Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-07-26
DISSOLUTION of Spirit in Russian Sector
Is the Impression Left on Visitor

gives deeper meaning to the
long -deserted-movie-set i'm
preston that begins just to
the east of the Brandenburg
Gate.
The absence of people on
the street could mean that
everyone is at work. A few
workers are visible, mostly
women, ill-clad tired types
working with tired equip
ment. One of them is es-
pecially interesting AS she
pauses, rake in hand. to stare
at the passing car.
She is the first teen-age
crone this tourist has ever
seen, toothless. stringy-
haired. the girl-one thinks
ruefully-who might pose for
one of those posters the Rus
slams use to illustrate the eff
fects of Child slave labor"
in capitalist countries.
But these are Germans,
quite possibly more the vic
tins of a system than adj
herents to it. Whichever is
true, they could hardly be
more unlike their relatives
beyond the Brandenbirg
Gate to the west: the latter
so gayly dressed, so alive, so
apparently hellbent upon the
adventure of creating a brave
new world.
Studying the difference
between the worker scenes in
the two sectors. west and
east, the observer tells him.
self he generalizes recklessly,
and oversimplifies the ex-
PLANTATION of the difference.
But the surface evidence is
there, and this suggests that
the contrast in worker atti-
tudes and tempo, west sector
and east, is a matter of in
centive. So far as the eye
can see, the West Berliner
works for himself and goes
about it with zest. His fellow
German east of the gate
works for the state, indiffer-
emily.
Why, otherwise. the mind
runs on, would the west sec
tor look so alive and tidy.
the eastern one so lifeless and
seedy?
The east sector. of course.
has it's exceptions to this
vista of drabness. The visi-
tors car is now entering
Stain Alice from the west.
This is a new movie set, at
least newer. This is COM
munism's showcase thor
oughfare. 1t is wide, twice
as wide as Constitution
avenue, with a parking
strip down the center. 1t is
lined with the east sectors
best shops and the multi
stored, white walled apart
ment houses with their model
workmen's fats. Still. the
route here has led past the
restored Berlin opera house
in an airy. sunlit platz whose
old. monumental buildings
make the new apartments
look pallid and tentative.
Nevertheless, there is more
of life in Stain Alice. 1t is
nearing noon and the side
walk cafes boast of three or
four coffee drinkers, as
against scores of dawdlers in
the same places in the west
sector. These and the few
pedestrians are intensely
curious about the visitors
car with its State Depart
ment license. They eye the
car. a Ford several years old,
and its occupants and the
latter's clothing, as if the lot
came from another world.
The drive along Stain
Alice is properly made at a
slow pace. 1t is to have one
planned pause. this at the
model apartment open to
inspection by visitors. One
pushes the bell and waits.
There is no response. One
pushes it again. This time.
after a slight delay. there is
a buzzing sound inside. The
knob now turns and one is
inside a walk-up apartment
building which could not be
neater, more antiseptically
plain.
At the top Of the first
fight OF stairs stands a
shabbily dressed middle-aged