Medford mail tribune., October 07, 1962, Image 42

Family Weekly
j October
7, IU02
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There are grim moments and lightheaded ones, too for the First Family of
As MY 1 3-year-old son Peter says, Berlin is a "city with
two faces." His own life illustrates this fact.
Although Berlin is as modern as any place in the world,
Peter was born by candlelight! The reason: his birth oc
curred during the Communist blockade when we in free
Berlin were desperately short of almost everything includ
ing electricity.
The blockade is past, and we continue to live as free men.
Nevertheless, we are completely surrounded by Communist
ruled territory, and this creates the paradox of "the city
with two faces."
Outsiders most often think of Berlin as the focal point of
international crises. But we who live here also know it as a
city where day-to-day life is not a great deal different than
in America.
When the boys of my household catch me between crises,
they have a way of reminding me I'm their father as well as
mayor of Berlin.
The "boys" I refer to are my sons Peter, Lars, age 11, and
Matthias, just one year old.
On occasional Sundays when I do manage to romp with
them in our small house, we carry on so riotously that my
wife Rut happily insists she really has four Brandt boys
"three little ones and the fourth one, a mayor!"
Living in Berlin where crises are plentiful, I am obviously
deprived of much of the nourishing time I would like with
my family, for growing boys have crises of their own from
which I think I could learn something.
For example, Peter and Lars are so resourceful that,
when they want a favor from me, they phone my secretaries
for an appointment at Schoneberg Rathaus, our city hall.
When they reach me, however, the "important" call is usual
ly about a Sunday outing or the next vacation.
Rut herself never complains, although her life in Berlin
revolves almost solely around home and children. "Four
boys" are sometimes a handful, but in her patient, feminine
way she manages to keep the children scrubbed and disci
plined, the house polished, and hot dinners on the stove for
me until all hours.
Rut has a great deal more privacy than her American
counterparts. A mayor's wife in Berlin is not expected to
christen ships, cut ribbons, or make public speeches. But Rut
4
Fdmilv Wttklu. October 7. 1962
Mayor Brandt's wife Rut (left) aids quietly
behind the scenes. Below: sons Peter
and Lars admire new baby brother Matthias.
DDDian i
KEG
The Mayor rows with his sons across the
picturesque Schlactensee Lake, a favorite spot
in the neighborhood of the Brandt home.
-tu . tuiAwlUb'y. j&L ttit it.i. .u.'ii
By WILLY BRANDT
Governing Mayor of Berlin
as told to Helen Zotos
West Berlin, an island of freedom surrounded by Communist-ruled territory
has played an important behind-the-scenes role in my life
and once even helped me avert a Berlin crisis !
In November, 1956, when Soviet tanks crushed Hungary's
freedom fighters, an angry crowd of several thousand Ber
lin students threatened to march in protest to the Branden
burg Gate. Realizing the danger of such a demonstration
at the border of the Soviet sector, Rut and I hastened to head
them off. I was only a struggling young politician then, but
I pleaded with the rioters over a loud-speaker while Rut
fearlessly disappeared into the crowd. Communist troops
drew up to the gate toting tommy guns, but Rut proceeded
to mobilize some of the more reasonable young demonstra
tors to link arms together and push the crowd back.
IN between such hours of tension there are other problems
that affect day-to-day life. Most of the lovely forests,
lakes, and mountains that were once our vacation lands are
now in the Soviet zone and off limits to us.
Every day at my office in Berlin or at the Berlinhaus in
Bonn or wherever else I go, I am confronted with problems
and political challenges that are peculiar to my city alone.
The Berlin Wall which shocks the entire world is keep
ing me busier than I've ever been during my five years as
mayor. Needless to say, no people look upon the Wall with
greater dismay and revulsion than the Berliners themselves.
The Wall touches every family in the city, separating not
only the living from the living but the living from the dead.
Families from West Berlin cannot even visit the graves of
their parents if these happen to be behind the Communist
barricade. Husbands have been torn from the arms of wives,
mothers from their children, and grandparents from their
grandchildren. The faithful cannot worship at their
churches, some children cannot attend their schools, and all
visits between the two sectors are banned.
The only links the Communists have not destroyed be
tween us and our loved ones are radio broadcasts, mail de
liveries (after censorship), sewage disposal, and the ex
change of funeral ashes once a week.
But the Wall is not the only Soviet provocation that has
brought us to the present situation of great tensions. For
15-odd years we in Berlin have been living on a powder keg.
As far back as 1948, the Communists divided our city and
( Continued on pane 6)
Family Weekly. October 7, 1962
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