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Newsletter #36 - February 19-26, 1960 |
| Newsletter No. 36 Feb. 19 to 26, 1960 GERMANY Hello again, Today [February 20] has been a most fascinating and unusual one for us as we took a tour with four other tourists into the East German Section of Germany. We now have a very good idea as to what it must be like to be under Communist leaders and rule. We first went to Brandenburg Gate which separates the Eastern and Western zones. While here, we heard a lovely propaganda speech on East Germany and received some literature on this new German Democratic Republic concerning its five year plans. As we proceeded through the almost deserted streets (quite a comparison to West Germany), we saw shop windows with practically no merchandise displayed and many bombed-out buildings and sections which have never been rebuilt. The places in this area which have been rebuilt are very poorly constructed with no thought to design or attractiveness. The materials used to construct these new buildings are inferior in quality and the buildings have a look of instability. This part of Berlin is very poorly kept and traffic is no problem because there are very few cars. The average person is paid such a small salary that he could never afford to own a car in addition to buying food and livings necessities which are quite expensive. Even then, the people of East Germany do not appear to have a balanced diet. Fruit, milk, butter, coffee, etc. are real luxuries in East Germany and the East Germans' friends in West Germany are not allowed to help them in any way whatsoever. The one street in the East German section of Berlin which might be considered attractive is named Stalinallee, but it is only a sham as the fronts of all the buildings are only shells around a great deal of rubble and debris - the result of bombings during the Second World War. Another street named Friedrichstrasse has a small, newly built housing area. The only other memorial of interest in the East area is the Treptow Park War Memorial which was built by Russia. The Russians also constructed a Russian War Memorial, BUT by mistake built it in West German section of Berlin. This tour took us three hours and I can assure you we can all thank God we happen to live on this side of the Red Curtain because Communist imprisoned East Berlin is the pathetically perfect foil for free and forward-surging West Berlin. Today we toured in West Berlin where we felt much more comfortable and at ease. Here we saw the amazing phenomena of how reconstruction of a city, 55% bombed-out, has returned to life through the German passion for hard, intelligent work. Of course, this was assisted by the help of Americans through the airlifts, money and the U. S. |
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Army. There is still much to be done but any visitor can see the enormous headway which has been made as visualized by the modern architectural style. Some of the places of interest we saw today were the Charlottenburg Castle and surrounding gardens with the gorgeous golden woman weathervane and equestrian statue; the Bellevue Castle which will be the residence of the Federal president (the German White House); and the Potsdamer Platz (the three sector corner). We also viewed Schoneberg Town Hall, seat of the House of Representatives and Senate of Berlin; the Freedom Bell; the Air Lift Memorial at Tempelhof Airport; the Tiergarten which was once a very magnificent park; the Victory Column near the Tiergarten was erected after Germany won a way in the l800's; the Congress Hall erected in 1956 which is a bold, modernistic structure erected with funds from an American foundation (called a pregnant oyster by Berliners because of its peculiar shape) and resembles Uncle Sam's hat turned upside down; and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church ruins which are going to remain as a reminder to all Germans of the horrors of war. In the afternoon we drove out to see the Olympia Stadium which seats 100,000 spectators and was the scene of the 1936 Olympics. This stadium remained unscarred by war bombs and is a tremendous stadium where you also see a huge soccer arena, two swimming pools and several sports areas. We also visited the luxury hotel erected in this area and called the Berlin Hilton. In present West Berlin, there is almost as much to do as in New York City. The zoo, aquarium, art galleries, museums and other places of interest are all back to their pre-war standards and you can purchase anything your heart desires if you have the money. Night clubs, operas, theatres, etc. are in full swing. Tonight Meredith had a new experience as he sat four to five hours while an artist did a very excellent pastel portrait of him. We surely went to great extremes to have this artist do our portraits. In fact, mine must be done from a photograph as he was booked up solid for the few days we are in Berlin. This is the reason for Meredith's being done on Sunday. He also is going to do watercolor pictures of mother and dad from photographs. These I can hardly wait to see. During our time here in Berlin we happened to be fortunate enough to get into conversation with a husband and wife who are refugees from East Germany. They gave us their opinions of Hitler's regime and vivid descriptions of their flight from the German Polish border through Dresden and into West Germany. They claim life in East Germany is intolerable and you speak to no one for fear they will report you. Therefore, no person is your friend. We talked with this couple for several hours and it was most interesting to hear the many aspects of living in Germany before,- during and after World War II. They spoke very good English, which they both learned in high school, and you could readily see they were people with above average intelligence who have lost all their worldly possessions, but are slowly regaining the previous standard of living. |
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The following paragraph Is an editorial we recently found in the "New York Times" and expresses our sentiments since we've seen firsthand evidence. "The post-war recovery of the West German economy has been one of the most remarkable achievements of its kind, whether judged by present standards or those of any other period or place. Despite heavy destruction and the burden of partition, plant dismantling and its refugee problems, Germany has regained pre-war production levels five years after the war's end and has become a pace-setter in Western Europe."
Tonight [February 21] we are in Hannover, Germany after a short visit with newfound friends,.. Captain and Mrs. James Hovious. We had a trip to see the British sector of Wannsee where there are several lakes and a grand area for recreation and fun. We are both certainly glad to be out of the Soviet area, but happy we managed to get to Berlin as it was a strange and exciting ... yet depressing experience. The contrast between the bleakness of the East Zone and the gay life of West Berlin is absolutely startling. Before leaving Hannover this morning [February 22], we saw its very up-to-date radio building, the Leine Castle, the Gothic style Old Town Hall and several old and unusual churches. Hannover is a very large industrial city and in the spring is the scene of the famous Hamelin - the legendary town of the Pied Piper. Here we also saw some fine examples of Renaissance Weser houses with timbered facades, gables and quaint inscriptions upon many of the buildings. I would love to be in this unusual city some Sunday in the summer as there is a Pied Piper procession through the streets of Hamelin in true, fairytale fashion at 11 A.M. on this one day each week. We also went through the town of Munster. Munster is near the Dutch border and is in the midst of secluded parks, moated castles and old manors and is known as, Munsterland. Here we saw the Westphalian University which is housed in a baroque castle. The Town Hall of Munster is another striking building which we saw. As we drove on and neared the border of Holland, we began to see some wooden shoes being worn (mostly by farmers) and the landscape changed to an almost complete flatness. Our first town of any size in the Netherlands was Winterswijk and then on to Aalten and Arnhem - we are spending tonight in Arnhem. Arnhem is the capital of Gelderland and is situated on the north arm of the Lower Rhine. Around this town was the scene of bitter and violent fighting during World War II. We are already thrilled with Holland as their cities and style of architecture are pleasing to the eye and the many picture window homes with spanking clean yards and sparkling windows have a special appeal. |
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Today [February 23] we went to the picture postcard villages of Staphorst and Spakenburg. Here all the villagers wear their native costumes and wooden shoes. It was a wonderful treat to see their charming homes - all very nearly alike - and their sweet, little children were dressed exactly like their parents. It reminded us of our Lancaster County Amish area. Here everyone travels by bicycle instead of horse and carriage though. Although this country is flat, it is still most attractive with its quaint dikes, tilting windmills and bustling canals and rivers. Scenes in the Netherlands change with surprising swiftness - for several miles you will see quaint towns and suddenly you'll come through a modern city and then next a fishing village. In the small, but lovely town of Soestdijk, we saw the palace of the Royal Family. This was a beautiful estate only a few miles from the city of Hilversum. From here we drove on to the outskirts of The Hague where we have a regular little home for our lodgings although it is called a motel. We have a complete kitchen with electric refrigerator and a large basket of groceries which we can use and pay for before leaving. I made our dinner tonight which consisted of juice, Heinz's soup, canned hot dogs, stringbeans, Netherlands canned ham and fried eggs. For dessert, we had chilled fruit cocktail and tea. It certainly tasted delicious and was a lovely change for us as we are becoming tired of wiener schnitzels, steaks, chops and fish. Not only for this reason did we enjoy our dinner, but because we could leisurely eat our dinner in complete comfortable attire. We did not see much of The Hague as we had to be in Calais tonight since we leave by plane for England tomorrow morning. Today [February 24] we also went through Rotterdam, Dordrecht, Breda, Antwerp and Gent. However, we did not see anything more than the skeleton of these cities as we plan to come back in April. We did drive out of our way to a small town called Waregum to see an American War Cemetery called Flanders Field. Naturally, we are all familiar with "the poppies grow in Flanders Field". But they were not blooming now and we were told they grow wild all about this area during July and August. The superintendent of this cemetery was from Michigan and gave us a brief history of these American cemeteries in Europe. This one is the smallest of them all and has 368 graves. Each grave has white marble headstone with the Cross of David for soldiers of the Jewish faith and white marble Latin crosses for soldiers of all other faiths. Everyone of these cemeteries that we've seen thus far are beautifully landscaped and well taken care of by the American Battle Monuments' Commission. Nearby, at the town of Ypres, was an American War Monument of World War I as this town was the key area to many battles fought on the Belgium coast during World War I. This city has a very beautiful cathedral which covers at least a city block. This surprised us quite a bit as the town itself is not much larger than the magnificent cathedral. This morning [February 25] , as we left Calais, we saw an elaborate statuary on the esplanade called, "The Six Burghers of Calais". This was done by the |
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famous Rodin. Otherwise, Calais did not impress us too much. We drove to the airport and, after filling out several papers and going through customs, our "Little Princess" was driven into the plane and we took our seats [Channel Air Bridge ?]. In twenty minutes we were across the English Channel and saw the lovely White Cliffs of Dover. During our flight across the channel, we saw many ships being tossed about the water. We certainly were exclusive today as we were the only passengers and only car on the plane. Thus, we felt like we were on a privately chartered flight since we had the airline hostess and pilot for we three. The hostess was charming and explained the English coins to us and gave us some other interesting information. This twenty-minute flight costs $64.00 roundtrip but we preferred this to a several hour trip by boat as the channel is often quite rough. After arrival we again went through customs and were then off on our month's tour --- on the wrong side of the road. This driving on the left is most confusing to me. We had a 60 to 70 mile drive into London and got along rather well considering the terrific traffic and confusing one-way streets of this city. Went to the Embassy and got our usual batch of letters. We always enjoy our mail so much -- so, to those responsible for writing we say, "Thanks for the ever welcome news". Again it's Friday night and the end of another newsletter week. So, we'll close and pray all of you are in good health and happy. As ever,
Meredith & Charlotte |