The First Class of Fulbrighters - Fulbright-Kommission
The First Class of Fulbrighters - Fulbright-Kommission
The First Class of Fulbrighters - Fulbright-Kommission
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Uni or operas, or out for a<br />
snack, the A10 takes Adourian<br />
everywhere he wants to go.<br />
Slogans, banners, and photos larger than life<br />
decorates May Day 1954.<br />
others. Last year at Marienbad was a special favorite. <strong>The</strong>re<br />
was Fernandel as Don Camillo, and a series <strong>of</strong> gangster films<br />
with Eddie Constantine. <strong>The</strong>re was even Marlon Brando<br />
speaking perfektes Deutsch in Faust im Nacken.<br />
EAST BERLIN MADE ORWELL a reality. On occasion<br />
I rode the S-Bahn to Alexanderplatz to, among other<br />
things, buy books or phonograph records at Das Gute Buch<br />
or at Soviet International Books. At the time I didn’t know<br />
that Der Alex was the venue <strong>of</strong> the famous Franz Biberkopf . 12<br />
With the student card, and a very favorable rate <strong>of</strong> exchange<br />
for the dollar what Berlin had to <strong>of</strong>fer, and it was much and<br />
varied, could be enjoyed very inexpensively. I’ll never forget<br />
May Day in East Berlin: banners with slogans everywhere,<br />
huge pictures <strong>of</strong> the Communist hagiography—Marx,<br />
Engels, Lenin, Pieck, Ulbricht, Liebknecht, and Luxemburg—and<br />
marching Vopos 13 and FDJ. 14 <strong>The</strong> faces and slogans<br />
were different, but the whole scene brought to mind<br />
newsreels <strong>of</strong> the Nürnberg rallies.<br />
Space is too short to mention more than in passing a<br />
wonderful 10 days with a group <strong>of</strong> Berliners in Vorarlberg,<br />
Austria, during the Christmas break, with a side trip to<br />
occupied Vienna on the way back. I was lucky enough to get<br />
a ticket to see Helge Rosvaenge sing Ein Maskenball at the<br />
<strong>The</strong>ater an der Wien. During the semester break there was a<br />
month and a half in Italy, north <strong>of</strong> Rome, by motorcycle.<br />
For me, the lasting legacy <strong>of</strong> my Fubright year in<br />
Berlin, for which I am eternally grateful, is my enduring<br />
love <strong>of</strong> Central European language, literature, and culture.<br />
Music lovers from all over the world<br />
cool their heals in the Badewanne.<br />
24 25<br />
I am now semi-retired, but during my active 40 plus years<br />
as a trial lawyer, I would <strong>of</strong>ten travel by car to the various<br />
venues <strong>of</strong> my practice in the southern part <strong>of</strong> New Jersey,<br />
and instead <strong>of</strong> listening to tapes <strong>of</strong> the latest New Jersey or<br />
Federal cases and statutes, I would pop in the tape deck<br />
recordings in German <strong>of</strong> Central European classics—Mann,<br />
Musil, Joseph Roth, Böll, Kleist, Hesse, Fontane, and many<br />
others, read by such great artists as Will Quadflieg or Gert<br />
Westphal. I still have a tape <strong>of</strong> Quadflieg and Gustav<br />
Gründgens doing Faust. On one occasion, however, my<br />
knowledge <strong>of</strong> German had a more practical application. In a<br />
lawsuit against a large German chemical company, I was<br />
able to negotiate a considerable monetary settlement by<br />
showing that a warning label on a potentially explosive<br />
product had been mistranslated from German into English.<br />
But, first and foremost I can thank the German language<br />
for my wife <strong>of</strong> 46 years. In 1956 I was stationed in<br />
Frankfurt, West Germany, with the U.S. Army. In my free<br />
time I took some classes at the university where I met a<br />
young woman from Finland. I spoke no Finnish, and she<br />
spoke almost no English. Our common language was German,<br />
which we spoke during courtship and the first years <strong>of</strong><br />
marriage, until English finally won out.<br />
My memories <strong>of</strong> Berlin in the early 1950s have provided<br />
me with a “movable feast.” I was in Berlin for a short time<br />
in 1956 on a matter with the army, but I have not been<br />
back since. I don’t know if I could take today’s glitz and<br />
glass in Berlin. I think I’ll stay with my memories.<br />
1) Movie theater 2) “Give me your hand, my life, come with me to my castle” 3) “Take care!” 4) Malt beer and pea soup 5) Fountain and light show 6) Pneumatic tubes<br />
allowing messages to be sent between tables 7) A Berlin specialty, Berlin Weiss beer with a shot <strong>of</strong> raspberry juice (or liqueur), 8) A brand <strong>of</strong> Berlin beer 8) nurse<br />
10) Radio in the American Sector, broadcast from 1946-1993 11) Attention! Attention! This is RIAS speaking, a free voice <strong>of</strong> the free world. We bring you the news<br />
12) Main character in the novel, Alexanderplatz, by Alfred Döblin 13) Short for Volkspolizei, the East German police 14) Short for Freie Deutsche Jugend (Free German<br />
Youth), the socialist youth organization <strong>of</strong> the GDR.