Sidney Hook
THE BERLIN CONGRESS
FOR CULTURAL FREEDOM
The Congress for Cultural Freedom which met in Berlin from
June 25th to June 30th was an exciting affair. The news of the invasion
of Korea broke just before the first session when it seemed uncertain
whether the Russians would march in Germany too, in which event every
delegate would have been a prisoner of the M.v.A. in a few hours. West
Berlin, defenseless in an iron ring of Soviet armour, remained outwardly
calm. Nor was there any overt sign of nervousness or anxiety among the
Congress members. On the contrary. The militant tone taken toward the
Soviet version of culture, the appeal of Professor Ernst Reuter, the elected
Mayor of Great Berlin and an active participant in the sessions, to the
peoples of the satellite countries to support the program of the Congress,
the Message of Solidarity sent by Western intellectuals to their confreres
in the East, indicated that the Korean events,
if
anything, had given
a fillup to the spirit of the delegates.
Theodore Plivier, author of
Stalingrad
who had broken with the
Communists and was hiding out from them in Stuttgart, had originally
recorded his message to the Congress on tape. As soon as he learned of
the invasion of Korea, he flew to Berlin in order to emphasize by a public
appearance his denunciation of the Soviet practice of "total unfreedom."
A security watch had to be placed on him as on several other delegates
from satellite countries to circumvent attempts at kidnapping. To discuss
cultural freedom
in
Berlin might cost something. It was clear to almost
all the delegates that in the nature of the case this was no ordinary
meeting of a learned society in a city like Lausanne but also a political
affirmation. The analytic quality of some of the discussions left something
to be desired. But considering the atmosphere and the fact that the ses–
sions were held before audiences that ran sometimes to thousands, many
of the presented papers, and at times the discussions, were extremely
good.
More than a hundred delegates from twenty different countries
