March 19, 1970 was an icy cold spring day. The station forecourt in Erfurt was cordoned off from all sides with transportable metal bars and thick ropes. People were stationed at the bars about ten meters away. On the station square stood a small wooden grandstand for the press and photographers. Some uniformed men were running back and forth in the square talking into their radios.

On this day, Willy Brandt should come to Erfurt. The details of the visit program I knew from the West television. The Chancellor would pass by a special train at Herleshausen the inner German border and then drive over Eisenach and Gotha to Erfurt. The conference venue in Erfurt was the Interhotel Erfurter Hof, located directly opposite the station building.

Brandt was very popular in the GDR, and his meeting with Prime Minister Willi Stoph aroused many hopes. Thousands should come that day to see Willy Brandt. I stood in the crowd and cheered.

When West German journalists asked government spokesman Conrad Ahlers if good working conditions were guaranteed there, he replied flippantly on TV: "We are coming to a reasonably civilized country!" This remark should cause laughter the day after.

Shouting, crush, turmoil

With me several dozen other onlookers had already posted themselves at the barrier in the amount of the entrance to the Reichsbahndirektion. In front of us was the station square with a good view of the conference hotel on the left and the station building on the right. From here I would be able to see Willy Brandt.

Then it got restless. From the left side more and more people pushed on the already crowded footpath in our direction, to the right we could only have avoided the station underpass. The special train from the west would soon roll up on the tracks. We were pushed forward against the barriers, and the police were firing up reinforcements. But for a long time, the grates would not withstand the pressure.

Someone at that moment had given the order to stop a tram train with trailers on the tracks that ran parallel to the barriers. The tram traffic had not been interrupted so far. But now cars suddenly blocked our view of the square. We had been shut off from the action.

First there were single whistles, then loud shouts, then a big scream: "Road free! Road free!" The few policemen who were still standing between the barrier and the tram were pressed against the cars by the angry crowd.

The turmoil escalated. The first in the crowd crashed to the ground. There was no way out after any side. Crying and crowding became so great that the police had to fear for their lives. Then the tram train was moved forwards, towards Anger.

The Willy with the "Y"

The way to the station square was free. Unnoticed by us, politicians had just entered the conference hotel there. We, standing in front, stumbled over the overturned barriers and ran. Behind us followed hundreds of others. The previously explosive mood had resolved in a matter of seconds. There was a popular mood. Soon about 5,000 people stood on the station square. We all looked at the hotel building where Willy Brandt had been for about ten minutes.

Nobody said a word yet.

Then a few shouts were heard.

"Willy, Willy, Willy!"

We all knew which Willy was meant. Not Willi Stoph, but the one with the "Y".

The shouts were shouting: "Willy! Willy! Willy!" And finally: "Willy Brandt to the window, Willy Brandt to the window!"

We wanted to see this man. He was a symbol of our hopes. 5,000 East Germans called for the West German Chancellor. Nobody had ordered her to this place. We were all here voluntarily. We were here and called for Willy.

Suddenly the elongated side window of a narrow bay window opened at the top of the hotel building. Willy Brandt stood there. He slowly raised his right hand and looked down, incredulous, as it seemed to me. No, there was not the slightest triumph to notice! No pathetic gesture! No response to our loud cheers!

Next to me, people were raising their arms. I took two or three pictures with my 35 mm camera and hid the camera quickly under my jacket again.

"Go on, go ahead."

Already minutes before, I had noticed the young men pushing in front of me and beside me through the crowd. I just hoped that they had not noticed my camera. Brandt might show up at the open window for a minute. No longer. After that we all clapped. Some in the crowd shouted "High! High!" The East German people on the Erfurt station square was impressed by the restrained gesture of their West German hopefuls.

Suddenly the young men who had mingled with us hissed: "Go on, go on." They jostled and hissed "Go on." Nobody contradicted. Because of my camera, I left the place quickly. I did not want to mess with the Stasi.

In the evening we saw the oppressive pictures of the day on the West TV. The clearing of the station square by the state security service and the march of "protesters", who had been hurriedly brought by the district party school. Among other things, they chanted the saying "We are a civilized country!" In front of the Erfurter Hof. and "The GDR is recognized!" Over and over again they shouted that. On television this comic appearance of the comrades became a joke.

When someone spoke of the "civilized country" in the GDR, it was later understood to be a joke and a funny allusion to Erfurt. Government spokesman Ahlers had landed with his flippant remark a permanent Talon.

To read more:

Uwe Gerig: "The Stasi called me 'Reporter': Journalist in East + West - A Strange Career in Divided Germany". Books on Demand, 2009, 496 pages.

The book is available at Amazon .