At the Fountainhead (of German Strength) (1980) - full transcript
CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS
MAN: The Germans can afford
that kind of thing
but I simply don't have the
resources to fight
a libel action at the moment.
Anyway, our version is much
more like a novel
than the German edition,
don't you think?
Look, I'm not going to get
involved in that debate again.
That's not our problem.
You know as well as I do
there's documentation
in my book which might
upset certain West Germans,
even here in England.
NARRATOR: In the case of
Volkmann versus Langsdorf,
Berlin, Kurt Langsdorf and
his half-sister Sophie Vogel
are accused of libel.
The suit is brought
against them
by the former SS Kommandant
Heinrich Volkmann
and concerns their publication
of a book, written in England,
containing a section on
ex-Nazis in West Germany.
Due to the publicity
of the trial,
it is likely that the
publishers will also face
prosecution by the state,
under the Law for the
Protection of Communal Peace.
In his indictment,
Volkmann claimed that the
book distorted history
and that in certain sections
the distinction between fiction
and nonfiction had collapsed.
At 6am, Kurt Langsdorf's
brother Gerhard
picks up his bags and leaves
for Schönefeld Airport.
Now that he is 65,
he is allowed to travel to
the West for 30 days each year.
The sun casts a crisp shadow
onto the newly paved area in
front of the building.
He puts on his shoes,
picks up the newspaper
on which they were standing
and proceeds on his way,
pausing only to place the
newspaper
in the dustbin by the
front door.
He heads for the S-Bahn
and thinks of his childhood
friend Johannes,
whom he will now see after a
period of 40 years.
It's my birthday soon. That's
why they're all coming.
I thought it would be a good
idea for us all to be together.
Gerhard has always expressed
an interest
in coming to England,
and now that he finally can,
I'm really delighted. I haven't
seen him for so long.
Kurt and Sophie have come
before.
It's easy for them. Anyway,
they've got money.
JOHANNES: I met Kurt and
Gerhard at school.
They're brothers. Sophie
is much younger of course
and has a different father.
He was killed in the war.
I never met her until 1956,
and she was only in her 20s
then.
She and Kurt have come here for
business reasons as well.
It's to do with their
publishing firm.
Kurt has built up quite
a reputation, I believe,
although I think he's
having some legal trouble
at the moment with a book
written by an English person.
Kurt had to take over his
father's company.
Hydraulic lifting gear.
But it was in Upper Silesia,
which is Poland now,
east of the Oder-Neisse
line,
so he lost it after the war.
About the book...
..I know nothing.
I've heard Ludendorff
or his wife mentioned.
An old German general.
I can look him up
in my encyclopaedia.
It's very old.
Printed in 1932 in Berlin.
Ludendorff, Erich.
Born 1865.
German General. Quartermaster.
Chief support of Hindenburg
in the World War.
Partook of the Hitlerputsch
in 1923 in Munich.
1924 to 1928, he was a member
of the German Reichstag
for the National Socialist
Party.
Now has a Völkische group
fighting against Freemasons,
Jews and the Catholic Church.
Number 7, Zähringerkorso,
Neu-Tempelhof, Berlin.
I hardly recognise it now.
It was there, some days
after the Reichstag fire,
that I worked through the night
with the help of
my two friends,
Kurt and Gerhard Langsdorf.
Together, we tried to remove
some of the books
and other possessions which we
found in the study
used by our lodger,
Dr Heidegger.
All his books
had communist tendencies.
There were no novels
or anything like that.
We tried to burn them
in the central-heating boiler
but there were too many
and the boiler was too small.
Time was against us.
At half past three, my mother
said we should go to bed.
My uncle took home a large case
of what we thought to be
the most incriminating
material.
He planned to take it to the
left luggage office
at Anhalter Bahnhof first thing
the next morning.
I had fallen asleep at the desk
while examining
Dr Heidegger's papers,
and woke to the sound of a key
turning in the lock.
FOOTSTEPS
FOOTSTEPS RECEDE
FOOTSTEPS APPROACH
Mr Schmidt?
Yes.
- Wilhelm Schmidt?
- My father.
Number 7, Zähringerkorso.
Yes?
Do you know Georgi Dimitrov?
No.
- I...
- Perhaps there is a mistake.
So, your father...
..is a friend of Mr Göring's?
They've met at
Carl Lindström's.
And this man, is he also
a friend?
Oh, Dr Heidegger.
I recognised him in the paper
yesterday...
..as the same man who rents a
room in our house.
I hardly know him.
This man is the Bulgarian
Communist Georgi Dimitrov...
..and he's been arrested
in connection with the
Reichstag fire.
With Clausewitz as military
philosopher,
the fathers of modern warfare
were Alfried Krupp, the arms
industrialist,
and Werner von Siemens,
the telegraph builder.
ROUSING MUSIC PLAYS
MUSIC PLAYS OVER SPEECH
CHEERFUL MUSIC PLAYS
- Will you stay? Permanently?
- Where?
Here, in the West.
I've absolutely no reason to.
My life and most of my friends
are in the GDR.
I'm pleased that Kurt decided
to publish the book.
He's usually too careful,
in my opinion.
It's time that someone like
Volkmann was exposed.
What did he do?
He organised the murder of over
300 people in Belgium in '44.
It was supposed to be a
reprisal
for guerrilla attacks on Nazi
officers
after the Normandy landings.
Then he became big in NATO.
But he's retired
and now manages the family
business.
But Kurt doesn't usually
publish that kind of thing.
I thought he made his money
from things like limited
editions
and coffee-table books.
I know, but I think he was
persuaded by a friend of his
who knew the author.
Sophie helped to push it.
You know what she thinks
of the business.
Also, the book is apparently
written in the form of a novel.
It appears that some names were
changed and others weren't.
Kurt didn't recognise the name
of Volkmann.
It's not as though he was
famous during the war.
And then Kurt got a letter
from Volkmann's solicitor
threatening court action.
So that's what the libel
case is all about.
Later, Kurt recalled that he
had heard of Volkmann.
On re-reading the book,
he remembered that,
as a student,
he had been invited to a party
by one of his more
objectionable colleagues.
Apparently, it was a very
extravagant affair,
and some of the big names
in the NSDAP were there.
Kurt was obviously
uncomfortable
in this situation.
No doubt that's why he was
invited.
But he remembers Volkmann
and Mathilde von Ludendorff,
the general's second wife,
talking loudly together about
some religious sect.
ORGAN NOTES CRASH
But as he was afraid of death,
he allowed himself to be
converted
by Mathilde von Ludendorff
and entered the Neopagan church
at the fountainhead of German
strength,
which she had founded.
As far as the libel case goes,
I think it will be
just a matter of
destroying the plates
and all remaining copies
of the book.
Personally,
I think the evidence
that the author showed
me is pretty conclusive.
It seems clear that Volkmann
must have been responsible
for killing the Belgians,
but it's not a question of
facts.
It's a question of legal
manoeuvres.
Volkmann's solicitor is
well practised in these cases.
It was presented to me
as a novel
written in a particular style,
which used, apparently,
authentic documents to give it
credibility.
To me, it seemed a good and
very original way of writing,
especially for a first book.
There were one or two sections
that worried me,
but the author told me they
were completely fictitious.
The reference to Volkmann
didn't particularly stand out.
I assumed that that was
fiction also.
I showed the book to my
partner,
and he seemed to think it was
quite safe.
He's had some legal training.
On reflection, though,
he's not really au fait with
the new styles of writing
and it isn't the kind of thing
that we would normally publish.
It seemed interesting.
We thought it would rejuvenate
the business.
It's got very staid recently.
Whatever the outcome of this
case is,
I'm almost certain there's
going to be another one.
And a far more serious one.
I've heard that the public
prosecutor
thinks that the book could be
considered
to violate the Law for the
Protection of Communal Peace.
It's up to the judges to decide
whether or not
the book is exempt from that
law under Article 5.
If it's considered art,
then we can get away with it.
If not...
..who knows?
The problem is the use of
quasi-documentary style.
Although most of the documents
are purely fictitious,
in these cases, any use of
documentation
is not usually considered
to be art.
The author obviously defends
the right of a novelist to
introduce historical facts
or events into his or her work.
NARRATOR: And this gentleman
in civilian clothes
has survived too.
This is senior engineer
Max Faust
from IG Farben Auschwitz.
He demanded 1,000 prisoners for
the current year,
and 3,000 prisoners for the
following year.
Himmler supplied the prisoners.
Himmler took poison.
Senior engineer Faust went
back to work.
His address today
is 32 Rubensstraße,
Ludwigshafen.
When Faust was working in
Auschwitz, the following letter
was written by his chief,
Dr Otto Ambros.
"In addition, our new
friendship with the SS
"is proving very beneficial.
At a dinner given us
"by the chiefs of
the concentration camp,
"we laid down all measures
concerning the adaptation
"of the really first-class
organisation
"of the concentration camp for
the purposes of the Buna Works.
"I remain, with best greetings,
Otto Ambros."
The West German Directory Of
Directors tells us
what Dr Otto Ambros is doing
today.
As director of these firms,
Otto Ambros
represents the interests of
IG Farben.
He represents the same
interests
on the board of Hibernia AG,
which is owned by the
West German state.
14 Kniebisstraße, Mannheim,
is Dr Otto Ambros' house.
"At a dinner given us
"by the chiefs of the
concentration camp,
"we laid down all measures
"for the purposes of the
Buna Works."
The officer next to Himmler is
Karl Wolff.
This is the drive leading to
Karl Wolff's villa,
a meeting place for the top
people of the SS.
From right to left -
Himmler, Heydrich, Wolff.
And Wolff still lives here
today.
Our camera shows him on the
jetty of his country house.
That is how the chief
of Himmler's personal staff
lives today in West Germany,
in Kempfenhausen,
on Lake Starnberg,
at the expense of the
West German taxpayer.
I can't understand it.
How many Volkmanns
must there be
wielding power in Germany
today?
I always knew that, even if the
Nazis were defeated,
it would be a long time
before Germans could get back
to normal thinking.
How many times have I longed to
go back and live there?
I could be enjoying the same
financial stability as Kurt,
with a big pension to
look forward to.
Nostalgia and homesickness.
In reality, it's like a strange
country to me now.
I've lost touch with that way
of living.
It's been over 40 years.
What's changed?
Christian Democrats leading
rich and comfortable lives.
Communists and others
oppressed, according to Sophie,
thrown out of responsible jobs.
Not like the '30s,
not nearly as bad.
When I think back to the
Dimitrov affair...
..the fear we all experienced.
A source of income - that's how
my parents thought Dimitrov.
And they were very pleased
when Gustl Scherchen introduced
him to them.
We knew him under two names.
Heidegger and Steiner.
And maybe we knew he was a
communist.
Gustl and Hermann Scherchen
were both associated to the
German socialist movement...
..and Hermann Scherchen was
a conductor,
and as a musician,
he wrote and composed songs
for the German labour movement.
Gustl, what I've always wanted
to know is
how Dimitrov came to live
at our place,
and also, were you responsible
for it?
Or what did you have to do
with it? Did you know him?
And so on. Can you tell
me anything about it?
In a way, I can
tell you very little
because I never knew Dimitrov
at the time,
nor had I heard his name.
A friend one day came to my
house and asked
whether I could find a quiet
room amongst my friends
where a friend of his
could study during the day.
I don't know why
it occurred to me to give him
your parents' name.
Well, I know.
- Anyhow...
- I can answer that.
He...he went,
and apparently your parents
were struck
by his personal charm,
I should say, and his
intelligence.
And this is all until the
Reichstag fire occurred,
that I suddenly heard his name
and also,
where...away...where...
..that Dimitrov had stayed
with you.
Hmm.
Well, I can give you
the answer why you did it,
because I think the parents
were rather worried
that Father should lose
his job,
which after all happened
eventually, a bit later,
but it did happen, and they
were frightened
that they would be quite
penniless, but with a lodger
in the house, it would bring at
least something in.
Some money.
I think that was the
main reason.
But of course everybody was
struck...
..what a nice man he was,
and had personal charm,
and his intelligence, but he
didn't come...
He had two aliases. He didn't
come with the name of Dimitrov.
That only came out on
the... In fact, in the paper,
when one read about the
Reichstag fire,
when they said that they tried
to accuse him
of having started all this,
as being a member of the
Communist Party.
Well, the real names he had
were either Dr Heidegger
or Dr Steiner, they were
aliases which he used,
and some of his books, even,
which he had in the house
- had that name inside.
- Hmm.
And I can't remember under
which name
he was actually known to us,
whether it was Heidegger
or Steiner.
I think it was Heidegger,
because Steiner, I think,
was something I only found out
a bit later, and that was that.
But it was a bit of a surprise
of course to find out
that he was an active member
of the Communist Party.
You suspected always he could
be because his books were...
..his library,
which he had at our place,
were books on the teaching,
partially, of Marxism
and partially of Leninism and
partially of...
..communist books in general,
you know? Communist tendency.
But that's about all we knew
about him,
and he was a very pleasant man
who came in and worked,
was very quiet.
That's all we knew.
But it's funny. I've always
been under the impression
that...you knew who he was,
and I mean, it's the first
time, really,
- I've heard that you didn't.
- Yes.
No, I had no idea,
nor did I ever, ever see him.
Nor did...
..did your mother mention
any name
under which he lived there,
apart from that she found him
so very agreeable.
Oh, yes.
And the police came to you
because they found
Dimitrov's diary,
and in his diary
he had all coded telephone
numbers,
and when they were able to
decode it,
they came across your
family's name.
And this is how the police
then interrogated
your father and mother.
Naturally, neither your father
or mother could tell them
anything about Dimitrov,
apart from the personal
experience they had.
But...
And they could never
establish...
The police could never
establish
that they really knew anything
about the political nature
of his work. But, all the same,
the interrogation was
so disagreeable
that your parents
committed suicide,
- and luckily survived it.
- Yes.
Survived it.
After the events of the
Reichstag fire,
and all the terrible
repercussions,
I decided to
move out of Germany.
I became a qualified accordion
teacher and persuaded Hohner
to send me to France to sell
accordions and harmonicas
and to start music clubs.
A few months later, I was
forced to leave the country
when the authorities discovered
I had no work permit,
so I went to Holland and
continued to teach
and to sell accordions.
MAN: A bicycle is the best
illegal method of transport.
A cyclist can suddenly change
speed and direction
without being too conspicuous,
thus causing difficulty to a
pursuer who,
if he does not wish to reveal
himself, has to go on his way.
After six months, I was once
again reported
for working illegally,
and as I did not want to return
to Berlin,
I decided that I should
try and settle in Russia.
Some friends arranged a meeting
for me
with an associate of Dimitrov's
called Löwenstein,
who was due to leave for Moscow
in a few days.
Goedenmiddag.
ACCORDION MUSIC PLAYS
Mr Schmidt?
Mr Löwenstein.
Your sister said you would try
and come today.
It had to be soon. I'm leaving
for Moscow in a few days.
I have a lecturing post
waiting for me,
so I should be well established
by the time you arrive.
I think if you come
in about a month,
I shall have things sorted out
by then.
There's a ship leaving for
Russia from Antwerp
in about four or five weeks.
It's called the Dezner.
You'll have to find these
things out more exactly
for yourself and also get the
appropriate visas.
When I get to Moscow, I shall
send you my address
and also speak to Dimitrov.
His influence should make it
possible for you to stay there,
and I'm sure he'll take
care of you initially.
I'll also make an appointment
for you
at the Comintern office.
They'll extend your visa so
that you're not just a tourist.
If there's anything else you
need to know,
my sister will put you
in touch with me.
But remember, I'm leaving
in a few days.
OK. Thanks very much.
- I'll see you in Moscow.
- Goodbye.
On November 22nd 1935,
I boarded the Dezner
at Antwerp and set off
for Leningrad,
where I then took a train
to Moscow.
Before leaving, I had changed
all my Dutch guilders
into Reichsmark
because the exchange rate
was so favourable.
However, on arrival in Russia,
I discovered that the Mark was
no longer legal tender there,
so without money but full
of confidence,
I set off for the
Comintern office
to see what Löwenstein
and Dimitrov
had arranged for me.
DOOR OPENS
DOOR OPENS
I am sorry,
but I have to tell you
there is nothing
I can do for you.
Mr Dimitrov left no message
to say that you were coming.
He is in the Crimea at present,
convalescing after an illness,
so there is no chance
of you seeing him.
And I can see...
..no reason for you to stay
here
from what you have told me.
You have never been a member of
the Communist Party.
And it would seem that...
..your father has...
..an important and comfortable
position
at Carl Lindström's...
..in a country governed
by National Socialists.
My father's position has
nothing to do with me.
If you must know,
he lives in constant fear of
losing his job.
Also...
Mr Dimitrov stayed in our
house two years ago.
You may stay here
for a few days.
But that's all.
Good day, Mr...
..Schmidt.
I had ten days to decide
what to do.
The Löwensteins gave me some
dollars to buy a train ticket
back to Berlin,
but there was still the problem
of my Reichsmark.
At that time,
one was only allowed to take
ten Marks out of Germany.
I had several hundred to
smuggle back in.
Some I left with the
Löwensteins,
and the remainder
they helped me to hide
in the lids of Vaseline jars.
I was accompanied on the train
from Moscow to Berlin
by a Russian official.
He left me at a Polish
frontier town.
After the two narrow escapes
at the German border,
I arrived, I suppose one could
say safely, back in Berlin.
I went to visit a friend of the
family
who was recovering from
the effects
of internment under
National Socialism.
What was it like?
NARRATOR: Johannes Schmidt was
called up in 1937
to join the Secondary Reserve
of the Wehrmacht.
He arrived in London from
Berlin
on a year's leave of absence
to study music.
His visa was renewed annually
until 1946,
when he became a British
citizen,
having been stateless
for the war years.
He visited Berlin at least five
times between 1956 and 1979...
..the most memorable time being
1956.
On that occasion,
unknown to anyone but himself,
he fell in love with Sophie,
Kurt and Gerhard's younger
sister.
He left after two days
to join his orchestra for a
concert in Leningrad.
PIANO MUSIC PLAYS
By the time I had arrived
in England,
most of my family had
also left Germany.
Then it's all about my mother,
who finally settled here
in 1939.
She had been going backwards
and forwards between England
and Germany, tying up affairs
and trying to bring over
what she could. All of
our furniture and so forth
was paid for to come here,
but we got nothing. The Nazis
auctioned it all.
When the war had started,
we received a letter from
Holland saying that
if we sent £400, the furniture
would be sent over,
but that would have just been
£400 to the Nazis,
so we didn't send it
and we didn't have it.
On her final trip over here,
my mother was caught for trying
to smuggle out
her furs and jewellery.
She was in prison
for three days.
Fortunately, my father knew
the Bechstein piano people.
They were great Nazis and
friends of Hitler's,
but Bechstein was also a friend
of my father's too.
I think my father rang him up
from London to ask him to try
and get my mother out,
which he did.
By the way, Bechstein perhaps
wasn't quite such a great Nazi.
He was what we used to call
a Muss-Nazi.
He had to join the party
in order to keep his business
going.
NARRATOR: Johannes Schmidt,
now known as John Smith,
joined the alien Pioneer Corps
of the British Army in 1940
in order to, in his own words,
have a go at the Nazis.
He was given the choice
of three British names.
Smart, Smith or Smyth.
There were two reasons for his
disillusionment with Army life.
Firstly, the British NCO showed
signs of resentment
and made him and his colleagues
feel like "bloody foreigners".
Secondly, he saw no action.
His section was due to leave
for France immediately, but an
outbreak of German measles
prevented this occurrence.
In retrospect, he considers
himself lucky,
as many of his colleagues did
not return.
In 1945, in the last few days
of the war,
a close friend of his,
also a German, was killed
in action in Germany
by a German mine.
Johannes had thought him
one of the best clarinet
players he had ever heard.
In West Germany, and here too,
although perhaps it's not
so obvious,
it's customary to reduce
everything to law and order.
The State must be protected
from opposition at all cost
and literally all cost.
The amount spent on security is
quite staggering.
It seems one can no longer
express oneself freely
and publicly
if one is, so to speak, not in
tune with the State.
How public is public,
I've often wondered.
Things like that are never
really clear.
In fact, the law is never
really clear.
If a case is to be made of
this book,
and I think one will be,
it has to be proved that it's
either a historical work...
..a work of art
or a...historical narrative.
And how on earth do you prove
or, more to the point,
disprove such things?
Kurt sees the case
as bad for business.
A general nuisance.
He feels he's been confronted
by a stupid law.
As a passive director -
I'm only a director on paper -
I have decided to become a
little more active.
The public prosecutor maintains
that the book advocates
violence...
..but ruthless political games
have to be exposed for
what they are.
Other publishers have been
known to win their cases,
and Langsdorf has never been
considered
particularly radical.
I don't know if this will help
the case or not.
But it's all hypothetical,
because there is no case
as yet.
We just fear there may be one.
This is the first time I've
ever thought about
the intricacies of the law,
the first time I've ever been
put into the position
of having to think about it.
Of course, I broke the law by
leaving the GDR,
but that was different.
I've thought a lot
about that too.
I've never been really able to
make up my mind,
but in the end,
I just acted on impulse.
And can't do that now.
The whole thing has to be
carefully considered.
Things are less straightforward
and more insidious than
they appear.
THEY CHAT IN GERMAN
SOPHIE: This law, I discovered,
is very similar
to the one passed in 1933,
the Reichspräsident's decree
for the protection of the
German people,
and like so many other aspects
of our society,
it escaped the vacuum of 1945,
when we thought a new Germany
would emerge.
SOPHIE: We are all democrats
now,
for to be a democrat is
up to date.
We're almost more democratic
than in the States.
Sit.
Sit down.
PLANE PASSES OVERHEAD
40 Marks - £1.
10 Marks - $1.
20 cigarettes - 135 Marks.
British officer's cigarette
ration - 200 a week.
German civilian's cigarette
ration - seven a week.
3lb of bread - 100 Marks.
Fixed price - 40 Pfennigs.
1 lb of coffee - 40 Marks.
1 lb of butter - 600 Marks.
A wristwatch - 3,000 Marks.
A toothbrush - five Marks.
An apple - a cake of soap.
A cake of soap - 50 Marks.
A pillow - one bucket of coal.
One old uniform
and 50 cigarettes -
one civilian suit.
Oh...
SOPHIE: There have been periods
in my life since then,
only once or twice,
when I have felt that I was
immersed in history
as it happened.
That's what I call it when a
situation develops that makes
one feel as if something
new is about to happen -
an unexpected change in the
day-to-day pattern of life,
and you are in the
middle of it.
And when I feel sad I think,
"Why does it have to be us?"
I don't mean me.
It could be anybody.
Paul Grotenberg - secretly
sentenced to five years.
No-one knew.
Charge - suspected handling
of weapons.
A pistol found in the rubble
of Berlin.
Seven youths detained
for an indefinite period.
Nothing was heard of them
until five years later,
when they returned,
bitter and betrayed.
VEHICLE DRIVES AWAY
JOHANNES: During the war years,
I had lost touch with my
friends in Germany,
but in the summer of '46
I received a letter from Kurt.
I have moved away from
home, as I found it
impossible to settle down there
again,
having been away for so long.
I've moved to Neukölln,
to Ilse's place,
and, together, we're just about
surviving.
Food is so scarce and so
expensive.
We've sold so many things just
so that we could eat.
It's terrible for us to see
the occupying troops
living it up at our expense.
Even if we could afford to join
them in their extravagancies,
entry to nightclubs and cinemas
is forbidden to us.
Even some of the toilets
are segregated.
And I've heard stories of
Americans deliberately
running over German
pedestrians.
And as if this
wasn't enough,
thousands of people are dying
of malnutrition
and other diseases.
For me, it's far worse than
during the war.
Gerhard is a prisoner of war
in America.
We don't know when we shall
see him again.
My stepfather was killed
in an air raid in '44,
but Sophie is looking after my
mother as best she can.
Her boyfriend Paul got
taken away by the Russians.
No-one knows where he is.
Of course Sophie is very upset.
It's funny to think
she was only six
when you last saw her.
So many people have been put
in prison or camps
by the military occupation,
even anti-Nazis.
As I'd been in a German
military prison
when Berlin was taken,
I had no trouble
with the denazification boards.
You see, I'd been involved
in writing and distributing
anti-fascist literature
when I was in the army.
I hereby declare that I,
John Smith,
formerly Johannes Schmidt,
of Jewish origin,
was taught the bassoon by
Heinz-Dieter Wentscher
for ten months,
from 1936 to '37,
possibly at great risk to
himself.
He told me at the time
that he had only joined the
National Socialist Party
in order to keep his job with
the Berlin State Opera.
In darkest Germany, people
drift about
with such a lassitude that you
are always
in danger of running them down
if you happen to be in a car,
as, being a Britisher,
you almost invariably are.
MUSIC PLAYS OVER SPEECH
NARRATOR: One of the most
critical breaches
of the Potsdam Agreement was
the order issued in June 1948,
the Westmark in West Berlin.
The new currency, already
introduced in West Germany,
in breach of agreements, was
thus brought into West Berlin.
Two currencies in one and the
same city,
an alien currency in the middle
of the Soviet Occupation Zone.
This meant the economic
division of Berlin.
Even the Western powers have to
admit that, by this step,
they have broken the
four-power agreements.
On August 30th 1948, all four
powers
signed the following
agreement in Moscow.
MAN: The German Mark of the
Soviet Zone
shall be introduced as the sole
currency in Berlin,
and the Western D-Mark
shall be withdrawn
from circulation in Berlin.
NARRATOR: But a few days later,
this agreement too was broken.
The Western Mark remains
in circulation in West Berlin.
It represents an illegal
claim to the Western sectors
and at the same time a factor
to disturb the development
of the surrounding territory,
the Soviet Occupation Zone.
I was captured by the Americans
in 1944
and spent a year as a prisoner
of war in America.
Just after the war had ended,
we were sold by the Americans
to the French
to help rebuild the devastated
European economy.
By the time I returned to
Germany in 1949,
it had been divided into two
separate states...
..although neither acknowledged
the existence of the other.
You know as well as I do
that the process of dismantling
is still going on full blast.
The negotiations on halting
them
were conducted in the name
of the party,
and we put it across
to the public.
You can well imagine what that
means to us now.
Isn't there, in fact, any
possibility
of really bringing the process
of dismantling to a halt,
or can't the party at least
officially
dissociate itself from it?
No, there's no possibility.
And what do you have to say to
that?
They pay no attention to us.
We'd better not speak about it.
Why can't we talk about
the behaviour
of Soviet occupation forces
freely and openly?
So as to explain the situation
and to dissociate the party
from these incidents,
and at the same time try
to save its reputation
from being damaged by them.
If we don't do it, others will,
then use them to stir up
nationalist trouble generally.
You've been to Moscow several
times
in the last year-and-a-half.
Has any attempt been made to at
least open this question there?
Yes, an attempt has been made.
With Stalin.
And how did it turn out?
Stalin replied
with an old Russian proverb.
"In every family there's
a black sheep."
He said nothing more.
When one of us tried to put the
matter more seriously
and hint at the consequences,
he was interrupted by Stalin.
"I will not allow anyone
"to drag the reputation of
the Red Army in the mud."
That was the end
of the conversation.
JOHANNES: Our thesis about a
separate German road
to socialism still remained
the official party line.
But what was it worth
in the face of the
adulation of Stalin?
The telegrams of greetings
and good wishes
to the Soviet Union?
The petitions, negotiations
and thanksgivings to the
Soviet administration?
Gradually, my doubts increased.
In August 1947,
I paid a visit to a friend of
my childhood, Mischa Wolf,
whom I had known at the
Comintern school.
He was now a commentator
on foreign affairs
for East Berlin radio, under
the name of Michael Storm.
He had a still more important
function as comptroller
responsible for the principal
political broadcasts.
He had particularly good
relations
with very senior Soviet
circles,
and he occupied a luxurious
five-roomed apartment in
Bayernallee, not far from the
radio building in West Berlin.
Since I last saw him, he had
married Emmi Stenzer,
the blue-eyed blonde at the
Comintern school
who had reported things I said
to the school authorities
and thus became the cause
for my first self-criticism.
"It's wonderful to see you
again," he said.
"You can come with us to our
country house right away.
"We always spend our weekends
there."
An hour later, we stopped in
front of a fine villa
beside a large lake.
It was the property of Mischa,
who was then 25 years old.
It really is time that you
change that theory of yours
about a separate German road
to socialism.
The party line will be totally
different.
Mischa, with all respect to
your position and cleverness,
I know a bit more about
the political line than you do.
After all, I've worked
in the Central Secretariat
and I write the party manuals,
which are authoritative for
all members and officials
of the entire party.
There are higher authorities
than your Central Secretariat.
But a separate German road to
socialism is expressly stated
in the charter and programme
of the SED.
Then it must be rewritten!
I have been told in
extreme confidence
that a stop will soon be
put to this theory.
If I were in your position,
I shouldn't talk
or write so much about it.
That way, the change-about will
be much easier when it comes.
Some weeks later,
I was sitting expectantly
in the German State Opera.
The second party congress
of the SED was opened
to the solemn strains
of Beethoven.
On the third evening
of our discussions,
Hermann Mattern stood up at
the table on the platform
and boomed down the hall.
"It is now my privilege
to convey to the meeting,
"in addition to many greetings
from all over the world,
"the most important
greeting of all."
He then read out the Soviet
message of greeting,
which had been signed by
Suslov,
the secretary of the
Central Committee
of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union.
All eyes were turned to the box
in which Suslov sat as the
guest of the congress.
He stood up and cried,
in German,
"Long live the Socialist
Unity Party of Germany."
When the applause at this had
died down,
Mattern shouted from the table
on the platform,
"Long live the Communist Party
of the Soviet Union.
"Long live its
Central Committee.
"Long live its leader, Stalin!"
In the year-and-a-half
since the assembly
to unify the Social Democrats
with the German Communist
Party,
the SED had greatly changed.
At that first congress,
a greeting of this kind
would have been impossible.
I had now realised how
insolubly we were chained
to the Soviet Union.
I never had a real desire
to leave.
I had no reason to.
My friends and my work
were in East Berlin.
I was a socialist. I still am,
in fact,
although I never joined
the SED.
Of course I'm critical
of the GDR...
..but then I'm critical
of West Germany.
Obviously, my biggest regret
is that I'd had to wait
so long to travel.
I don't think that that should
be the case.
Prost!
I could understand Paul
wanting to leave.
The Russians released him
from Sachsenhausen in '51.
He finished his apprenticeship
and then left early in '53.
He had had enough
of the Russians
and Ulbricht
and his colleagues.
I thought that Sophie would go
over with him
but in fact she was waiting
to see what was going
to happen. Cigarette?
Stalin had just died.
Food was short,
wages were low.
There was a constant pressure
to increase production norms.
There was a lot of unrest
at that time.
It all culminated in the June
riots of '53.
Sophie was disillusioned.
The riots had brought about
a few changes,
but there was a purge
within the party
and a number of good people
were removed from office.
So, she went over to the West
to join Paul.
SOPHIE: I made a number of
journeys by S-Bahn
to West Berlin,
each time taking a small
bag of possessions.
People rarely took large cases
with them when they went over
as suspicion would probably
have been aroused.
Passengers were often searched
for suspected smuggling.
JOHANNES: In 1956, I visited
Berlin for the first time
since 1937.
I was on my way to Russia
for a concert tour,
and we stopped for a couple
of days in Berlin.
There I met Kurt
and, for the first time,
his half-sister Sophie.
They drove me through the city.
NARRATOR: Although massive
rebuilding programmes
were being carried out,
Johannes was shocked by the
extent of the devastation
to that city he had once
known and loved...
..the streets and squares
that were once so beautiful.
Do you prefer it in the West?
I had an image of it,
and it didn't fit.
One always seems to be doomed.
One longs for what one does not
have.
When I was in the GDR,
I felt amputated.
I longed for the freedom of the
West,
and when I was in the West,
I sometimes longed for the
collectivity of the GDR.
Tja...
And what about you?
How do you find it being back
in Berlin?
It's strange.
I look around and feel...
..they had it coming to them.
RADIO: I never will forget my
expedition to my dear friend.
One hour before the train
started...
NARRATOR: On 13th August 1961,
John Smith was having tea
with his parents,
as he regularly did at weekends
if he wasn't working.
It is not clear whether it was
the radio or the television
that first drew his attention
to the main point of the news
that day.
HAMMERING
CLANGING
At the time, the news of the
Berlin Wall
had made a deep impression
on Johannes,
but in the years that followed,
he thought less and less
about any significant
political developments
which took place in Germany.
JOHANNES: I drove Kurt and
Sophie
to the publisher's office,
where they had arranged to meet
the author of the book.
Apparently, Volkmann was now
attempting to sue
the original English publisher.
They asked me to go in with
them,
but I decided to leave as I had
a difficult piece to play
the following day,
and with the others around, I
had not been able to practise.
I have a difficult piece
to play
on Monday night. It's Mahler 9.
There are a few complicated
solos in it
which I haven't been
able to practise very much.
To be in an orchestra,
you're just a cog on a wheel.
You help to create an
ensemble...
..but you're told all the time
what to do...or what not to do.
But when it comes to playing a
solo passage,
you've still got to try
and put an interpretation
in it.
Feeling. Warmth of tone.
And so on.
To sit in an orchestra
is quite a difficult thing.
You've got to be very patient.
You've got to rely on your
nerve not to let you down
at the crucial moment,
because playing the odd
solo passage is difficult.
It's not like being a soloist
all the time.
And everybody, I think,
gets nervous.
It's of course also a thrill to
play in an orchestra
because in the end,
you have the satisfaction of
having performed,
and, after all, we are
entertainers.
We like to give pleasure
to the audience,
and the applause in the end
is what counts.