A Peek through the Curtain

The iron curtain across Europe parted a little last week. Escorted by Russian officers, seven U.S. newspapermen, among them TIME Correspondent Jack Fleischer, toured rich, lightly war-damaged Thuringia, southwest of Berlin, in the Russian zone. When they returned to Berlin, Fleischer reported this conviction--that the goal of Russian occupation policies is a socialized Germany.

Politics. The Russians, Fleischer cabled, are fighting for socialism by shotgunning the Social Democratic party into a wedding with the Communists. Politicians, German officials, Russian officers conceded that for all practical purposes the merger had already taken place. The leaders were acting in concert. The rank & file had not been consulted.

Blandly the venerable, white-Vandyked Dr. August Proelich, Social Democratic leader and onetime Prime Minister of Thuringia, told the startled newsmen: "I don't believe it is wise to permit the rank & file to vote on such an important issue when an organization is as young as the present Social Democratic party."

Propaganda. Talk of socialism pervaded the atmosphere. In Gera the reporters listened to a nearsighted Communist professor, who might have mistaken his visitors for Soviet newsmen, lecture a training class for new teachers. He argued that Britain and the U.S. had "only formal democracy," struck at the British Labor Government, told the class: "Democracy is not the goal but the way to achieve the goal. As I have repeatedly said, the goal is socialism."

Production. The nearsighted professor's ideas, in muted form, were everywhere in Thuringia. Farmers were tackling the problems of shortages, tractors, horses, oxen, fertilizers and seeds, not individually, but in collective groups and according to plan. Workers' advisory councils functioned in the factories, conferring with commercial and technical directors on all operations.

Proudly Thuringia's potbellied Prime Minister, Dr. Rudolf Paul, told the newsmen that the province's industrial establishments, operating at 30% of normal last July, were now at 91%. Fleischer saw some of them.

The Bayerische Motoren Werke in Eisenach, 50% destroyed by air bombardment, was turning out eight passenger cars a day against a prewar total of 45. August production goal is 250 cars: 200 for Russian reparations, 50 for Soviet and German zonal administration.

The Bessler textile factory in Gera, managed by 46-year-old Willi Huhne, who held the same job through the Nazi era, was turning out from 2.4 to 2.6 million yards of cloth as against 3 million yards in prewar years. Sadly Huhne watched a machine turning out cloth with Stalin's picture on it, said he still favored private enterprise.

Wherever their cars stopped, reported Fleischer, a crowd of Germans collected. Some grumbled against the Russians, asked when the Americans were coming back. Said one Hausfrau: "The sunshine left with the American troops." But it was hard to see what they had to complain about. Cabled Fleischer:

"I saw supplies in the food stores, bacons, sausages, cheese, eggs, homemade preserves in the farmers' larders, and plenty of warm, good clothing on German backs, including frequent fur coats. The Russian zone is far ahead of other zones as a going concern. This is the reason: the Russians know just what they want in Germany. The Western Allies continue to be vague and confused."

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