Oldal 1 [1]
OCR
REPORT FROM B. s, NOTE: This observer has just returned from Berlin, after having stayed there over a week and having had the opportunity of visiting both sectors of the city and of talking with all the best informed personalities. The following is the general impression gathered from that "isolated island in a Red Sea*®, Two worlds in one citye Just like London, Paris or New York, Berlin once has been a large single unit. Its business and residential, its governmental and industrial sections were different in character, but they had the unity of a common administration, economy and atmospheres Today Berlin is divided between two worlds: the Western and the Eastern ones A demarcation line runs through the city and forms a true bordere It is an absolute cut; both economically and politieally speakinge : Economically, the two sectors of the city are increasingly evolv in op site a Berti s emarcation line is not a fiction: it pete por cones 8 eg éz ea and inspected; no forbidden goods are allowed to cross the line and interzonal passports " have to be in orders Even so, few cars with West Berlin license dare to pass the border: too often they have been confiscated, once on Eastern territory, and never retu sg ers 209apedes trians are not regularly checked. But there is a coritrol /and no one dares f.cx to pass from the West to the Hast, carrying a larger parcel, brand new shoes or anything that indicates a purchase in a Western shope Such items would not likely pass the vigilant eyes of the border guards and their confiscation would be the least to happen se. Although Eastern Berlin is economically better off than the remainder of the so-called DDR, the German Democratic Republic, its difference with Western Berlin is striking: difference in money, in prices, in goods available, in economic structure, in the rebuilding program, in standard of living, in traffic ete. Politically and ideologically, the opposition is more impressive still; although from this point of view too, Eastern Berlin is by far less isolated tha the Kussian Zone propere A few small facts however are symptomatic and show that in this single city, tvo worlds are developing. The mere atmosphere of HMastern berlin is a sample of the Soviet world: uniformed men and women or proletarians in the street; an atmosphere of distrust and silence; an ever-,resent uninterrupted propaganda; a feeling of being cut-off, be it only by the fact that Western press and publications are banned and that since a few months, on astern initiative, Berlin's telephone net has been cut in two and there is no more means of comunicating from one sector to the othere s 4S. Ji
