A Problem of Patience

Though he is a health faddist who takes plenty of exercise (gymnastics, hikes, pingpong) and abstains from alcohol and tobacco, East Germany's Walter Ulbricht is frequently rumored to be ailing. Last week, at his first international press conference in nine years, the 76-year-old party boss looked surprisingly pink of cheek and spry of limb to the 400 foreign newsmen who flocked to East Berlin's modernistic Council of Ministers Building.

Ulbricht's purpose in calling the press conference: to reply to West German Chancellor Willy Brandt's proposal that the two Germanys enter into negotiations for a treaty renouncing the use of force. Between swigs of an orange-colored health drink called "buckthorn juice," Ulbricht, the East bloc's last surviving Stalinist, read a 52-minute speech. Then for the next 90 minutes he answered written questions. After he had finished, there was confusion in West Germany over exactly what he meant. The Stuttgarter Zeitung headlined, ULBRICHT CALLS FOR NEGOTIATIONS WITH BONN; Munich's Merkur bannered, ULBRICHT'S POSITION UNCHANGED. Slightly Conciliatory. Neither headline was entirely wrong. In his speech, Ulbricht made a fresh bid for recognition by declaring: "It is a basic truth that internationally valid agreements on the renunciation of force can only be concluded between states that recognize each other in international law." Thus, he added, Bonn "must prove the seriousness of its intentions by recognizing the German Democratic Republic as a sovereign state."

Then, during the less formal answer period, Ulbricht struck a slightly more conciliatory note. Waving his arms and pointing his index finger for emphasis, Ulbricht insisted that "we have no preconditions for talks." Furthermore, he said that when he sent a draft state treaty it was not on a take-it-or-leave-it basis but as "something we can negotiate and each side make its proposals."

What did Ulbricht mean? Concluded TIME correspondent Benjamin Cate: "What Ulbricht said, in effect, was that East Berlin was ready to sit down and talk with Bonn about negotiations. Even so, he warned that no negotiations could be successful until Bonn met his demand for recognition."

Pressure for Results. As soon as press reports of Ulbricht's statements clattered onto the Teletype in Palais Schaumberg, Brandt and a handful of key aides began to draft a reply. It came in the form of a letter from Brandt to East German Premier Willi Stoph. In his low-keyed four-paragraph note, Brandt wrote that the two Germanys should sit down at the negotiating table, in the first high-level meeting since the rival states were created 21 years ago, to discuss a renunciation-of-force agreement. In Brandt's words, the meeting could lead to a full exchange of views on all outstanding issues between "our states," including the problem of "equal relations" between the two parts of Germany. Brandt named his Minister for Inner German Affairs to be the West German negotiator, but Ulbricht has implied that he might be unacceptable. Ulbricht has appointed his Foreign Minister as East Berlin's negotiator, and wants Bonn to designate its Foreign Minister too, as a tacit admission of East Germany's sovereignty.

Since Brandt considers progress on German problems a prerequisite to Bonn's cooperation with the rest of the East bloc on other issues, he urged an early start to the talks. Ulbricht stressed, however, that his talks with Bonn could not begin until the successful completion of West Germany's negotiations on a renunciation-of-force treaty with the Soviet Union, which are only in the preliminary stage.

Apparently, Ulbricht hopes to force Brandt to grant concessions as he comes under increasing pressure in West Germany to show some results for his Ostpolitik. Ulbricht has already gained much by playing hard to get. Since Brandt came to power three months ago, Bonn has stopped talking about "Central Germany" or "the Soviet Zone"; it now describes the other half of Germany by its proper Communist name, the German Democratic Republic. Bonn has accepted the existence of two states within the German nation and has virtually abandoned any hope for reunification within the foreseeable future. No wonder Ulbricht stressed at the press conference, "We are a patient people." The question is whether the people on the Western side of the Wall are prepared to show as much patience.

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