Gerhard Wolf, 70, was rummaging breathlessly through the file drawers in his living room, looking for the picture of the last time he felt so free.
Puffing with excitement, he found it tucked in a folder, an 8-by-10 glossy taken in 1943. He was 24 years old, playing drums in a jazz band formed by German prisoners of war at Camp Crowder, Mo. Being a prisoner of war in America - now that was a happy memory."Over the past 45 years, I would gladly have gone back to Camp Crowder at any time - and under the same conditions," Wolf said. "I often thought about that. But after the war I went back to my family in the Russian zone of Germany. I made a mistake."
He sighed. "Hitler and the communists were just the same - all just dictators. I grew up under Hitler and I lived in the Russian zone, so in my whole life, until now, there was never any democracy for me."Wolf's wife, Romi, added, "We are really happy with the political situation, with the freedom we have now
since the Wall came down. For us, it has turned around 180 degrees."
The Wolfs have one of the few tales of pure, unalloyed happiness at the end of communist rule in Eastern Europe. Like others, they are delighted to be free, but as East Germans and as retirees - and unlike virtually everyone else in East Europe - they also are getting instant prosperity with their freedom. Their surprise happy ending is coming late in life, but it is on a guaranteed timetable, and they are looking forward to it as you would look forward to Christmas if you had a very rich and kindly uncle.
On July 2, the uncle, the West German government, honored Wolf's life savings by converting his bank accounts from worthless East German marks into Deutschemarks - a windfall of $9,000, just for a start. The rest of his substantial savings will be converted into D-marks at a lower rate, but still enough to let him plan excitedly on buying a new Volkswagen and visiting his wife's cousin in Edmonton, Alberta. And his pension is guaranteed by the West Germans.
Wolf's eyes shone as he recounted his story: "I fought for Rommel, in Africa, at El Alamein and Tobruk," he said. "I was in the infantry, marching all the time. Then I was captured near Tunis - no, not by the Americans; by French Negro soldiers. They attacked in the dark with great big knives between their teeth. We were so frightened we threw our weapons away and surrendered. We were taken in a convoy to Norfolk, Va. They put the prisoner ship on the outside of the convoy so German submarines wouldn't sink it."
Wolf had to struggle a bit to recollect his excellent English. "This is the first time I have had a conversation in English in 45 years," he said. "That's what I get for living in the Russian zone. Our young people all had to learn Russian. It has not been a good life here, it has been hard. My son wanted to study to be a teacher, but under the communists only the children of workers were allowed to go to college. Romi and I were not workers; we had jobs in an office. So my son went to work for the railroad."
Though life has been hard, it has had its rewards. Wolf and his wife have an immaculate, cheerfully furnished one-bedroom apartment in a well-maintained housing project. He had to wait 16 years for the apartment, 16 years to buy his Wartburg car and 20 years for a telephone. On the other hand, his rent has been $7 a month. And the Wartburg, tinny though it is, has lasted 13 years and runs like a top.
After the Deutschemark's introduction as East Germany's currency, the rent will rise to $42, but Wolf and other East Germans face an uncertainty. None of them knows who owns their apartments - or anything else in East Germany.
"We have this concept of people's property," he said. "Will I have to buy my apartment? Can I buy my apartment? Will I be able to sell it? Nobody knows. All we have is unanswered questions. One of the reasons you see no businesses starting up here is that there is nobody you can go to to get space for an office or a factory. Nobody knows who would have the right to rent space for stores. The regime is afraid the very land of East Germany will be sold off to the highest bidder."
Technically, there is no timetable for political unification with West Germany, but it is hard to see how East Germany can remain a sovereign, independent country if West Germany controls its money supply.
Conservative Christian Democrats, who are committed to the free market, won East Germany's first free elections largely on the promise of converting East German savings accounts into Deutschemarks. Wolf is grateful for the gift but not sure whether he wants a Christian Democratic government.
He speaks kindly of liberal communist Egon Krenz, who opened the Berlin Wall during his brief hold on power. "We have a lot to thank him for, but he's gone - pffffft!" Wolf said. At the same time, Wolf is still apprehensive about the surviving bureaucracy. "A lot of the old people who were put in by the communists, the people who run the factories, the bureaucrats, they are still in place."
For proof, he pointed at the street signs as he whizzed along in his Wartburg: "You see, the bureaucrats won't change the names - it's still Karl Marx, Karl Marx, Karl Marx, Gorky Street, Dostoyevsky Street."
The biggest change in Wolf's life, he and his wife said, is the end of fear. "This is a free country now," he said. "We can say what we want, go where we want, read what we want."
The Wolfs were surprisingly ready to let two Americans, whom they had met on the street, into their home - especially after 45 years of being taught to suspect everybody. Wolf reflected, "Over all these years, we had only our family as close friends, people we could trust."
But you must have had friends?
"We had family friends," Wolf said. "But strange friends, never." He looked down at a place setting on a table. "This is a knife, this is a fork, this is a spoon. In 45 years, I have forgotten so much."
Next: The patient party.
1990, New York News Inc.
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