Berlin 1970 - September news headlines

From the Information Unit,  United States Information Service, U.S. Mission Berlin

* * *  Berlin Press Review  * * *

[--rwr note: keep in mind that dates shown are those of the newspapers, most of which are morning editions, referring to events of the prior day]

(selected from the random copies in my collection - rwr -)

Saturday, 5 Sep 70

Top news included King Hussein's call on the big powers for help against Iraq's threat to use its troops in Jordan for the protection of the Palestinian guerillas.

-- DER TAGESSPEIGEL, SPANDAUER VOLKSBLATT.

Other prominent reports included the cancellation of Indonesian President Suharto's visit to Hamburg and Bremen because his safety cannot be guaranteed.

Young Socialist Ousted

The 'Jungsozialisten' in Berlin's Wilmersfdorf section -- DER TAGESSPIEGEL, DIE WELT --  have ousted Rudolf Schmidt, an assistant lecturer at the Berlin Technical University, who is charged with having lent a hand in writing, in connection with an anti-American Vietnam demonstration in 1968, a resolution accusing the Berlin SPD leaders of steering an "authoritarian, anti-democratic course" and pursuing a "policy disrespecting the constitution."

[East German papers had much coverage of the "revanchist" meeting in West Berlin.]

Sunday, 6 Sep 70

Precautions taken upon President Suharto's visit to Bonn because attempts on his life were considered possible.

-- WELT AM SONNTAG
 

Monday, 7 Sep 70

On a Single Day in Europe:  Arab Air Pirates Hijack Four Jet Giants -- One Hijacker Is Shot and Killed Aboard

-- BILDZEITUNG

Expellees Meet in Berlin, Stress Right of Self-Determination

- (some 5,000 expellees from former East German territories assembled in Berlin's Waldbuehne Theater for their traditional Day of the Homeland meeting) -- DIE WELT, BILDZEITUNG and B.Z. also carried excerpts from news publisher Axel Springer's remarks following his and others' decoration with the meritorious service medal of the expellee federation on Saturday.

Springer stressed that to him the divided Berlin still is the "clamp that keeps the two parts of Germany together" and warned that the reduction of FRG presence in West Berlin would have disastrous effects on the life of the city.  He voiced concern that Bonn and West Berlin leaders might hope to "appease the East by a kind of good behavior," but this has not ever worked with dictatorships.

"To the Soviets, Lenin's word still has validity: He who has Berlin has Germany; he who has Germany has Europe -- and that is no old hat," he said.  Springer demanded more for Berlin than a unilateral permeability of the wall and telephone communications between the two parts of the city.  "It will not help anybody if Berlin is more or less turned into a city of old-age pensioners.  Whoever abandons Berlin with its true political significance abandons Germany."

The publisher also warned of the consequences of the Moscow treaty for Berlin and said he did not believe that the "Soviet-German paper might one day be substitute [sic] for the presence of American troops. The Americans will go when the effects of the Moscow treaty become evident."

[--rwr note:  his statements are in the context of intense diplomatic activity by the four Allies, plus both Germanys, covering German-Russian relations, the status of Berlin, trade, personal travel rights, etc.]

Revanchists Meet in West Berlin -- NEUES DEUTSCHLAND and BERLINER ZEITUNG [covered the Expellees meeting in West Berlin]   In his remarks on Saturday, news publisher Axel Springer tried to incite the public against the Moscow treaty and supported the revanchists and their territorial claims.

BERLINER ZEITUNG reported that under the eyes of the police neo-Nazis beat young democrats and talking choruses demanded the removal of the neo-Nazis from West Berlin.  BERLINER ZEITUNG used exactly the same paragraph on incidents at the labor union congress in West Berlin which NEUES DEUTSCHLAND used for the Walbuehne expellee meeting.

Tuesday,  8 Sep 70

Arab Terrorists Set Ultimatum for Western Countries -- Kidnapped Passengers Are in Hands of Guerillas -- Release of Convicted Assassains Is Demanded

-- DIE WELT

Wednesday, 9 Sep 70

-- SPANDAUER  VOLKSBLATT  The government in Amman and the central committee of the Palestinian liberation organization agree to immediately cease all hostilities between Palestinians and Jordanians.

-- BERLINER MORGENPOST  British authorities have refused entry to the U.K. to two assistant lecturers and a student of Berlin's Free University who wished to participate in an excursion to Northern Ireland organized by the Red cell of the English language and literature department.  The British Ministry of the Interior [--rwr note: probably the Home Secretary] had the three held at London airport [probably Heathrow] for 20 hours and then ordered them to be shoved back to Germany.1

Saturday, 12 Sep 70

SED Condemns Liberation Movement Violence

-- DER TAGESSPIEGEL -- The GDR [German Democratic Republic, aka East Germany] has condemned armed acts of violence of the so-called liberation movements and has described them as "detrimental to the revolutionary movement."  Without referring directly to the latest airline hijacking , SED ideologist Robbe said in the East German HORIZONT magazine that "adventurous single actions of the liberation movements" would not break the framework of the society of exploiters, but would only shock the public and stabilize the system.  He added that violence would result in "sacrificing irreplaceable revolutionary potencies if it stemmed merely from a morbid or criminal pyromania."

Wednesday, 16 Sep 70

Civil War Is Imminent in Jordan

-- TELEGRAF

Berlin Police Arrest Tupamoros Member

-- BILDZEITUNG, NACHTDEPESCHE, et al --  West Berlin police yesterday identified and arrested Heinz Stahl, 27, as the man who in the "Monitor" telecast on Monday evening confessed to a number of bomb attacks in Berlin and announced further crimes, all West Berlin morning papers reported.   Some papers even assumed that Stahl is the chief of the Berlin Tupamoros group.  Stahl was arrested as he was about to see a repetition of the broadcast.  BILDZEITUNG stressed that although Stahl had masked himself in the broadcast, the wall-paper in his home betrayed him.

-- NACHTDEPESCHE and other papers ran the facsimile of a Tupamoros handbill which was distributed after the telecast that threatened to burn down ARD television and liquidate Berlin Deputy Mayor Neubauer and TV moderator Casdorff.  It claimed that the whole TV show was made up to send the Tupamoro commandos on a wrong track.

Meanwhile the Monitor broadcast featuring Stahl was criticized in the public, Berlin Mayor Klaus Schuetz censured the director of WDR for giving a violent criminal an opportunity to "publicly approve dangerous crimes and threaten with further explosive and incendiary attacks."  Schuetz also criticized the behavior of TV moderator Claus Hinrich Cassdorf whose introductory and concluding remarks on the anarchists could not eliminate the facts.  The mayor wanted to know if  "these criminals" were paid for the interview.  -- MORGENPOST said it has learned that Stahl received compensation for the electric power that was used in his home, but the sum could not be determined.

SPD faction secretary Dietrich Stobbe announced that the SPD members in the SFB Radio Council have been directed to clarify disputed questions including what was the TV moderator's idea when he gave a man like Stahl FRG-wide publicity.

A spokesman of the Berlin administration of justice said a warrant for Stahl's arrest has been issued.  Ten Berlin policement have filed a legal complaint against Casdorff.  Casdorrf himself defended his broadcast and pointed out that the audience was given guidance to form its own judgement.  He said he did not only do his duty as a journalist, but also as a citizen.

--- During this interval, most coverage was on the diplomatic maneuvers of the four Allies and the two Germanys, along with the hostage taking and the Middle East. ---

Monday, 28 Sep 70

-- BZ (with many details)   Three Berlin Senat departments have prepared a report on the activity of the so-called "Red cells" at the Berlin universities.  The report came to the conclusion that the Red cells' activity is anti-constitutional, but the Senat does not think of banning all radical groups.

-- DER TAGESSPIEGEL, et al -- Former SDS ideologist Rudi Dutschke may stay in Britain until further notice.  Minister of the Interior Maudling [Home Secretary?] has notified him that his residence permit will be extended for a short period so that he can make other preparations.

-- ALL PAPERS --  Heinz Stahl, 27, who posed as a Tupamaro member in a recent telecast, was sentenced to a DM4,000 fine on Friday for causing a serious beer-hall fracas in March, 1970.  Stahl will lodge an appeal against the "terror sentence" of the Berlin court.

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