The New Mayor

While Willy Brandt was in Paris attending to his new duties as West German Foreign Minister, West Berlin's parliament elected a man to fill out Brandt's four-year unexpired term as mayor of Germany's largest (2,200,000) city. The choice fell on Heinrich Albertz, 51, a Lutheran minister turned socialist politician.

A native of Prussia, Albertz was imprisoned for six months by the Nazis during World War II for mentioning political prisoners in a sermon to his congregation. After Germany's surrender, he entered politics in the state of Lower Saxony as minister for refugee affairs, went to Berlin in 1957 at Brandt's behest, and eventually became the city's interior minister and later deputy mayor. Albertz is known as a tough administrator and uncompromising in his dealings with Communists--as the East Germans learned last week. They are demanding that West Berlin recognize the regime of Walter Ulbricht as the price for Christmas passes for West Berliners to visit relatives in the city's East sector. In one of his first official acts, Albertz went on television to tell the Communists that West Berlin would not submit to blackmail.

If Albertz lacks the dynamic personality of an Ernst Reuter, the mayor during the airlift, or the flair of Brandt, he is merely matching the change that has come over the city he now takes charge of. The Wall ended the stimulating face-to-face confrontation with Communism that made West Berlin the world's most politically sensitive and savvy city. As a result, West Berlin has lost something of its motivation and spunk. Missing the excitement of Berlin's former crisis atmosphere, many of the most gifted artists, writers and performers have moved away. The city is also in danger of growing old. Without a countryside from which to draw new inhabitants, and with some young Berliners moving to West Germany for better jobs, 20% of West Berlin's population is 65 and older (v. 12% in West Germany), and the number of widows and widowers exceeds 300,000.

Still, the city remains one of Germany's largest industrial centers, and the spirit that made Berliners unyielding during the airlift and 1961 crisis is only dormant, not dead. Now, until the time that West Berliners are perchance again called on to play the heroes' role, they at least have a new mayor that suits their more subdued mood.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.