Word: leipzig
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Although the Iron Curtain is less rigid than it used to be, Western newsmen are still welcomed cautiously in East Germany. After arriving in Leipzig, 90 miles southwest of the Berlin Wall, Chief European Correspondent William Rademaekers and Bonn Bureau Chief Bruce Nelan discovered that their time was not to be entirely their own. "The authorities," Rademaekers says, "had organized a togetherness program stretching over two weeks." Reluctantly, G.D.R. officials gave in to the correspondents' request to split up: Rademaekers traveled east to the Polish border, while Nelan went as far south as "Saxon Switzerland" near the Czech border...
...Their willingness to work and our capitalist system put together would produce incredible results," marvels a West German businessman visiting Leipzig...
Most people react by refusing to discuss politics or their discontent with the regime. The boredom level is probably higher in East Germany than in almost any other country in the world. "If you live quietly and keep your mouth shut," says an elderly woman in Leipzig, "then nobody bothers...
During the annual Leipzig Trade Fair, a favorite pastime of citizens is to stand on street corners and watch the visiting Western cars. Otherwise scrupulously honest, the East German has no qualms about stealing the distinctive star that adorns every Mercedes hood...
...inferior to its Western equivalent. Distribution is bad, and shortages of even items like toilet paper are chronic. People still line up for such things as fruit-grapefruits are sold only to diabetics. Shoppers often return home emptyhanded. "You always walk around with a pocketful of money," says a Leipzig woman, "because you never know what you may find in the shops...