PROGRAM FOR WESTERN ACTION IN BERLIN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01731R000400330002-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 7, 2002
• Sequence Number: 2
• Content Type: REPORT

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Executive Registry
(6 N Fi o t ~~J
PROGRAM FOR WESTERN ACTION IN BERLIN
By Kar 1 Brandt
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This proposal results from my experiences when living in
company with students from the Eat Zone in Heidelberg and
G ttingen in 1948/49 while serving on the faculty of both unity
versitios, and particularly while teaching as a Stanford Uni-
versity exchange professor during tho 195455 Winter Semester
in the Free University of Berlin.
If it is not, in execution, whittled down to insignifi-
cant proportions or disseminated in piecemeal fashion through
various sporadic dormitory beginnings, but is carried on as
a united action of German-Amerioan partnership, this project
would make the two universities of West Berlin far more a
symbol of progressive ideas for the youth in all satellite
countries, but even put them for ahead of the West-German uni-
versities,, Such results would be attained only if the scope
were lerga enough and the action completed within a period not
to excseed three years,
This project does not have as its goal the creation of
dormitories, student hotels, fraternity house >,, or student
club houses, but is patterned after the ideas underlying the
outstanding experiments in Woat Germany with "Studentischa
Wohnhei?me" and "Studentisohe insehaftshstu er," It deals
primarily not with bricks and facilities but with some ideas
on the :formation of a new elite for the German nation of to-
morrow.
So far, large Ameriew. funds have been spent on rebuild-
ing the intelieatual working facilities for BErli.n's youth,
but little if anything has been done to improve their living
conditions.
Flo Alto, California Karl Brandt
January 1956
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S. The Challenge
The greatest asset the Western world holds in the foreign policy of
NATO and in ideological warfare with the Soviets, is Berlin, an island
of Western democracy and freedom deep within the colonial belt of Soviet
imperialism. While the Soviets leave no stone unturned to undermine this
outpost of the West ideologically and eventually to eliminate it and pull
all of Germany over to their side, the West (and this means first of all
the United States) acts only half-heartedly to win the battle against
the Soviets thereo But, ominously enough, Germany's ultimate position
is far from certain. For the Germany people--in West as well as East
Germany--Berlin is the theatre where they judge how honest and serious is
the effort of the Western powers to achieve reunification. This calls
for action that is constructive, symbolizes Western ideals and ideas,
and has enduring appeal. The constructive moves, such as diminishing un-
employment, reconstructing the city, and aiding refugees, that have been
made create good will, but cannot count forever in the changing scene of
the cold war and the rapidly shifting atmosphere of West-European
politics.
The most uniquely creative and almost, explosive assets of the Western
world inside Berlin are its two universities, the Freie Univers{tia't and
the Technisohe UniversitIt. The Free University in Dahiem, with its
resplendent now buildings donated by the Ford Foundation, is the legiti-
mate successor to the former Humboldt Universitiit, now located in the
Soviet sector, while the Technical University is the reconstructed
Technisohe Hochsohule. Each of these two institutions of higher learn-
ing has approximately 8,000 students, more than one-third of whom acme
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from homes in the Soviet zone in defiance of Soviet orders to stay any
from these "centers of imperialist indoctrination."
These 16,000 students are probably a major part of the most influen-
tial element of Germany's future leadership, the large number of students
in West-German universities notwithstanding-* Berlin is the place where
East and West are in direct contact, where the ideological battle is be-
ing waged with every means available, and where the West must win that
battle.
These two universities and their research institutes deserve the
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greatest possible moral, intellectual, and material aid jointly from West
Germany and the United States--far more than they receive today. At
present the American public is in the process of deleting Germany from
the list of problem areas because the economy of West Germany is booming.
No error could be more serious than this. Dive de d Germany-h .f its land
and one-fourth of its people a pawn in Soviet hands, flanked by an unstable
Franoe--remain's America's No. I problem-slgy,P
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II. The Most Ur gent Need
If anything is needed in Germany in the future, it is coherence among
the leading citizens in regard to willingness and experience in cooperat-
ing, in tackling civic tasks, and in compromising intelligently on contro-
versial issues. This could be greatly advanced if a large part of the
student body could live in adequate modern quarters shared and operated
by freely formed groups (not dormitories) with the opportunity of eating
meals jointly, of enjoying social hours, and in arriving at agreement on
major issues of public problems and policy by informal discussion in an
environment which the students consider as a "homes"
Most of the students of West Berlin are hardworking, intelligent,
and serious in the pursuit of their studies. Yet they are without ade-
quate means. Most of them live in extremely poor quarters for which they
pay more than they can afford, and to make ends meet trim their food bill
to below?subeistenoe level. Student rooms are scattered all over the
ruin-studded city, for the most part subleased from tenants of apartments
or houses at 40 to 60 DM per month. The rooms are located far from the
universities, particularly from the Free University in the I hlvm area,
where the density of housing is very low. Hence much time is spent com-
muting on over-crowded busses, trams, or a slow-motion subway to and
from schools
I have seen scores of such student rooms; their poverty and proletar-
ian style are far below what the Western world considers a minimum stan-
dard. The contrast between the modern style and the trinness of the
university buildings, lecture halls, and offices and the miniature alum
cubicles and often poorly heated attic rooms in which the students live
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is particularly bleak.
Combined with this housing misery is the inadequacy of the students'
food arrangements. Many students subsist on self-preptred sandwiches and
only occasionally a warm meal. The shortage of time, aggravated by the
bad location of the quarters and poor transportation, the slim purse,
and the congestion in student messes and low-priced restaurants are con-
tributing factors.
Worst of all, being forced to live for several years in such
scattered and mostly inadequate quarters that are anything but a home,
the students who form the civic community of these two great universities
are not a coherent body composed of groups of friends or teams with
mutual interests. By and large they are an amorphous mass of individuals
completely absorbed in their intellectual pursuits, proceeding in the
early morning as strap-.hangers from distant corners of the city to the
university just in time for lectures and laboratory classes, and in the
late afternoon or evening dispersing back to their rooms to continue work
for the next day's classes and seminars.
Most of them have no facilities for enjoying company, and sheer
adverse physical circumstances prevent them from arsooiating in circles
or living-community groups. This situation aggravates the shortcomings
of education in German schools and in the home, which do not achieve
nearly the social adjustment required in a democracy of responsible
citizens.
'While at any time in any country only a certain number of students
will enjoy and benefit from life in a group home, it is the view of the
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leading educators in all German universities that a substantial part of the
university reform can be achieved only in o mabination with such living and
working in group homes. I refer here to tks excellent report by Professor
Walter Peter Fuchs of Heidelberg University, STUDENTISCHE WOMMEI UND
GEMEINSCHAFTSBlIUSER IN YPESTDEUTSCHLAND (Frankfurt, 1951), which was the
result of efforts of the Verband Deutsoher Studentenarerke, and to the bro-
chure by Dr. Walther Billy of the Free University of Berlin,, STUDIUM
GENERA UND STUDENTISCHES GENEINSCiAFTSLEBEN (Berlin, 1952). The
latter publicaton makes, among others, the following observations i
"A further hint at the genuine community living is the broad
tendency of student groups to set up homes for living (Wohnhsime).
In these homes a pedagogic process is being intensified which
already existed without them. The partly extremely differing,
but in the undertakings of the community joint, student groups
face the necessity of disputing with each other, of question-
ing each other, of reviewing prejudices, and of dropping out-
moded customs in favor of new tasks." "After all, it is not
surprising that for many students the Student Living Groups
(Studentongemeinden) are actually their proper home (Heimatort)
within the university . . . .
In West Germany 27 universities have more than 100 Student Group Homes
with an almost infinite variety of arrangement, style, and number of resi-
dents. While some of these fail to achieve their real purposes, many of
them belong to the beat venture in Germ= higher eduoation. In ay
view, the most successful examples are to ba found among the 13 homes
in GUttingen (in particular the Akademisohe Burse), in the Leibniz
Kolleg in.TUbingen, and in the Collegium Academicum at Heidelberg.
In Berlin both universities have undertaken an ambitious housing
project 20 minutes distance by sub ay from both institutions. This pro-
ject, supported by the MoCloy Foundation and the City of Berlin, envisages
dormitories for 500 students plus a clubhouse. This excellent arrangement
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is very different from the project here proposed. Aside from this hous-
ing project, Berlin has the International Student Rome Eichksmp, which
has several bungalows and a clubhouse, and now has sp%oe for perhaps 130.
Students of the Technical University operate their houses. Yet, even if
these beginnings were similar to what is suggested here'.-which they are
not--the scope of the enterprise, in view of a joint enrollment of 160,000
students, is dwarfed almost to insignificance.
There is at present still a unique opportunity which may vanish
forever in the next few years in a metropolitan area like Berlin. By
an early BICAG decision, the Flee University was located in the garden'.
city part of West Berlin, where open areas exist. It is still possible
to acquire up to 100 of the former residential manors (preserved, rebuilt,
or still bomb-wrecked) and vacant lots within walking distance of the
University buildings. While real estate prices have been rising, the cost
of such properties is still very reasonable. Once these lots are absorbed
for residential or other public purposes the most attractive feature of
the whole project will no longer exists proximity to the Free University.
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III, The Project
I propose tackling the entire problem posed above at top speed on
a larger scope and with an entirely different line of approach. (In view
of niy familiarity with the situation at the Free university, and in view
of its domain in humanistic disciplines, this project is addressed
exclusively to this university and not to the Technical university, for
which. of course, a similar project should be started.
A. A Foundation for Student-Group Homes should be formed by private
masens from Berlin, West Germany, and the United States for the
purpose of acquiring, developing, and maintaining real estate
located as close as possible to the center of the University, and
leasing it, at substantially below coaeaeroial rents, under
specific contract to student groups which fulfill. certain require-
ments and commit themselves to operate them as group homes,
B. The Foundation, its real-estate holdings, and operations should
be free from taxation or other public levy.
0. The capital of the Foundation should be contributed in equal
shares from three sources: from private German donors, from
Counterpart FLmds, and from new .tnerioan foundation gifts or
other private donations, The German initiative should be sparked
by an American offer of a fixed sum provided it is matched by
German donors. The Foundation should be entitled to encumber
its real estate with first mortgageso
D. The goal should be to create a total of 100 homes in a period
not to exceed three years.
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E. The real estate should be acquired in such fashion as not to
defeat its purpose by causing speculators to purchase all proper-
ties under considerationo
P. The real estate should consist of properly located a) vacant lots
and b) large villas that can be reconditioned and altered to suit
the purpose.
To demonstrate the difference from any institutions in the
totalitarian world or elsewhere, the aim should not only be to
avoid uniformity of architectural appearance, but on the contrary
to develop the widest possible variety of styles and arrangements
and to vary also the size of the homes, i.e., the number of
students to be aooo msodated in each of them.
For the sake of maxim ma: economy of operation, it would be
desirable to have a minima of 35 single rooms in one house,
while for, reasons of coherence within a group and facility of
forming it and beeping it near the house capacity, the upper
limit should lie somewhere near 50.
Each house should contain one simply but well equipped room
for each student, a central heating system, a kitchen, a laundry,
from 15 to 20 common toilet, ahower-bath, and wash-basic facil-
ities, a dining room, a social room,,-and a library.
G. The type of houses to be acquired either by altering exii.ewug
houses or by now construction should be decided by the Foundation
a) st ter a competent survey of the hares in use In West-German
universities and review of the experience acquired; aaut+d b) by an
international competition for architects, which would supply
enough variety for all the haws to be built*
H. The Student-Group Homes should be offered for lease to any legiti-
mate student group registered with the authorities of the Univer-
sity that oovnits itself to the careful fulfillment of its con-
treated duty to operate the house for the benefit of its members
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according to the rules laid does by the Foundationo
The contract should stipulate that the --1 udentt garoup, repre aera-
ted by its duly elected officers, assumes the reeponsibili +y of
managing and maintaining the house, of hiring and firing the needed
personnel (particularly the cook), of providing the meals desired,
of charging its members no more than a certain maximum rent per
room, and of. enforcing strictly the rules not to admit members of
the opposite sex to individual rooms, or to keep or dispense
liquor in the house*
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By no means all West-German experiments in housing students have not
with success; the project at the University of Frankfurt is a conspicuous
example of failure. The students dislike hotel aorta of arrangements or
anything that looks like or smacks of barracks or dormitories, They also
object strongly to double-occupancy rooms. These deep-seated preferences
must be respected even at the expense of maximum economy.
For reasons of ideological combat against Soviet solutions, even any
uniformity of student-group homes should be studiously avoided. Respect
for the dignity of the individual and priority on freedom should find
their symbolic expression in a maximum variety of appearance and internal
arrangement with regard to these dwellings. No two homes should be
identical, which would emphasize the individuality of each group.
In order that action can be taken promptly without accompanying
bureaucratic red tape, the Foundation should be independent of the Univer-
sity and the municipality of West Berlin.
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V. Conclusion
If this project were to be launched in 1956 by making initially (say
by September 1956) 25 homes available to qualifying student-home groups,
the impact upon the student body would be profound. Before reaching its
final form, the contract would be discussed with ASTA (the all-student
committee), so that all the students could participate in its formation.
The homes would be opened for inspection by all candidates for group
membership.
Low rent and low prices for meal service would make the project so
attractive that the formation of home-sharing groups would be stimulated,
Once the living in these group homes in the immediate neighborhood of the
University itself began, the students in each group would inevitably work
to improve the democratic procedures of making decisions.
If the project were carried to completion by the fall of 1958, about
3,500 of the 8,000 students of the Free University would be living in group
homes. The students in those homes could be expected to comprise the
main body of citizens with a knack for leadership in public affairs,,,
It is my assumption that the whole project would require no more than
$2.5 million, of which $1.5 million would be needed as cash while the
remainder could be obtained as mortgages. Hence the total contribution
needed as American donations and Counterpart bands would be $1 million.
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