Berlin Chronicle

...This store is frequented by resident foreign diplomats and businessmen and their families, and by East Germans with generous relatives across the border who send them West German marks...

...Visitors traveling in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) tell of being questioned about all sorts of things when it is discovered that they are from the United States...

...For a West German to obtain a visa permitting an extended stay in the East, he must have a formal invitation from a GDR citizen, and his application has to pass a thorough examination by the Volkspolizei, a process taking some six weeks...

...it is a key feature of the catechism accepted by every Party member, even when Soviet shortcomings are tacitly recognized...

...Because cars are an expensive, hard to acquire luxury, there is a reluctance to use them much during Berlin's snowy winters, for fear of collision damage...

...as the local newspapers report...

...There are regular formal dealings among the Allied commanders and the Soviet commander in the East...

...Like East Berlin, West Berlin offers excellent opera and theater to very appreciative audiences, if conclusions may be drawn from the rapturous applause at the performance I saw of Maenner, Miezen und Moneten (Guys and Dolls) at the Theater des Westens...

...The Wall stands, but the atmosphere is calm...

...A visitor to East Berlin must exit at the same point he enters...

...But loyalty to the USSR persists...

...No one should doubt, though, that the Russians are in charge in East Germany...

...Technically, the three Allied commanders are in charge of their respective sectors...

...By contrast, all West Germans —aside from approximately4,000 designated Right-wing journalists, peace movement activists and similar potential troublemakers—may travel to the East...

...In 1983 a congressional delegation, led by Florida Democrat Sam Gibbons, stopped in East Berlin...

...A Russian car similarly tours West Berlin...

...Honecker, who rose to his present preeminence as a Stalinist, and the other East German leaders are completely Moscow-oriented where ideology is concerned...

...The four-power agreements implemented in 1972 to end the friction between the two halves of Berlin have held up surprisingly well...

...Do you actually live in houses like those in Dallas...

...Americans arouse much interest among East Germans, regardless of ideological persuasion...

...The Kremlin, of course, soon made it clear that this sort of free-lancing by a fraternal Socialist state, and the peripheral dangers involved, were not appreciated...

...Admittedly in no way comparable to West Germany's industrial powerhouse, East Germany's economic performance—in exportable manufactured goods, mine production, agriculture, and other areas—is nonetheless substantially better than the Soviet Union's...

...Indeed, East German officials, gripped by Communist paranoia, are wary of Western approaches...

...There has even been movement on minor territorial exchanges to remedy a few of the more glaring geographical anomalies produced in 1961 when the East Germans erected the gruesome Wall that slices Berlin in two...

...On their part the East Germans, receiving unclear signals from Moscow, apparently decided they had nothing to lose in undertaking some bridge-building with countries able to hold out hard currency markets for their goods and hefty bank loans for industrial growth...

...Consequently, West Berlin plays uncomfortable host to thousands of Lebanese, Sri Lan-kans, Pakistanis, and others—all courtesy of the German Democratic Republic, a country that doesn't permit these people to spend a single night on its own soil and doesn't much care whether they carry narcotics to finance their resettlement...

...they have carefully kept the lid tightly clamped during occasional revisionist rumblings emanating from East Berlin's Humboldt University...

...Some bright, imaginative younger men and women have been moving up through the ranks of the all-embracing Socialist Unity Party apparatus, and there is an ongoing rivalry between the Pragmatists ("Europeans") and the Dogmatists ("Muscovites") at the top...

...With very few exceptions, no East Germans—other than retired individuals who go through special application procedures—may travel to the West...

...Elsewhere there are restaurants, night clubs and discos galore, plus a sprinkling of hangouts aiming for a touch of '20s decadence...

...In fact, the weird abnormality of the largest city between Paris and Moscow has been institutionalized...

...Few incidents occur these days...

...Despite the Wall, a violation of fundamental postwar East-West agreements, relations between the United Norman Gelb, the NL's correspondent in London, recently visited Berlin...

...States and East Germany, established a decade ago, are cordial and correct...

...Do people really starve to death in the streets in America...

...Returning to the Friedrichstrasse station in the evening, I found six young Lebanese men waiting on the exit line, each with two bulging suitcases...

...American, British and French military sedans go into East Berlin every day to "show the flag" in this theoretically four-power enclave...

...By law, West Berlin must grant residence to anyone asking political asylum...

...The housing situation is far less desperate than it was, people are better dressed, and one sees more automobiles parked at large housing complexes...

...Refugees from troubled places, and others with less reason to flee abroad, head for Schoenfeld Airport on the outskirts of East Berlin, where they are quickly cleared, given a transit visa and directed to Friedrichstrasse...

...ditto...

...All they could really do with the 75 East marks they got in return was eat, so they went to restaurants and ordered from the most expensive dishes on the menu...

...The most striking feature of this remarkable city remains its division into two parts by the ugly, forbidding, well-guarded Wall...

...Then they take the subway to West Berlin, find accommodations (often previously arranged), and settle in...

...Neither West Germans nor foreigners need make a prior request to visit East Berlin...

...Since West Berliners are able to pick up GDR programs too (their schedules are listed in the daily papers), those films are often deliberately slotted to compete with prime time West Berlin television and they cream off much of its audience...

...But the effect of the gesture was spoiled by my being kept waiting outdoors 15 minutes in weather well below freezing while my passport was checked by the Grenzpolizisten (border police) —an outrageous circumstance, for I was the only person passing through at the time that gray, glacial afternoon...

...The indoor market at Alexanderplatz, I noticed, had loads of lemons but not a single orange...

...Nor does anyone have any illusions that because more than 30 years have elapsed since Soviet tanks were sent in to crush a workers' anti-Communist uprising in East Berlin and other East German cities, the 350,000 Soviet troops garrisoned in the GDR would be slow to crush the recurrence of such an upheaval...

...One day I went over by subway, getting on in West Berlin and getting off at Friedrichstrasse, the only stop the train makes in East Berlin...

...Festivals of Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand movies have prompted a West Berlin TV executive to complain that the East presents "better American films than we do...

...Among its many attractions are generous tax arrangements—personal income tax 30 per cent lower than in West Germany, corporate income tax 22.5 per cent lower...

...If, for example, someone throws a stinkbomb into the Aeroflot office in the American sector, the Russians lodge a complaint with the American Mission, which then instructs the local police to mount extra patrols near Soviet interests downtown (a fur trading company, a news agency office, a film export company, etc...

...To be sure, the passage of time has taken its toll...

...AndU.S.-GDR trade has been steadily, albeit slowly, expanding...

...Burger King and inexpensive steak houses now dot the once fashionable Kurfiirstendamm...

...Ruins remaining from the devastation inflicted by America's Soviet allies when they captured the city in 1945 are simply buildings "damaged during the liberation...

...In addition, this is home to more than 100,000 Turkish citizens and their Berlin-born offspring, gastarbeiter who arrived over many years to help build a major industrial center and now are the hardest hit by growing levels of unemployment...

...Repairs can take forever and replacement parts are difficult to obtain...

...Therein lies a serious problem for West Berlin...

...A visa valid for a day takes two days to secure at one of the visitor bureaus in West Berlin...

...There are still 6,000 U.S...

...East Germans at nearby tables invariably sized them up as free-spending capitalists on a slumming binge...

...Higher quality merchandise is available in a special East Berlin shop where everything from chic ski apparel to Dutch cheeses and French cosmetics can be bought with capitalist currencies...

...After having long been shunned as merely a Soviet puppet state, East Germany is currently seen by the United States as a key nation in Central Europe and potentially an important influence on developments in the Soviet bloc...

...The government-assigned guide on a tour bus for foreigners in East Berlin points out places "destroyed by American bombers" in World War II...

...I had visions of the Grepos taking forever with them, but they were practically waved through...

...Although presented unsmilingly, the tidbit of information appeared to be a friendly offering...

...Rarely visible in the streets, these "protecting" forces are the last significant vestiges of World War II in Central Europe...

...Its GNP is twice that of Ireland and almost half that of Austria...

...Those troubles notwithstanding, West Berlin is a throbbing, vibrant place, a neon-lit oasis deep within somber, Communist Eastern Europe...

...Before the authorities can effectively challenge a request of dubious merit in the courts, two years are likely to pass...

...It is strong on brains, boasting no less than 180 academic institutes of various kinds, and has moved vigorously into the era of high technology...

...Is it true that blacks are forbidden to attend university in the United States...

...ON BOTH SIDES OF THE WALL Berlin Chronicle BY NORMAN GELB West Berlin "Your ambassador is back in Washington at the moment," said the Grepo on the East Berlin side of Checkpoint Charlie as he glanced at my passport and passed it on to his colleague in the heated customs hut...

...In practice, an elected Senate administers West Berlin as a unit...

...Should an American diplomat happen to speak to an East German functionary by chance, no matter how innocent the conversation, it is likely the Foreign Ministry will subsequently remind the embassy that direct contacts must be cleared through its good offices "for the sake of efficiency...

...They can pick up a day-visa at one of the border stations and go right across after the passport clearance ritual—and the exchange each time of 25 West marks for East marks (at a 1:1 rate, rather than the real 1:4 value...

...Assistant Secretary of Statefor European Affairs Richard Burt visited the GDR last year...

...East German exports have a justifiable reputation for quality, yet many items sold domestically, such as toys and plastic gadgets, are shoddy...

...But the elegant Kempinski's and Cafe Mohring on the Ku'damm retain an Old World grace and charm...

...troops in West Berlin, as well as 3,700 British and 2,700 French...

...A few months ago, it felt obliged to reinforce the message by slapping down East German Party chief Erich Honecker publicly when he persisted with plans for an unprecedented visit to Bonn...

...He didn't like that, but he felt he had to maintain contact with the other part of the city he loved...

...Generally they are personnel in the "need to know" category at the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Trade, or those overseeing special cultural exchange programs...

...It's all usually low-keyed...

...This money is not reconvertible...

...A West Berliner complained to me that when he, his wife and his son went to see the other half of their city, they had to shell out 75 marks—no small charge for crossing town...

...That fact further encouraged the GDR to look increasingly Westward, rather than to the East, for trading partners...

...is still portrayed in East Germany as a militaristic, imperialist, morally corrupt land whose sins must be neither ignored nor forgotten...

...which can be seen by tuning in to West German television...

...Their presence blocked a Communist takeover in the past, and is maintained to head off a recurring threat should the atmosphere turn nasty again in the future...

...Yet East German television also offers a sharply conflicting and much more indelible image of the United States in the films it has begun screening over the last two years or so...

...That is the official line, and it is parroted by the news media...

...The lemons, it turned out, became available through a deal that did not require spending precious hard currency...

...Some contact for cross-border procedural purposes is maintained, however...

...This competition for viewers has its ironic side, because officially relations between East and West Berlin do not exist—the GDR refuses to entertain the idea...

...Living conditions, on the other hand, have eased somewhat for East Germans since my previous visit several years back...

...TheU.S...

...Diplomats at the American Embassy on Neustaedtische Kirchstrasse, off Unter den Linden, soon learn which GDR bureaucrats are permitted to see them...

...Secretary of State George Shultz recently conferred with East German Foreign Minister Oscar Fischer at the UN...

...Shortages of certain foods continue to be very common, too...