Stanford Student Letters and Memoirs

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Thursday afternoon we went to a refugee camp to observe the living conditions of some of the really unfortunate ones- those who cannot work (as injured veterans, or old people) or cannot find work, and those not granted full refugee status in the hearings (who must therefore just remain in such camps indefinitely). They live in dreary old barracks, converted to this use from old munitions warehouses etc. They usually have very little income, have little hope, and the life is pretty depressing- small two room apartments with beds and furniture crowded (and I mean crammed) into the tiny space- often families of six or more in this small space. This is just one more hazard of becoming a refugee The situation has to be pretty unbearable in the east zone for people to risk such a future.

On Friday morning we were free to do as we wished. So I went into east Berlin to walk around. Went to several book stores but had no luck in buying anything yet. There are controls on speeding the east German currency and I am still looking for a store that will overlook these. It is easy to buy propaganda material or history or art of the Communist countries, but as for general books on art etc it is much harder. Then we went for a couple of hours to an exhibit in an east Berlin museum part on "Fifteen Years of Freedom in Hungary" and part on the history of "The fight of the German communist Party against Nazism and Imperalism". Very artfully, displayed, large blown-up photographs etc with, of course, some propaganda slant on the historical events. It is fascinating here in Berlin to see and hear the competing propaganda efforts of both east and west. Lots of important issues have been sharpened or clarified in such an atmosphere, though I think if you stayed here too long you would gradually be shifted over to a hard pro-western line- most of the official (even American) we have heard have done so.

Yesterday afternoon we had a rather ordinary reception by an official of the west German gov't- coffee, speeches, etc. Then last night a social gathering with the students of the free university of Berlin- lots of talk, movies etc.

May 1, 1960

Well today was May day in Berlin! So long awaited both by us visitors from Stanford and by the people of east and west Berlin.

We began by taking a train (an intercity rapid system. There are two, [one?] underground and with more stops and one above with fewer stops, thus fast to the Marz-Engels Flats in the east sector, the site of their huge parade-rally. We arrived just at the 9 AM starting time and couldn't get within a couple of blocks of the square because of the number of people [and?] some blocked off streets. The initial feeling when we got off the train [was?] that of a big football game or parade- huge crowds, band music in the distance, various groups forming to march, a sense of excitement and carnivallike activity in the air. In each of the many sidestreets leading toward the square were a block or two of groups preparing to march in the parade this accounted for about 3/4's of the people since almost everyone was marching in almost some group or other. (If not regimented, East Berlin is certainly well organized!). The first part of the parade was the [astuc?] military part- marching units of soldiers and sailors carrying tommy guns or rifles, and even doing the goose step. After the armies came the weapons, tanks, big cannon, anti-aircraft, troop carrier trucks etc. Unfortunately

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these went along another street and we only saw them at a distance. The rest of the parade was at least semi-civilian, though the pervasive sense of a people organized into a chain of little fighting units existed for us. There were thousands in "sport clubs", youth organizations, "factory fighting groups", all carrying colorful flags, posters, pictures of party heroes, etc. - all marching in front of the review stand in step. (By this time we had managed to slip with a small crowd of people thru gap in police restraining lines, and stood in good positions at one corner of the square itself, a fine view of the proceedings).

About 10:30 we (Dr. Tarshus (George's Econ. prof.), Dr. Whittaker, Dr. and Mrs. Zoerner, Laurie Hutton and I ) worked our way through the crowds back to the train to go over to the west side rally, just across the border between east and west Berlin in the gigantic Platz der Republic. This is a huge open space about 1/6 to 1/8 mile each way; there were an estimated 750,000 people there, to hear three speeches by west German and Berlin officials. To get any feeling for the magnitude of the occassion just try to imagine that many people assembled in one place- Big Game is 100,000, and this made that tiny. I was held up briefly to take pictures and it was an endless sea of faces in every direction. But the tone here was quite different from that of parade and spectacle in east Berlin. People were coming and going in steady streams at the edges of the crowd, but there was a arge [large] central area where the people stood still, watched and listened. The spirit was generally serious, thoughtful, people listening attentively, clapping at some points. It was quiet and serious the whole time as though the people appreciated the gravity of the situation and the importance of their position as an outpost of the free world. The speeches themselves were generally anti-Communist ("we will not surrender our freedom" variety.

As the west rally broke up (it lasted only 1 1/2 hours) we went back to the east sector and caught the last hour of the parade there (which lasted five hours)- which aws [was] closed by thirty units of polikspolizer (people's police) 100 men in each unit. Thus it closed on the same militaristic note on which it began.

We spent the rest of this afternoon again looking around a couple of book stores- and with the help of Laurie's Russian visa- I was able to buy a beautiful book on Van Gogh which I had been refused on 5 previous tries. Cost $2.25- worth $18 in the USA. I have bought several others by now including two big works by Harz and Engels and Lenin (30c each for 500 peces) and four longplay classical records with the exchange of east marks being over 4-1 in west Berlin (this is illegal to the east Germans) the prices are ridiculously low!

Tonight I am staying home, partly because I am tired and my feet are all walked out! But also I have to prepare a short talk for a meeting tomorrow morning in which we try to pull together our experiences and observations here in Berlin. So I have some reading and thinking to do. Maybe if my observations end up being organized enough I will write them down and send them on to you- for there is surely much to be learned and understood about Berlin and the US and every little knowledge helps.

Tomorrow is then our last day of sightseeing- we leave after dinner for the burg, arriving about 1:30 AM.

May 4, 1960

I came to Berlin with certain misconceptions (as I can see now in retrospect) which I think arose from my reading of American newspapers and listening to American TV, and from my conversations with kids who had been there. Thus several of my own wrong inaccurate ideas are perhaps shared by most Americans. I expected above all to see in Berlin the comparison of the standards of living provided by Capitalist vs Communist economies. I also expected to observe clear examples of suppression of freedom of action and the "big lie", used to mislead epople [people] in the Communist system. My misconceptions lay in the simple images I had drawn of the evils of Communism vs the cirtue [virtue] of the free world- the contrasts that do exist are more subtle and not so readily visible to the eye.

One did see in Berlin the differences if physical appearance at the border in east and west Berlin. In west B. there is tremendous building activity both downtown and in the suburbs and the skyline is dotted with numerous beautiful, modern structures. There are endless new stores of all kinds, displaying a variety of consumer goods (fine ones) and the streets are crwoded [crowded] with shoppers. In East B. there are acres of war ruins, where only the loose rubble has been cleared away, leaving shells of bldgs. and here and there a lonely survivor head above the flat, bush covered ground around it. There is Stalin Allee as an example of the new construction style, but its tasteless design (after the Russian model) is all the more depressing, and its stores are obviously fewer and contain less in both variety and quality in the west.

But we msut be cautious in the conclusions drawn from these observations. West B. doesn't prove the success of Capitalism per se- it is economically a completely unnatrual [unnatural] situation in two ways. It is entirely cut off from its natural source of food supplies; it must there fore be subsidized by the west German gov't to the extent of $370 million dollars a year, and its industries are also given tax discounts etc. Neither do the conditions in east B. simply prove the failure of the Communist system; rather it probably illustrates deliberate choices on the part of the east gov't to develop factories ahead of consumer goods or housing projects.

When I turned to the subject of apparent freedom of action, I was again surprised. For, in walking around east B. the people we saw didn't look any sadder or more fearful than those walking around West B; they seemed to go on about their own business, etc. As to propaganda, again the black-white version was unsatisfactory. To begin with, one senses everywhere the presence of two propaganda lines, one from the Communists and one from the wests. They are quite alike in their exaggerations too:

The West says:

1. East Germany is a country of 17,000,000 enslaved people, held under the heel of Communism by Russian tanks and soldiers

2. West B. is a beacon of freedom to suppressed peoples in the midst of a Red sea

3. West B. must remain exactlly [exactly] as is and even to discuss changing the status-quo in any way is dangerous and unwise

The East says:

1. West G. is a hotbed of Naziism and militarism

2. West B. is the center of imperalism, espionage and agitation.

3. West B. mus [must] become a demilitarized free city.

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these went along another street and we only saw them at a distance. The rest of the parade was at least semi-civilian, though the pervasive sense of a people organized into a chain of little fighting units existed for us. There were thousands in "sport clubs", youth organizations, "factory fighting groups", all carrying colorful flags, posters, pictures of party heroes, etc. - all marching in front of the review stand in step. (By this time we had managed to slip with a small crowd of people thru a gap in police restraining lines, and stood in good positions at one corner of the square itself, a fine view of the proceedings).

About 10:30 we (Dr. Tarshus (George's Econ. prof. ), Dr. Whittaker, Dr. and Mrs. Zoerner, Laurie Hutton and I) worked our way through the crowds back to the train to go over to the west side rally, just across the border between east and west Berlin in the gigantic Platz der Republic. This is a huge open space about 1/4 to 1/2 mile each way; there were an estimated 750,000 people there, to hear three speeches by west German and Berlin officials. To get any feeling for the magnitude of the occasion just try to imagine that many people assembled in one place- Big Game is 100,000, and this made that tiny. I was held up briefly to take pictures and it was an endless sea of faces in every direction. But the tone here was quite different from that of parade and spectacle in east Berlin. People were coming and going in steady streams at the edge of the crowd, but there was a large central area where the people stood still, watched and listened. The spirit was generally serious, thoughtful, people listening attentively, clapping at some points. It was quiet and serious the whole time as though the people appreciated the gravity of the situation and the importance of their position as an outpost of the free world. The speeches themselves were generally anti-Communist ("We wil not surrender our freedom" variety).

As the west rally broke up (it lasted only 1 1/2 hours)we went back to the east sector and caught the last hour of the parade there (which lasted five hours)- which aws closed by thirty units of polikspolizer (people's police) 100 men in each unit. Thus it closed on the same militaristic note on which it began.

We spent the rest of this afternoon again looking around a couple of book stores- and with the help of Laurie's Russian visa- I was able to buy a beautiful book on Van Gogh which I had been refused on 5 previous tries. Cost $2.25- worth $18 in the USA. I have bought several others by now including two big works by Marx and Engels and Lenin (30 c each for 500 pages) and four longplay classical records. With the exchange of east marls being over 4-1 in west Berlin (this is illegal to the east Germans) the prices are ridiculously low!

Tonight I am staying home, partly because I am tired amd my feet are all walked out! But also I have to prepare a short talk for a meeting tomorrow morning in which we try to pull together our experiences and observations here in Berlin. So I have some reading and thinking to do. Maybe if my observations end up being organized enough I will write them down and send them on to you- for there is surely much to be learned and understood about Berlin and the US and every little knowledge helps.

Tomorrow is then our last day of sightseeing- we leave after dinner for the burg, arriving about 1:30 AM.