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German Anti-Americanism: East & West Zones:
Clinical Notes for a Diagnosis—and Remedy
- Abstract
AN HOUR after the American military train to West Germany left West Berlin it was brought to an unscheduled halt. We were at a small station, somewhere in Soviet Germany. Although it was dark outside, I could read the legends on some of the red and blue streamers floating from the house tops: “The railroad workers of Germany pledge eternal friendship to the peoples of the Soviet Union and the People’s Democracies.” And: “Our national defense forces protect us from the Anglo- American germ murderers.” And, largest of them all: “Ami, go home!” The “Amis” were, of course, the Americans.
Supervised by a uniformed stationmaster, two old men and a girl in her teens were inspecting the rails under our train. At the end of the platform, two policemen and, somewhat apart and aloof, a Soviet Russian soldier, all three with rifles underslung, eyed our train with cold hostility. The only other person in sight stood near my car, a pretty girl with a heavy rucksack on her back, and a row of medals on her blue blouse that marked her as a member of the Free German Youth, a Communist organization.
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