OBSESSIONS OF BERLIN
nesslike people. They buy where others steal, they sell where others give.
And even if the end-result-absolute impoverishment and complete ex–
ploitation-should be the same, the process to this end, in terms of
personal experiences, seems not as terrible as the lawless past.
American generosity brings a bitter smile to the lips of the Berliner.
He knows quite well what his rations are, and he knows the black market
prices. His bitterness on this point, however, does not differ from his
feelings toward his own countrymen, the farmer for instance, or toward
the Displaced Persons and the Western businessmen who are engaged
in black market activities. He cannot find any satisfaction in the thought
that the black market must find its end as soon as Germany is emptied
of all the valuables that still command a price on the world-market,
for he needs the black market and is by necessity a part of it. The tem–
porary black market depression in the wake of the currency-reform did
not help the Berliners much, as the "cold war" prevented them from
profiting by the farmers' and store-keepers' new confidence in the
freshly printed money.
The smile released by the propaganda for Democracy, however, has
no bitterness at all. It can even turn into a hearty laugh if the question
of the re-education of the Germans is raised. It is understood, to be sure,
that an army is exempt from democracy, otherwise it could not be an
army, and that an occupation army in particular cannot serve a lesson in
democracy. It is rather the propaganda in newspaper, news-reel, and
radio, that is found so amusing. Every word uttered in favor of democ–
racy is at once contradicted by the facts of life. It is not the Nazi educa–
tion of the past, having lost its dubious meaning long before the oc–
cupation, which explains the Berliners' obvious reluctance to take the
dealers in democracy seriously; it is the close resemblance of their present
life to that under the Nazi dictatorship. Of course they are supposed
to pay for their sins of the past before being allowed to enjoy the fullness
of the democratic life. The propaganda merely contains the promise of
rewards for present-day good behavior, just as the flesh-pots of the Nazis
had to
be
earned first by countless sacrifices and terrible suffering. But
for too long the Berliners have lived on promises, and no longer do they
trust in words. They are not cynical and disillusioned, as the observers
say; they are merely sick of phrases totally unrelated to their actual
situation. They do not see a choice between democracy and dictatorship
but merely hope for the lowest possible ·degree of the terroristic rule of
which they have had so much.
It is found increasingly difficult to oppose the Nazi observation that
power alone determines who is to rule and live, and who is to be ruled
1119
