GERMAN NEGOTIATIONS

Gerald M. Rosberg's article on "German Negotiations" presented such a grossly distorted view of inter-German affairs that it cannot go unanswered.

Mr. Rosberg heaps much of the blame for the failure of past attempts at negotiating some solution to the German problem onto the West Germans.

Such charges can only be called ridiculous. To be sure, past German governments have refused to address East Germany as the "German Democratic Republic," but mostly because of the conviction that, if anything, that German Republic is not democratic. However, the new West German Government under Chancellor Kiesinger has started a campaign to cease such verbal hostilities.

There can be no doubt but that West German TV broadcasts are received in East Germany and that such broadcasts do carry a certain load of propaganda. But the West Germans are amateurs in the art of political propaganda, as anyone will ascertain who has ever had the pleasure of listening to the "Deutschlandsender" or even the "Freiheitssender 904". In any case, West Germany does not jam East German broadcasts or punish those whose TV antennas are turned to the wrong direction.

The charge that the West Germans "Consciously lured away" many East Germans before the wall was built is, in many ways, the most insidious one. First of all, it is simply not true. East Germans fled their regime because they were unwilling to tolerate political oppression, be forced into agricultural collectives, live under relatively poor economic conditions, and, a very important reason indeed, be separated from their families and friends in West Germany.

The policies of the Kiesinger government, in contrast to the policies of the Adenauer-Erhard era, are motivated by humanitarian, rather than political, considerations. The Kiesinger government does want reunification; but its proposals for negotiations are not primarily aimed at reunification. They are attempts to find ways to help the East German people.

Kiesinger believes that reunification will come about only after a European detente and not as a first step toward such a detente, as Adenauer and Erhard had maintained. Nor is the government totally opposed to the idea of recognizing the East German regime. Herbert Wether, one of the top leaders of the SPD and Kiesinger's Minister for All German Affairs, has already gone on record as favoring recognition, if such a step could bring about an easing of present restrictions. There is a totally new spirit in Bonn today which Mr. Rosberg has failed to depict. Gebhard Schweigler '67 Lutz Hoppner '68