{Germany Divided}[10th February 1969]

[Redbook1:75-76][19690210:1400a]{Germany Divided}[10th February 1969][Age 17]

Monday 10th February 1969.

2.00 p.m. [continued]

            The East Germans have imposed a ban on road and rail (but not air) travel to West Berlin on all members of the Federal Assembly, who will elect a new Federal President.  This ban is (supposedly) temporary.

            I think the Russians are right to keep the two parts separate, though I am not sure how much good it will do; and I deplore the way they treat the people of E.  Germany who attempt to cross.  No doubt they reason that the policy of division must be absolute to be any good at all, and they may be right: refugees moving into W.  Germany could cause the very economic conditions which preceded the rise of Hitler and the last war.  Nevertheless it is wrong that so much human misery should be necessary.  The alternatives then seem to be (1) the present situation, with total division, or (2) a total breakdown of frontier barriers, as in a united Europe, which would take some time.  It should be preceded by absorption of W. Germany -- politically – into E.E.C. and E.F.T.A., and of E. Germany into the Warsaw Pact countries; when and only when these two sectors have lost their individuality entirely in their respective groupings can the barriers come down with any degree of safety.

This assumes, of course, that the Germans need to be divided at all.  I once thought that it was not right to keep humans in bondage even for fear of them -- as a group, that is -- but the human race seems to have learned the lesson of "twice bit, thrice shy” with regard to the Germans.  Whether environmental factors would produce the same result a third time I just do not know, but I do believe that, from a human point of view, the suffering of the E. Germans is wrong.  Nevertheless, it is in England's interest that the present situation should survive, for W. Germany, or so I am told by K.J.D., my economics teacher, now seeks Britain to replace E. Germany as her industrial partner in the E.E.C..  So if I were England's [sic] Prime Minister, with a mandate to support Britain's interests, I would squash my humane principles, hypocrite that I am.

[PostedBlogger18102012]