Evening star., 1948-07-27
Defiance Of Soviefs
By Woman Mayor Of
Berlin Is Praised

DCIIIIl ID hol1Cu
BERLIN, July n. (NANA.)-The
first lady Of Germany at the moment
is 6l-year-old woman with a
gentle smile, an iron will and the
courage of lion. She is Frau Louise
Schroeder, mayor of Berlin.
In the days of crisis she carries
the fate Of 3,500,0O0 Berliners with
courage and grace. Never before In
German History has a woman held
such an important job She has
the sympathy of everybody. And
she receives more fan mail than
many American movie stars.
1t was she who recently received
and handled-the two most import
ant. and most conflicting, orders
from the East and West The Rus
slams instructed her to make the
Soviet currency reform effective
throughout Berlin and to report
completion of this order to the
Soviet kommandatura. Within the
hour Col. Frank Howley. the Ameri-
can commandant of Berlin, sent
these instructions:
II must advise that this unilateral
order can have no application in
the United States sector Of Berlin.
Therefore, neither you nor any mem
Har nf La oit lyr,iy1i CT fo fiNr1 will
put this Soviet order into effect"
Cheered for Decision.
With these two explosive messages
in her pocketbook, she faced a near
riot at the city hall. Calmly she
announced through the microphone
that, to her, Berlin was still gov
erned by four powers and that
therefore she could not act on any
individual instructions. Every Rus
sian and every German Communist
present flew into a towering rage.
But other Germans cheered them
selves hoarse, and as she walked
from the room they broke into song:
"Our Louise! There's no girl like
her!"
If the Americans pull out Of Ber-
lin now her fate, of course, Is the
salt mines. She knows this and
what it means. In 1945 the Gestapo
tracked her down and brought her
in on numerous occasions for their
notorious hearings" She had cour-
age then. and she still can't be in
timidated now.
When she became the mayor Of
Berlin, she hoped the assignment
would be temporary. That was in
May. 1947, when western Germans
end the Americans. the British and
the French were advocating Ernst
Reuter- for mayor. Reuter- was
converted Communist, whom the
Russians loathed-and in those days
all four powers had to agree. De-
spite the fact that Reuter- had been
elected by the Germans. he was
turned down and Frau Schroeder,
being next in line, took office.
Prefers Social Work.
Her ambition, however, is to re-
turn to the job she loves and worked
80 efficiently at before Hitler took
ver-social-welfare work At the
moment, her position as delegate OF
the Social Democrats, the strongest
opponent of the Communists in
Berlin, is touchy and nerve racking.
She believes in the significance OF
Berlin as the capital Of Germany.
Recently she was attacked by the
Communist press for going to West
ern Germany and participating in
the first meeting of the German
ministers president at Koblenz. She
answered the Communists with a
smile: Berlin must seize every op-
portunity to keep in touch with all
four zones. Naturally, this includes
the Russian zone. Unfortunately, I
have never been invited to that
quarter of Germany, nor have
been offered a permit to visit"
At present this little gray-haired
woman Is receiving masses Of tele-
grams and letters from cities of the
Western zones. They offer help with
food money and relief for the Ber-
lin population.
Forever dashing from conference
to conference, she is harder to in
terview than Greta Garbo-not be-
cause she is publicity-shy, but be-
cause she doesn't feel she can spare
the time.
She lives in a Subrented room in
the apartment of friends, and apart
from the clothing she wears, she
owns two pairs of sheets. One on,
one Off" she laughs. Il lost all my
property during the air raids"