GERMAN IMPRESSIONS
15
crew of a tug in the Rhine to blow up those parts of the collapsed
bridge which were obstructing river traffic.
The shops sold practically nothing except bread and a few other
rationed things. In many shops one saw various powders, which were
supposed, according to their labels, to impart a pleasant ersatz flavour
to food. One bookshop sold books which had apparently been dug
out of rubble heaps. 'They were soggy with damp and they smelt like
the rest of Bonn. Nevertheless, Bonn had more books than any other
town in the British zone, so far as I could discover. A few art shops
sold prints and baroque statuettes.
Life seemed to have sunk in the bodies of the people to the level
of the rubble in the basements and cellars of the houses. Yet certain
improvements took place in conditions during the few weeks in which
I was there. For example, the trams started running. The postmen
started delivering postcards (letters were as yet not allowed). More
trains were to be seen, and they went for longer distances. The
trains were a fantastic sight. Not only did people hang on outside
carriages, on the running boards, but also they clung on the buffers
and crouched on the roof. Trains were covered with people as with
flies.
Germans often grumbled about the occupation, but it is only
fair to add that they did not complain so much of material condi–
tions as of mental ones. Middle-class people made incredible journeys,
in crowded goods trucks, sitting on heaps of coal for days and nights,
and at the end of the jorney they said nothing of it. Some of the
more distinguished Germans refused to take part in the German
Civil Administration because they said that those who took part were
benefiting by the Occupation and living better than other Germans.
I have even heard of cases of the secretaries of officers, certainly not
chosen for their moral qualities, refusing gifts of food for themselves
and their families because they wished to show that Germans can
'take it.'
CONVERSATIONS
Professor Von Beckerath is a vital, eager non-conformist type
with the energetic yet rather gray appearance of the teacher who
regards all men who are willing to learn from him as equal.
He has a pleasant book-lined study in a house at Godesberg
where he lives with his family. These houses are by no means unlike
the stucco early nineteenth century houses of St. John's Wood, except
that they are situated above the banks of the Rhine.
