Chuck Carney’s European Journal

Visiting Allies

Sunday June 18, 2006

BRUSSELS, BELGUIM - I am now concluding the RIAS program in Europe and wrapping up the trip. I may add some other entries in the coming days with other observations from the trip. There is so much to write about, but I’ve had so little time to sit down and gather thoughts.

The final leg of the European journey took our group to Brussels, Belgium, the home of the European Commission headquarters—the European government founded by a treaty among the European states (forming the European Union)—and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)—the alliance of nations including the U.S. that formed originally as a response to Cold War Communist threats. We got to visit both headquarters, and discussed various topics about each. Unlike our previous visits to other locations, these sessions were fairly strictly off the record, involving some sensitive topics such as EU expansion and NATO’s role in fighting terrorism. The idea is to give reporters background and promote understanding of each organization in the context of American and European foreign policy.

Although I can’t quote some of the representatives directly, there are some general topics that I can talk about that are interesting. We had one whole session at the EU on the issues facing the possible expansion of the EU with Turkey as a member. It’s clear that there are huge obstacles facing Turkey’s membership. Europeans don’t largely consider Turkey as European, although the Turkish largely consider themselves European. The U.S. backs Turkey’s membership, with the hope that its proximity and relationship with the Arab world will bolster stability and democracy in the Middle East. But it’s hard to imagine the expansion happening in full soon. The French and the Dutch rejected in a public vote the EU constitution, largely because of fears that it would enhance Turkish membership options. Turkish immigrants are resented by many in Europe—especially in Germany—because they are seen as a drain on the social welfare system and a threat to jobs in some areas where unemployment is already high (although I must point out that all across Germany and Belgium, certain Turkish foods, especially the kebab, are so popular among the general population that you can get them virtually anywhere). The EU has certain people working specifically on the issue.

Our first speaker basically started out in such a way that most of us in the group felt like we were perhaps the most ignorant people on earth regarding the European Union. He sort of quizzed us on our knowledge of the EU, which revealed to us all that we basically had none. While we were all aware of the efforts of EU nations to create a seamless single trade zone, we certainly had little knowledge of other efforts the organization is making for its 25 member states.

The policies the EU Parliament is now considering reflect the level of policy minutiae before lawmakers. Germany is under fire for allowing so much promotional access to cigarette makers. Other EU countries have followed the U.S. example in curbing advertising for tobacco companies, but in Germany, cigarettes are literally available on the street corner in vending machines (although with an age control mechanism) and you can buy Marlboro and Camel clothing in special stores in malls. While no smoking sections in restaurants are available, they are really “reduced smoking” sections, since nothing but air divides non-smoking patrons from those who do smoke.

We picked a great time to be in Brussels, since the leaders of EU nations were there for a summit meeting. Reports on the meeting expressed pessimism about any constructive result. A CNBC Europe reporter said those interested in business in Europe shouldn’t look to this meeting for anything constructive. Most of the business items have been pushed back until January’s summit.

But the real excitement is building regarding July’s EU-U.S. summit in Vienna. Our briefer at the EU who deals with U.S. relations primarily refused to take five minutes after his session for a quick on the record interview because he said he had to scramble to the latest in a day of meetings on the upcoming summit. European publications are writing extensively about expectations in the meeting which will include President Bush. Part of the reason is because of increasing calls among EU member nations for the U.S. to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

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Still Trying to Become Part of Germany

Tuesday June 13, 2006

SCHWERIN, GERMANY - This week is moving quickly. I was in Rostock for a couple days, but have now moved on to Schwerin, a city about an hour’s drive from the Baltic Sea in North Central Germany. It is one of the old East Germany’s western-most cities, and it is still trying, after 16 years, to be fully integrated into the new unified Germany.

Reminders of the old Soviet satellite state are everywhere, although some have recently been scrubbed. The hotel where I’m staying is listed as an address on Karl Marx Strasse. However, the city leaders changed the name just a year ago. A street named for Lenin changed right after the wall fell.

But a statue of Lenin remains. Debate continues here about what to do regarding a 14-foot statue of Lenin that sits on a plaza within an old communist housing development. It seems extremely odd seeing the stern figure of the Soviet hero, standing hands in pocket, overcoat neatly buttoned, eyes looking in the direction of Russia. Since East Germany fell, many have wanted to remove the statue, but others in town feel that the reminder of Lenin should remain to ensure residents don’t forget the pain of the old system. It is also difficult to remove all the reminders of Soviet times, since many socialists are still around and continue to hold staying power in local elections.

The old gray units that provided small spaces for all workers are now largely empty. Many are being renovated into more modern units so they less resemble the Soviet design which was devoid of character, and in most cases, color. Around a third of the units that once held 50,000 people are now empty on this edge of Schwerin. Some units are being torn down to eliminate the excess space. Schwerin lost 35,000 residents after reunification, mostly because jobs in this region became scarce and haven’t improved much. Regional unemployment is around 20%. One city official estimates that as much as half of the residents of the old housing blocks are unemployed and living off of Germany’s generous welfare system.

Schwerin contains a huge castle, the Schwerin Castle, now the seat of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern State Parliament. Some structure of the castle has existed here for a thousand years, but it actually became a castle in the 16th and 17th centuries. Henry the Lion ruled here, and the castle was also the seat of the Count of Schwerin and the dukedom and Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The castle is stunning, sitting on an island, surrounded by water, at the edge of the Schwerin Sea (which is actually a huge lake). Since few Americans are likely to travel here, it’s one of Germany’s lesser known castles, but it is a breathtaking structure. The German head of the RIAS program in which I’m participating says in this country, castles are “a dime a dozen,” owing to the fact that Germany has a long history of division ruled by warring fiefdoms.

Schwerin is also a fortunate city in regards to its history. Unlike all the other cities I’ve visited on this trip, it did not sustain catastrophic damage during World War II. Since it wasn’t a primary place for armament building or German troops, only the train station was bombed to disrupt transportation. U.S. soldiers took the town peacefully in 1945, so many buildings that date back hundreds of years still exist much as they did when they were built.

What’s the biggest irony in this former Soviet bloc city? The site where the Soviet army headquartered in Schwerin is where the city’s three-level shopping mall illustrates capitalism on a daily basis.

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Moving North

Sunday June 11, 2006

ROSTOCK, GERMANY - I am now in the seaport town of Rostock, just off the Baltic in the northern part of Germany, about a hundred kilometers from Berlin. We are spending a short portion of our journey here before moving on to Schwerin tomorrow. Again, this is a part of the former East Germany, so some of our meetings in the morning will focus on the continuing transition from communist to capitalist economy.

The town is a gorgeous European tourist attraction. The architecture is quite unlike the other places I’ve seen, with a very distinctive look that may speak to its tie to the Nordic lands. We traveled by boat up to the actual Baltic port at Warnemunde. This is the place where President Bush will briefly meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on his way to meetings in Russia next month.

Rostock is a town that lost much of its structures during World War II. The German navy used this as a launching point, so Allied bombers struck hard here. Around 40% was lost during the war.

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World Cup Central

Friday June 9, 2006

BERLIN, GERMANY - What I have failed to mention to this point is the thing you are seeing on your world news coverage if you are seeing anything at all about Germany…the World Cup. As I write this, the German team is about to kick off against Costa Rica in round one of the cup. That match is being played in Munich. However, since Berlin is the site of other games, including the final next month, Berlin is hopping with activity. A continuous celebration, including live music on stage, is set up around the Brandenburg Gate. A street full of fan activities stretches down the street from the gate for the “Fan Mile.” A replica stadium seating a few thousand has been constructed by Adidas in front of the Reichstag so fans can watch the games on giant screens. Public viewing areas are located all around the city. Fans from across the globe are in town. I’ve seen fans from Mexico, the U.S., Sweden, Korea and Poland here. It is a palpable excitement that is sort of like the Final Four, only about eight times bigger.

It is amazing to be in the midst of all this, and certainly exciting. I must admit a lack of knowledge about soccer, but a great respect for the sport. This event is clearly like nothing else. The Super Bowl, World Series, Final Four nor anything else draws this kind of interest.

It is a bit disappointing, however, for my first view of the Brandenburg Gate to have been obscured by a giant soccer ball.

Germans are disappointed that it appears their star player will miss tonight’s game because of a calf strain. The captain of the team injured himself slightly earlier this week. The host team is not a favorite, but the fans here are hoping for another miracle. Germany won in 1990, capping the incredible year of the country’s reunification.

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A Look into Old East Berlin

Thursday June 8, 2006

BERLIN, GERMANY - The last few days have been so amazingly busy that I’ve had a hard time finding a chance to write down any thoughts. Over and over again, I’m struck by the thought that I can’t believe the things I’m seeing.

Today was certainly one of those days. We toured a former “Stasi” prison. The Stasi is what East Germany’s secret police were called. Essentially their job was to root out political enemies. In the extreme paranoia of the former communist government, that meant enemies around every corner, in every home. In fact, we met a former inmate today who learned only a few years ago when she was able to review her Stasi file that her own husband was a Stasi informant. He (still very much alive) hadn’t told her.

Our tour guide through the prison was another former inmate. The nearly 80-year old Eberhard Zahn’s story is typical of the old East Berlin days. As a West Berliner in his twenties in 1953, the Stasi caught Zahn in East Berlin and arrested him on suspicion he was a spy for the U.S. (he wasn’t, and said he had no reason not to admit such to a group of American journalists fifty years later). Although the authorities never found any evidence of his being a spy, they convicted him for writing anti-communist papers in college. He served seven years, including ten months in the prison we saw today.

The Stasi used psychological techniques, Zahn said, actually only physically beating an inmate on occasion. Their main goal, he said, was disorientation and trying to distort an inmate’s thinking. For example, all windows to the outside were made of glass bricks, so an inmate could never see where he was. Inmates never saw another inmate, never spoke to anyone, and never could turn off a light in their cells. Interrogators hoped to break prisoners into admitting some crime, although many had committed none, like Zahn.

The prison was within two walls, and its streets weren’t reflected on East Berlin maps of the time. Zahn’s family had no idea where he was for many years, even receiving a denial from the East German authorities when the family asked directly if they had him in one of their prisons. He had a girlfriend who committed suicide one year before he got out of prison in 1960.

This remarkable man practically bounced across the prison yard to show us the facility today. Zahn says he has great admiration for the United States because he says without U.S. efforts during the Cold War, West Berlin certainly would have become communist. He says he actually knows the former commander of the prison, who still says he did what he had to do for the “good of the peasants and average workers” at the time. Zahn thinks former Stasi should be held accountable for their actions. Still, he doesn’t exude any bitterness, despite the ordeal. Instead, he says the experience makes him appreciate freedom so much more. Freedom is not on the consciousness, he says, much like air. But when you lose your supply of air, you notice it, Zahn says, adding that freedom is much more a conscious thought when it’s gone.

The prison closed only when East Germany fell in 1990.

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The New German Government

Tuesday June 6, 2006

BERLIN, GERMANY - Today our group really has had a busy tour of the government facilities here in Berlin. Among our trips today was to the Reichstag. Contrary to the sound of the name, it really doesn’t refer to the Third Reich of the Nazis. In fact, the Nazis never held any such parliamentary session in the building, for reasons made obvious by the fact that Hitler was in charge. It’s the home to the German parliament, or Bundestag.

The design of the building is fascinating. You must remember that the new German government has only been located in Berlin for seven years. It moved from Bonn in 1999. As part of the move, the Reichstag underwent a total renovation, and it is a striking makeover. From the outside, the building has a colonial governmental look, not unlike Indiana’s state capitol. But it now features a translucent dome (somewhat replicating the original clear-glass dome that covered the building), and the inside is quite modern. In comparison to the U.S. Congress look of traditional colonial parliamentary procedure, this has the look of the home of the fictional galaxy-wide governing body that existed in a Star Trek movie. It is sleek, with blue seats, and lots of glass.

Such a move in a U.S. statehouse would be unthinkable. Placing a glass dome that looks modern on a classic structure just wouldn’t work. But here, the importance is on the transparency of the system—represented by all the glass—and the start of something new. Remember, a democratic parliament has not ruled in this building since 1933. What’s to preserve from the past?

That said, a couple of interesting notes from the past. There’s a sculpture resembling bricks with names of all the past parliamentary members of Germany, chronicled in order. There’s a black brick in the middle for the time period of 1933 to 1945. That represents the Nazi era. Also, there are other parts of the building left bare, existing in nearly the state they were after the war nearly destroyed the structure. Those walls have Russian graffiti, left by soldiers when they took Berlin in 1945.

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Seeing Berlin

Monday June 5, 2006

BERLIN, GERMANY - I have now moved to Berlin, joining the group for the RIAS German-American Journalist Fellowship program for the next two weeks. It’s a diverse group of broadcast journalists, ranging from a public radio reporter from Alabama (who’s actually a native Hoosier), a thirty-year producer for CBS News who works on the overnight “Up to the Minute” broadcasts, to an educator from North Carolina. We all feel sort of bonded immediately by our selection to the program, and after just a half-day together, I’m sure we’ll certainly feel bonded by the experience.

Although I got a brief glimpse of the city during my trip Friday, the only things I really saw with any depth were the building that contains the German Marshall Fund Berlin office and the Berlin Zoo (it’s a great zoo—highly recommended). Today, we got a three-hour guided bus tour with stops at some points around the city. Among the highlights was a stop at the still-new Holocaust memorial. It is made up of thousands of slabs of grey stone, all at varying heights from just a foot to more than eight feet tall, arranged in rows, but on a rolling cobblestone ground. The effect intended by the artist is to allow the visitor to walk inside the monument, feel a little disoriented and lost at the tallest points of stones, and not really know where to turn. That is the feeling that many Jews in Germany undoubtedly had during the Nazi era. It is a quite effective monument, emphasized during my visit by the placement of a rose on one of the slabs. Again, as first enforced by my trip to Buchenwald concentration camp, the Germans are making a great effort to preserve the memory of that horror.

Just a few feet away from the Holocaust memorial is a parking lot with a children’s playground for a nearby apartment complex. No marker exists to commemorate the history of the spot, but this is Hitler’s bunker where he took his life as the war ended.

It’s stunning to realize that this place was once divided, but there are reminders everywhere. The best portion of the wall still intact is a two-hundred meter section supposedly left unchanged since 1989. It has no painting on the east side (not allowed by the communist regime), and has markings such as “Why?” and “Maybe someday we’ll be together” on the west side. While returning my rental car yesterday, I got lost trying to find a gas station. Early on in following the directions given by the rental agent, I realized I was driving through Checkpoint Charlie—the U.S. entrance from East Berlin. A museum inside contains original artifacts from the side, including the famous sign stating “You are now entering the American sector” on one side. A path of cobblestones marks the former placement of the wall throughout Berlin.

I was told before leaving Weimar that Berlin would be a much more international city, both in language and look. Definitely, the sign that it’s more Americanized is here—I’ve had no fewer than four Starbucks sightings.

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