear arms...
...Close to the top is a glass-enclosed sphere called the Telecafe a revolving restaurant that completes one full turn each hour...
...You may think me naive," HerrTietz told me, "but I do not want my peace to have to depend on how many missiles I have on my side of the line...
...Information Agency-have booked us into a hotel lacking air conditioning and featuring windows of a particularly nasty Teutonic design that makes them virtually impossible to open...
...I told you it wasn't subtle...
...Ambassador Burns has a few strong words concerning Petra Kelly and her Greens, and describes as "hooligans" the five-to-seven hundred demonstrators who made headlines in June by stoning Vice President Bush's car in Krayfeld...
...Officer's Club...
...During the course of our program, I am finally introduced to a bona fide Green, the Honorable Uwe Tietz, a member of parliament as well as of the Alternate List Party...
...Over cocktails the Germans and Americans exchange jokes about their respective political leaders...
...High overhead, the revolving blue-and-white Mercedes-Benz symbol dominates the dark sky, a beacon of capitalist light: another blunt metaphor, like the Wall...
...What all sides know is that Germany, the first site of any East-West conflict, is the key to Europe's future...
...The Ambassador is sympathetic...
...The conference organizers-the American Council of Young Political Leaders, the City of Berlin, Atlantic Bridge, and the U.S...
...The East Berlin side sports a faded, peeling coat of light green paint spotted with pigeon droppings, weeds sprouting all along its crumbling roadway...
...Later that night, most of the journalists decide to take advantage of the German beer and the evening breeze by parking themselves at some outdoor cafe...
...the KurfUrstendamm -Berlin's main drag-is still hopping...
...Given this, the decision of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's conservative government to guarantee almost $400 million worth of private loans to the East (the first loan with no strings attached) is not at all earth-shattering...
...What they don't know is what that future will be...
...An American journalist, endeavoring to reconcile Burns's statements on the missiles with those received from Administration officials in Washington, admits she is confused...
...Those of us who venture out toward the line have our photographs taken by East German soldiers guarding the "anti-fascist barriers" on their side...
...I order ah orangesaft, and am ripped off for 8 deutschemarks ($3.50...
...In fact, aside from making a program out of opposition to everyone else, the Greens have no real plans...
...It's just the cost of doing business...
...Built largely with funds exacted from the faithful in the form of a "church tax," the tower is modeled after a similar one back in Mother Moscow...
...Perhaps you are right," he tells me...
...Unlike most of his fellow Greens, however, Herr Tietz is a born and bred Berliner...
...From our conversation, rendered comprehensible by the able translation of Stefan Simons of the Frankfurter Rundschau, a definite lack of consistency becomes apparent...
...In Berlin, the metaphors are rarely subtle...
...Talk to some more people," he tells her, "and you'll be more confused still...
...For this majority of Europeans, reared in peace and affluence, Berlin before the Wall does not exist and America is more likely to be remembered for Vietnam than for the Marshall Plan...
...Minister Nelson Ledsky elicits a warm round of applause for his diplomatic suggestion that we dispense with our jackets...
...In practical terms, Ostpolitik means that some 80 percent of the East German population regularly sees the West German population, and families and friends on both sides of the border appreciate its small but real benefits...
...Even at inherently scenic scapes like the Glienicke Bridge-where Francis Gary powers was exchanged for Colonel Rudolf Abel back in 1962-the Marxist propensity for the crass asserts itself...
...In the end, of course, everything comes back to the Wall...
...A white-haired grandfather figure complete with suspenders and gold-rimmed glasses, the Ambassador fields questions from the reporters...
...Then he laughs...
...To the delight of the Americans, he is even dressed the part: yellow T-shirt, plastic sandals, and a striped sports jacket that more closely resembles a pajama top...
...What the Ambassador does not say is that this is perhaps the nut of the problem: how can there be popular support without popular understanding...
...He asks me if I believe in that...
...The result here is a snapshot so close to parody that any grade-B Hollywood set designer who attempted to duplicate it would be laughed out of his job...
...The Harnack House is an intriguing building, formerly the workplace of German scientists like Albert Einstein and now the U.S...
...As the Spectator's precipient managing editor reported in these pages a year ago,* the Germans are firmly committed to detente-at almost any cost...
...Divided by a white line smack in the middle, the steel bridge features a Western half freshly painted, neatly paved, and with boatloads of happy West Berliners cruising by underneath...
...Not far up the block, a topless dancer beckons from the red-lit doorway of a seedy cabaret...
...As might be expected, what most of these journalists have on their minds is missiles: specifically, the Pershing II's scheduled to be deployed on German soil at the end of the year...
...A well-known Communist radio commentator of the 30S," I say, seriously...
...Locals call it "the Pope's revenge," and rumor has it that the-authorities have tried everything they can think of to get rid of it...
...I tell him that/believe what he is saying-but am not sure he believes what he is saying...
Vol. 16 • September 1983 • No. 9
