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Greetings from West Germany. This is Crocker Snow speaking from the studios of Radio Deutsche Welle Cologne, the city with the world-famous Gothic cathedral. Today marks the first of a series of programs about the Federal Republic of Germany. Reporting weekly from a home base in Cologne, I will cover, as an interested and hopefully accurate observer, significant news of all kinds: political, economic, cultural, historical. The country of West Germany, of course, rates close attention. Just 20 years after the crushing defeat of World War II, she's established herself as the third leading industrial power of the world behind the U.S. and Russia. She is a cornerstone of western Europe and its two important offshoots, the Common Market and NATO. Despite the country's remarkable recovery since the 2nd World War, Germany is a long way from outliving her past. The German people are trying to atone for it or escape from it, but they find it hard to ignore.
Novelists like Günther Grass write about it. War crime trials, which still take place sporadically throughout the country, act as reminders. This year, playwright Peter Weiss's 'The Investigation,' concerning the Auschwitz trials, is the season's most talked about. War indemnities are still being paid annually to neighboring European countries and a 500 million dollar foreign aid package is being talked about for Israel. Nevertheless the most effective way to outlive the past is neither to apologize for it nor to bathe in its horrors. Rather, it is to set out in new directions for a fresh future. This the people realize and this the country is doing in a variety of ways. World opinion cannot overlook Germany's great expenditures of foreign aid to developing nations. A volunteer service similar to the American Peace Corps sends specialists to these same Nations as a sign of her renewed
stature in world circles. West Germany has just landed a real plum. The Olympics. These will take place in the summer of 1972 in Munich and the whole country is excited by the prospect. The German democracy seems to be firming up despite the occasional scare headlines of a new nationalism. The big test of democratic stability, a change of government, has not yet occurred. The ruling CDU party has been in power since the Federal Republic's inception in 1949. But the country is showing a democratic spirit in small ways. A new and novel example of this has cropped up in the northern port city of Hamburg. A place to gripe publicly, similar to Speakers' Corner at London's Hyde Park, the Gripers's Meadow was established early this year at the suggestion of someone within the city government. The griping isn't completely uninhibited. It's allowed only on Saturdays from 2 to 5 in one section of the city's Moorweide Park.
Those who sound off do it in different ways. Some from park benches, some from ladders, but they have to do it non electronically. The city fathers have outlawed the use of microphones or loudspeakers. Fellow reporter Bob Monteagle recently traveled to Hamburg to see and hear the soapbox orators. That's just really I mean the kind of awesome that Blondie telling me not to not have the little oder sowas, gro--im grössere Masse, durch [?] dass sie eine ganze Führungs[?] beseitigen, sondern es gehe--" "[Reporter]: That was one of the many varied and curious participants in a new German institution: the Meckerwiese, or Gripers's Meadow, as it is called in Hamburg's university district. It's the only place in the Federal Republic where you can gripe before a public gathering without a permit. The man talking a few seconds ago was expounding his views on world politics to a cluster of attentive listeners. Every Saturday afternoon in the liberal Hanseatic city,
gabbers of every ilk find their way to the park of uninhibited talk, just across the way from Dammtor's train depot. I sampled public response to Hamburg's answer to London's Speakers' Corner, and it seems that the gripe contagion has infected the spectators too. "[Spectator]: I don't like this at all." "[Reporter]: Why not?" "[Spectator]: Because I think it's a center of rockers and [Mordsspaß?], not a center of free speaking yet." "[Reporter]: Do you think eventually it will become a center of free speaking and tolerance?" "[Spectator]: I don't think so, because our German--what do you say-- mentality? Is that right?" "[Reporter]: Yeah." "[Spectator]: Is not, uh, like that. I think this, uh, organization is, uh, like, a, uh, like an order by the government. It has been ordered like our democracy and this is one part of this ordered democracy. It hasn't been a--a growth, an, uh-- an evolution." The reference to an ordered democracy is to a memo issued last February by Hamburg's Interior Ministry to the effect that parties, groups and individuals of
political or ideological persuasion can freely speak their minds without previous notice or special permission. What turn has this vehicle of free speech taken since it started last February? "[Interviewee]: The first week there was, at my opinion, a better, uh, situation here because, um, was a strong cold here and so here were only people who wanted to hear something real about politic or--or things, uh, about Hamburg or so on, but nowadays people are coming only here for getting some fun or something like that." "[Reporter]: But it is really a rather young institution, just several months old, or weeks old, as it were. Um, do you think that there may be a new development, a new change, that, uh, do you think it'll always stay a teenage, uh, gathering place?" "[Interviewee]: I hope I hope not, but I hope that it will become something like in London in, uh, Hyde Park's corner, uh, Speakers' Corner. But nowadays,
uh, only, uh, teenagers--and these teenager want only have some fun and nothing else." However, the fun that these teenagers have on the Gripers's Meadow is pretty serious. After listening to their shouts of "pipe down," I witnessed a mob of youngsters press a speaker from the park area. The speaker was an alleged Finnish ex-Nazi. I quizzed the [Twens?] on their actions. "[Reporter]: Do you think that your measures and your action was right?" "[Interviewee]: No, [?] not, but, uh, but, uh, he must, uh, must go down, he said, once every weekend Effluvia get into the same and he does not want to see. "[Reporter]: Don't you think it would perhaps be better if you left and let him talk and then he would realize that he didn't have anyone who was interested in him?" "[Interviewee]: Oh, but he listen to him and that's, um, it's, um, it's the, uh, the only way we c--we can, uh, put him down, und wurde--" "[Different Interviewee]: But not the Nazis." "[Interviewee]: But the Nazis are forbidden in German, and he is--he is a Nazi, he said it." "[Different Interviewee]: Yeah-- --he said it in--" "[Different Interviewee]: If you, em, bring this, em, thing--interview
in America or in, uh, England, then in some day, uh, they, s--uh, say about Germany that, um, the time of Hitler is again there, and that cannot be. This is wrong." "[Different Interviewee]: And he is a--he is a Nazi, and I think you must p--push him down." In summing up, one student standing by had the following to say about Hamburg's Meckerwiese: "[Reporter]: Could you tell us, please, your reaction to this Gripe Corner here in Hamburg?" "[Interviewee]: Yes, I think it is a very good thing here in Hamburg, but the people who are watching the speech --the speakers-- have to learn something. They have especially to learn that they, uh, don't need to disturb the speeches even when they don't like what they--what the speakers are saying. Maybe, uh, some years, uh, some years later, it is possible in Hamburg to--to say anything without being afraid to fall down from the ladder." Hamburg's Gripers's Meadow, then, is not yet a picture of tolerance, but it's a good start.
And it isn't only in small ways like this that West Germany is striking out in new directions. The country has begun to recognize our international responsibilities as a key member of the Western Alliance. Even in regard to the torrid situation in Southeast Asia. To date, West Germany has pumped almost 30 million dollars' worth of economic and technical aid into South Vietnam. Just last Monday, a plane left the Cologne-Bonn Airport for Saigon with a full load of medical supplies. An official in the Interior Ministry talked with Jack Graham about the shipment. "[Interviewee]: Uh, the total volume of the, uh, medicaments which are going to South Vietnam is placed at 4 and a quarter million dollars. And the value of the shipment, which is leaving Germany this morning from this airport, is about 100 thousand dollars." "[Reporter]: Um, what is the, uh, actual content of this medical shipment, what type of supplies are included in this [?]?" "[Interviewee]: Well, there are certain medicaments, there is especially, uh, blood plasma, uh, uh--Penicillin, and bandages and so on." "[Reporter]: Who
[Graham]: Who initiated this action? [Official]: This action was initiated by the, uh, German government, uh, after having, uh, learned what medicaments and what kinds of bandages, uh, the government in South Vietnam urgently needs." "[Reporter]: And who pays for the transport of these supplies to Vietnam?" "[Interviewee]: Uh, the transport of these supplies to Vietnam is total played--paid by the German Government." "[Reporter]: Do you know exactly where the supplies are going?" "[Interviewee]: Yes, uh, the supplies are all going to, uh, Saigon." "[Reporter]: Do you have any idea of the need of these supplies, has this been researched, or--" "[Interviewee]: Yes. Yes, uh, Uh, uh, some experts, uh, went to Saigon a few weeks ago and which medicaments are urgently needed, especially, uh, for wounded, uh, people, [Official]: for mothers and children in South Vietnam. [Graham]: is this medical assistance given in lieu of direct military aid?" "[Interviewee]: No, this is, uh, one step of uh, of a, uh, large, uh, action of, uh, humanitarian help for South Vietnam and don't ?need to remember? the uh hospital
of the swimming hospital, the ship which the German Government is going to send through South Vietnam. And we are also trying to, uh, prove the question if we can send nurses and so on, uh, on voluntary ba--basis to South Vietnam to help the people there." "[Reporter]: Are there other shipments of medicants planned?" "[Interviewee]: Yes, there are, um, another, uh, shipments of medicam--uh, plans--planned, and, uh, the next, uh, medical, uh, shipment is going, uh, via Hamburg by ship, um, [Official]: on 16th of May. [Graham]: When Minister ?Luffgur? made his address to the, uh, people here at the airport in Cologne, uh, he made some references to care packages. Could you expand on that statement?" "[Interviewee]: Yes, uh, you see, the German people remembers the American care, uh, packages action in 1945 to 1948 and, uh, we are also trying, uh, to prove if we can do a, uh, a similar action for the people in South Viem--uh, South Vietnam, to send parcels there,
especial parcels, uh, food parcels and parcels for mothers and children." The South Vietnamese ambassador to West Germany, Moon ?Koo En?, was also at the airport to see the shipment off. "[Ambassador]: Uh, as I just, uh, point out, uh, this aid is coming not only from the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, but also and mainly from the people of, uh, Germany. And that is, in my point of view, it's a very important, because know Germany begin to realize the importance of, uh, our struggle in Vietnam." The latest contribution by West Germany to South Vietnam floats. A hospital ship, the Helgoland, fully staffed with 40 to 50 qualified doctors and nurses. She is being refitted now and should leave Hamburg for the South China Sea sometime early this summer. Nevertheless, despite the fact that in economic aid
to South Vietnam, West Germany is doing her part, still the cry is heard, even from American congressman, for outright military aid: troops. Of course, this would jeopardize the country's hard-earned reputation as a peaceful one. Much more important, the question is academic. Under present arrangements, the German government couldn't send troops to Southeast Asia even if she wanted to. For all of the German army falls under NATO's command structure. When considering West Germany today, it is important to understand the significance of the so-called Economic Miracle, which has swept the country since the early 50s. Credited to Chancellor Ludwig Erhard, when he was formerly Economics Minister, it has meant a rapidly improving standard of living. True, the cost of living has risen as well, and the ugly word 'inflation' is becoming a real threat. Because of the economic boom, labor is at a real premium. Foreign workers from Spain,
Italy, Greece, and other European countries, are employed throughout West Germany. These so-called 'Gastarbeiters' now number an estimated million and a quarter. They have established their own native communities and even ghettos in many large cities such as Munich, Stuttgart, and Frankfurt. Alongside the manifest materialism of the Economic Miracle, a great national concern, if not the greatest, is that of reunification. At present, some 17 million Germans live in what the West Germans carefully call the Eastern zone. 52.5 million in the West. The continuing division of East from West, German from German, kin from kin, is a source of tremendous frustration here. In fact, it is almost a national obsession. One that has been punctuated by the Berlin Wall and the simultaneous closing of the whole border in the summer of 1961. Along the border, East Germany
has an estimated 30,000 VoPos on patrol to prevent escapes. West Germany counters with an elite corps of border police, the Bundesgrezschutz. This group, all volunteers, originally protected West Germany from East German marauders during the open border years. What is their purpose now, with a closed border in effect? Major Siegfried Jansch, Commandant of the border police at Fulda, east of Frankfurt, talks to Russ Davis about this and the frustrations of his elite force. "[Interviewee]: The Bundesgrenzschutz, uh, was established in 1951 by German federal law, which gave the following definition of his mission: The Bundesgrenzschutz authorities guard the federal territory. They furthermore guard the federal territory against other violations of public order in the border district, as
far as these endanger the security of the borderline." "[Reporter]: How large is the Bundesgrenzschutz today?" "[Interviewee]: The Bundesgrenzschutz is a police force of, uh, 20,000 ?Theorie Establishment?" "[Reporter]: Mmm-hmm. And, uh, how large is it actually a day?" "[Interviewee]: Well, actually, uh, we have a force or a strength of about, uh, well, 18,000." "[Reporter]: It's designed primarily as a police force, is this correct?" "[Interviewee]: Eh, that's correct. It's a police force and purely a police force. This was and is an important point, because by being not a part of any military organization and receiving orders only from the Ministry of the Interior, and not the Ministry of Defense or NATO, the Bundesgrenzschutz is able to deal with border incidents and border violations on a non-military
and usually non-political basis. Uh, thus, these border incidents, uh, may be limited to mere police actions, which otherwise would force both NATO and the Warsaw Pact forces to become engaged, and that might well be the ignition spark to a very big affair--even a 3rd World War." Since the conception of the Bundesgrezschutz, uh, it has been, um, an exemplary unit, and has an exemplary record for, uh, fulfilling its task. How do you account for this, sir? Is it an esprit de corps? Is it, uh, as a result of their training, or is it possibly a result of different things including these?" "[Interviewee]: Well, uh, eh, I would say there are 2 main points to your question. Mmm, first of all, of course, we are a force of volunteers only, and volunteers, of course, have a better esprit de corps as draftees, normally.
And another important point is that, uh, we have an active mission in peacetime where a military institution, eh, prepares for active duty in a situation which nob--uh-- nobody wants." "[Reporter]: One final question, and that is the following: one hears so much about the brutal shootings, which go on along the other side of the border. Murders--cold-blooded murders--of people attempting to flee to the West. The Bundesgrenzschutz is often on the other side of the border at the time this happens. What can they do about this?" "[Interviewee]: Uh, well, unfortunately we can do very little about it. Uh, it's a--a legal problem that often happens, as you said, that refugees from the other side, who only want to go from one part of Germany to the other, are shot at by the BC, the border command, the soldiers on the other side.
They are wounded and sometimes--in some cases--shot to death in cold blood. Eh, but according to our regulations, we cannot interfere. Officially, there is no legal division between East and West Germany. But our laws, especially the laws enumerating the compulsion to help in criminal emergencies and to lend assistance in case of self-defense, cannot be applied beyond the federal territory. And, uh, imagine what must be going on in the minds of our young officers who, uh--I would say this is the normal human reaction--want to help this refugee. Prevent him from being murdered, as we see it. Of course, he may be a criminal. But this would be an exception. And even a criminal has a legal right for correct inquiry and trial. I am sure we all think that shooting a man dead and asking
questions afterward is the worst attitude possible, but it's even harder for a young man, a half-youngster, as our police officers are, to watch this crime, having the proper means to intervene and not be allowed to do something." The dillemma of the West German border police is just one manifestation of the country's great dillemma: the artificial division caused by the Iron Curtain. The dilemma is almost an insoluble one. East Germany, being the most highly developed industrial producer in the Soviet Block, is a valuable asset to the Russians, one which they won't give up. In recent weeks, however, the first ray of hope for an improvement of the situation has appeared, at least according to ever hopeful West Germans. In March, the communist SED party of East Germany, headed by Walter Ulbricht, sent a letter to the West German oppositional Social Democrat Party suggesting talks. The
communists still like to consider the social democrats as an offshoot of the SED due to the party's leftist background. This, of course, couldn't be further from the truth at present. In fact, the SPD recently has been accused of being just as staid as the conservative ruling Christian Democrat Party. At any rate, the West German SPD leaders, under Berlin mayor Willy Brandt, responded favorably to the communist overture, and even raised them one, suggesting a public debate in one East German city, Chemnitz, and one West German city, Hanover, between SPD and SED leaders. Plans are far from fixed, but it appears that the communists have already committed themselves too much to give up on the idea. For Germans, the hope is there. A truly tangible one for the first time. But they are not so naive as to overlook the many possible pitfalls to the proposed talks. A commentary by German journalist Walter ?Gang? and read by Bob Monteagle
suggests this. "[Reader]: In a few days, we will learn of the outcome of a decisive consultation on the proposed dialogue between East and West Germany. The talks, in their first stages, are supposed to take place between members of the Social Democratic Party of West Germany and the pseudo-socialistic party of the communist-controlled part of East Germany. Curiously enough, the preliminary talks concern one minor detail, namely, the possibility for freedom of communication in reporting the dialogue. The point of contention is this: it's not so important who says what where, but rather, will the press, the radio, and the television be guaranteed the privilege to report truthfully how something is said? The social democrats have stipulated that the West German news media (radio, television, and the press) be allowed to report to the West from East Germany without hindrance or censorship, just as they will naturally allow their communist colleagues to report freely to their East German comrades from Hanover, on this side of the Iron Curtain. On this one
minor point, everything depends--the success or the failure of the forthcoming dialogue. No one in West Germany has the slightest fear that any directed comment of an East German communist functionary could disquiet the inhabitants of West Germany. But quite the opposite is true on the other side of the barbed wire frontier. In East Germany, there are well-founded fears. Communist boss Walter Ulbricht and company know that 70 percent of all TV viewers in East Germany watch West German television, even though it's forbidden by the communist functionaries. No one knows exactly how many East Germans are regularly listening to the uncensored radio broadcasts from West Germany. What other choice do the East German propagandists have, but to jam or sabotage the transmissions of the free debates between the social democrats of West Germany and the communist East Germans? If the cables are not open at all times, then the debate can hardly be called open. We'll have to wait and see whether the cables from East Germany will be really open or not. One thing must not be forgotten. At the last eliminations between the East and West German
soccer games in Leipzig, the East German spectators frantically applauded the West Germans. The men in power in East Germany fear this applause, particularly in the game of politics. That commentary by journalist Walter ?Gang?, illustrates the skepticism of many West Germans about the proposed East German-West German talks. But this should not obscure their real excitement about the prospect. For the first time, they think the reunification door may be opening, if only a crack. Reunification is only one of the various German problems and events which I will deal with in succeeding weeks on this same show. But this should not obscure their real excitement about the prospect. For the first
time, they think the reunification door may be opening, if only a crack. Reunification is only one of the various German problems and events which I would deal with in succeeding weeks on this same show. For example, an interview with the American Ambassador to West Germany, George McGhee, about the whole range of German-American relations and concerns; a discussion about a biography of John F. Kennedy, published in East Germany, written by two East German communists; the story of the West German Volunteer Service, similar to the Peace Corps; and a discussion between American and German students and professors about the differences between university life in the two countries. To hear these stories and others, tune in weekly at the same time. This is Crocker Snow speaking from the studios of Radio Deutsch of Alah cologne West Germany.
Series
Crocker Snow Reports From Germany
Episode
From West Germany
Producing Organization
WGBH Educational Foundation
Contributing Organization
WGBH (Boston, Massachusetts)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/15-816m9f46
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Description
Episode Description
Hamburg corner Border police Aid to Vietnam SPD/SED Talks
Series Description
Crocker Snow Reports for Germany is a series of reports and dicusssions about West German news and culture.
Created Date
1966-04-29
Genres
News
Topics
News
Global Affairs
Media type
Sound
Duration
00:26:43
Embed Code
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Credits
Producing Organization: WGBH Educational Foundation
Production Unit: Radio
AAPB Contributor Holdings
WGBH
Identifier: 66-0053-05-05-001 (WGBH Item ID)
Format: 1/4 inch audio tape
Generation: Master
Duration: 00:25:00
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Citations
Chicago: “Crocker Snow Reports From Germany; From West Germany,” 1966-04-29, WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 28, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-816m9f46.
MLA: “Crocker Snow Reports From Germany; From West Germany.” 1966-04-29. WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 28, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-816m9f46>.
APA: Crocker Snow Reports From Germany; From West Germany. Boston, MA: WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-816m9f46