A Talk with Assembly President Rudiger von Wechmar
SAMUELS, GERTRUDE
GERMANVS MAN AT THE UN ATalk with Assembly President Rudiger vonWechmar by gertrude samuels United Nations Baron Rudiger von Wechmar was named President of the United Nations General Assembly...
...Von Wechmar: I'm presiding over the effort to minimize exactly the dangers inherent in the problems you have mentioned...
...The funny thing is that Baron is the English translation of the German word meaning Baron, but no one can pronounce Freiherr in English, or in French, so it remains Baron . In any case, ever since the Weimar Republic Constitution of 1919, because there has been no king or emperor around to convey nobility to a family, the title has become part of the name...
...I think it is unfair to concentrate on the Assembly and the Security Council...
...Von Wechmar: No...
...But as a former journalist, what would you say has been newsworthy...
...I cannot understand why it's not possible for the richer nations to accomplish what they have committed themselves to—that is, to make available 0.7 per cent of their gross national product for official development aid...
...There's no sudden new crisis that we're taking up...
...Samuels: Thank you, Mr...
...Ambassador, I'd like to turn to the Global Negotiations issue...
...Now, it's not as easy as that...
...The Ambassador, a balding 57-year-old six-footer whose ready smile reflects h is charm, is widely respected as a talented diplomat...
...GERMANVS MAN AT THE UN ATalk with Assembly President Rudiger vonWechmar by gertrude samuels United Nations Baron Rudiger von Wechmar was named President of the United Nations General Assembly last September, at the opening of its 35th regular session...
...Ambassador, there is a resurgence of nationalism in Europe, in the Western world, with Germany having economic and political leverage in the leadership role in Europe...
...Do you think the Germans should forget...
...This will be costly for the North, I agree...
...It became famous again in the last century, because it was the birthplace of Karl Marx...
...It will be a major remodeling of world economic relations...
...Samuels: That was back in...
...Really, not at all...
...Von Wechmar: Well, I would invite interested correspondents to take a look both at the UN Charter and the rules of procedure...
...Fidel Castro was here at the Assembly, and he made a two-hour speech demanding...
...And what's wrong with a debating forum...
...Samuels: And that great-giandfath-er who knew Herzl...
...Samuels: How do you feel about the unification of West and East Germany, especially in the light of the increased polarization of the two Germanys...
...Von Wechmar: The term "crisis agenda" applies, if it applies at all, not only to this assembly...
...Von Wechmar: I doubt this very much, for a simple reason: The world has shrunk...
...As long as the Security Council is "seized" with the matter, the Assembly must not deal with it —and vice versa...
...I'm not presiding over a world parliament where individual states render sovereign rights...
...I'm interested in your ancestral background...
...I have yet to see a front-page story on unicef, or the UN Development Program, or the World Food Council, or the World Health Organization, or similar agencies that do excellent work...
...Samuels: Are royal titles, such as your own of Baron, still prevalent in Germany today...
...Samuels: Would such unification be a threat to the world again...
...Von Wechmar: I don't at all...
...So the quote [in the Times] does not relate at all to what happened in Europe under Hitler...
...Even then, it can only be done if the Security Council fails...
...Samuels: Mr...
...Samuels: Isthereapricetagontheaid the poorer countries need...
...And what is unfortunate is that the New York Times did not record the question and the context...
...And, now, I indeed believe that being elected to sit up on the dais there of the General Assembly is the stamp of approval—that the years that brought about the United Nations and made it include the "enemy states" clauses in the Charter, that this era is over...
...Don't you feel frustrated...
...Samuels: Mr...
...Why can't the United States...
...so has the United States, so have many other countries...
...Samuels: A follow-up to that, Mr...
...It can do very serious, promising work without every other day producing a front-page story...
...It was then a major city of the Holy Roman Empire and seat of the emperors...
...Gertrude Samuels reports regularly on the United Nationsfor this magazine...
...We've seen this on Afghanistan...
...Von Wechmar: There are three main reasons...
...In Herzl's own writings, I believe, he expressed himself as thankful for the Duke of Baden's support—both intellectual and, I think, material...
...What we have to do in the meantime is make living conditions, relations, between the two Germanys more, well— comfortable may be the wrong word— more acceptable and free from unnecessary tensions...
...Things—times—like those could and should never be forgotten...
...Afghanistan is relatively new, yet it, too, has already been dealt with by an emergency special session...
...I also explained that the first step in this direction was when Germany was elected to the Security Council, and when I was President of the Council...
...1 personally think the unification of Germany is not just around the corner...
...What concerns me in this context is that a great number of people who report on the United Nations concentrate almost entirely on two of its institutions, the Security Council and the General Assembly...
...It does not relate to the Holocaust...
...That's why the Charter still today contains Article 5 3 and Article 107, the enemy clauses...
...Von Wechmar: On the unification of my country—or my nation, rather, because we consider East Germans still to be German nationals—our Constitution proclaims unification as one goal of our policies...
...He attributes his impeccable American-English mostly to University of Minnesota correspondence courses taken during that period...
...Baron von Wechmar was born in Berlin...
...Every now and then you find a piece on the economic pages about the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund...
...As long as we talk, we don't shoot...
...We felt we overcame it in 1949 [when West Germany was created], but this is the international stamp of approval that 1933-45 is forgotten...
...After World War II, he workedfirst for West German newspapers and then for the United Press, becoming the UP's Bonn bureau chief in 1954...
...Following his capture by the U.S...
...Why is this area so important that it requires your personal attention...
...Von Wechmar: Let's begin with the history: The first man of my family name was recorded in the year 840, about the time of Charlemagne...
...Von Wechmar: Twice—back in 1977 and in 1978...
...The UN was founded as an alliance against the Axis, or the enemy powers...
...Von Wechmar: Such as apartheid, Namibia, the Middle East, Palestine...
...Von Wechmar: Well, in reaction to the elections here my government has expressed the hope and the wish that the new Administration will continue the strong and dependable alliance between Western Europe and the United States...
...The agenda of the 35th session contains mostly subjects that were dealt with by previous General Assembly meetings...
...Von Wechmar: Definitely not, as far as my country is concerned...
...My father's brother—executed by the Nazis, and six other members of my family did not survive...
...their aid is much, much smaller than that of the Western countries...
...But under the treaties we have entered into —the Western European Union Pact and the nato alliance—my country has voluntarily resigned from having nuclear weapons of its own...
...From a more detached point of view, I think this Assembly will be interesting on the subject of "Global Negotiations"—in other words, the North-South dialogue...
...What we want in Europe is detente...
...My family became related to the House of Baden, and through that House related to some royal families...
...I'm not presiding over a world government...
...Von Wechmar: Yes, he came with his famous $300 billion price...
...They hardly cover the specialized agencies...
...Samuels: What about bringing this war before the General Assembly as an "urgent item...
...Do you really think the world should forget the old Hitler Germany...
...But a sort of paxSovietica in Europe at the expense of the Western Alliance, at the expenseof the United States —it's absolutely out of the question...
...What price German peace with the Soviet Union...
...There is no intention at all by my government to change that policy—and I know for sure this is true of the opposition as well, should it take over in four or eight years...
...If one looks at the Assembly from the point of view of drama, of sensation, of excitement, one may be disappointed...
...What we do not want, and will not do, is deliver ourselves to the Soviet Union...
...I understand that your great grandfather, a duke of the House of Baden, was instrumental in helping Theodor Herzl meet various heads of government at a crucial period in Herzl's ambitions for a Jewish homeland...
...So far, they have not been very active...
...But, again, it would be unfair to accuse the General Assembly of not dealing with something if it can't, under the rules and the Charter...
...In short, what are you presiding over exactly...
...Ambassador...
...Why can't Japan...
...I say this as a German, and also as someone who lost seven of his closest relatives—not in battle action, but before firing squads and in concentration camps...
...Samuels: You mentioned that the Assembly is not dealing with the Persian Gulf war, which has the Security Council stalled...
...I would forget the fate of my immediate relatives if I would forget the Nazi period...
...Is it possible that the European Community, and West Germany in particular, is about to fold up the nuclear umbrella of the United States and open up its own nuclear protection...
...The whole exercise will probably take several years...
...What we're dealing with, as defined in last session's resolution, involves five major areas: Raw materials, trade, the field of energy—which is entirely new to the UN, we've never really discussed energy—development, and finally money and finance...
...We have to get along with one another, keeping in mind—on our side at least—that this is only a step to future reunification...
...Samuels: To conclude, Mr...
...Even if I wanted to, I couldn't drop it...
...There are millions of people in this world who are still underprivileged, still poor, suffering from rising oil prices that their governments can't pay for...
...Now, the Assembly, in my view, is not necessarily bad when it's dull...
...It's not necessarily deserving of criticism when it doesn't produce headlines...
...What I was referring to are the two enemy clauses in the United Nations Charter...
...There's agreat deal of heat being generated today on the subject of what the rich nations should do for the poor and underdeveloped nations, with spokesmen for the poor nations accusing the rich of dragging their feet...
...Von Wechmar: Well, obviously...
...In the phone book, I'm listed under "F" for Freiherr...
...Ambassador, can we digress a moment...
...He joined the German Army during World War II at age 18, serving in Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Af-rika Korps with the rank of first lieutenant...
...forces in 1943, he spent over three years as a prisoner-of-war in Colorado and Virginia...
...Samuels: Do the German people really want unification...
...There's an awful lot of visiting...
...Ambassador, just what purpose do you think the UN serves today, beyond the standard explanation that it's a debating forum...
...A n ex-journalist, he eschews formality and is known to scores of his fellow ambassadors simply as "Rudy," but he is proud of his aristocratic forebears...
...Samuels: Mr...
...Reagan is going to address specific subjects—to mention but one, salt n—I think we'll have to wait to see until after January 20...
...Now, how you reach this goal, and when you reach it, has been under constant discussion since 1949, the year the Federal Republic was founded...
...Permit me to go back to your question of newsworthiness...
...Samuels: Such as...
...Von Wechmar: Yes, he was trying to be helpful to Herzl, to set up appointments with the Kaiser and some other important government figures...
...First, we have been dealing in our own countries with the problems of the poor, and we have yet to learn to look beyond our borders...
...I mean, we have contractual arrangements with the Soviet Union, we have a treaty with the Soviet Union...
...Secondly, the South, in my view, is for the industrialized countries two things: the market for our industrial goods, and the provider of raw materials...
...It's much more sensitive, much more complicated...
...Although largely ceremonial, the one-year post is a much sought after honor that is rotated among the World Organization's five regional blocs...
...Samuels: Mr...
...Is there any chance, looking ahead, of an alliance with the Soviet Union...
...We're not dealing with Iran-Iraq...
...Ambassador, the business before this General Assembly has been characterized as a "crisis agenda...
...Herzl was having a hard time being heard...
...Because, again going back to the Charter, it is the Security Council that's empowered to take action against "enemy states...
...What I was trying to express was that the UN, by its action, recorded that Germany is no longer an "enemy state," but is a member of the United Nations—a full member...
...Why can't my country...
...Certainly not...
...As a former agency reporter, I would of course look for something that is exciting, that makes headlines...
...So, thirdly, there is a mutual interest in arriving at a partnership beneficial for us in the North and for those in the South...
...As for how Mr...
...Von Wechmar: Somebody has to make a request...
...We want reasonable arrangements that would reduce the threat of war in Central Europe...
...Otherwise in the last year alone 8 million East Germans would not have crossed into West Germany and vice versa...
...Samuels: Mr...
...Why can't we...
...We're trying to draft an agenda for the Global Negotiations, for a UN international conference to begin next year here in New York that will include the East European Socialist countries...
...But I think when people talk about a "crisis Assembly," what they have in mind is crises in various regions...
...Now, when you refer to Western Europe, you have two countries, Britain and France, that have their own nuclear weapons...
...In 1974, he was appointed head of West Germany's Mission to the UN...
...We had an emergency special session on Afghanistan, after the Security Council could not agree...
...Some in the North have been able to do so—France has, the Netherlands has, Sweden has...
...He has held various foreign service posts, and was his government's spokesman under Chancellor Willy Brandt...
...There has been an election in this country, there is a caretaker government, and we may find it a bit more difficult to deal with issues because of the changeover next January...
...Ambassador, when you became President of this General Assembly back on September 16, you were quoted in the New York Times as follows: "It means the end of an era...
...This time out it was Western Europe's turn to propose the candidate whom the 154 member countries would accept by acclamation, and the Federal Republic of Germany lobbied hard to have its UN representative designated: His presence on the high Assembly hall dais would be a sign that the Nazi era is a thing of the past...
...I interviewed him in his office on the 38th floor of the Secretariat building...
...Samuels: Given the new leadership that is now emerging in America, following the elections, would you clarify your idea of detente...
...Ambassador...
...With the huge arsenal of nuclear weapons in the two superpower regions, and with the fast communications and fast transportation today, I cannot possibly see how a relatively small, even if unified, country in Central Europe would have the potential to become a threat to the world...
...The problems of the world—wars, invasions, terrorism, genocide itself—are still with us today...
...Von Wechmar: I don't think that would ever enter into the minds of whoever may be responsible in my country...
...He was in a knights' tournament, horses, shining armor, all that stuff—in a little place called Trier that is now West of Frankfurt...
Vol. 63 • December 1980 • No. 22
