Chemists Meet Across the Iron Curtain I was in Uppsala, Sweden recently for two months of study in the library of the University. While I was there, I received an invitation from Dr. Heinz Cassebaum of Magdeburg, East Germany, (DDR) to meet him in East Berlin. I had collaborated with Cassebaum on a paper in the history of science ( I ) but we had never met personally. About a week before I left Uppsala to come home, I decided to go to Berlin. It was too late to arrange a meeting by mail, since letters to East Germany, even from Sweden, take a week to ten days a t least to reach their destination. I arrived in West Berlin on 2 June 1977 and immediately tried unsuccessfully to reach Cassehaum by telephone. So 1 sent him a telegram telling him I was at the Hotel Plaza for three days, June 2-5. The next day I received a telephone call from Cassebaum from East Berlin. He said he had gotten my telegram and we made an appointment to meet the next day at Cafe Lindencorso on Unter den Linden, the main avenue in East Berlin, a t 10 a.m. I left my hotel by U-Bahn a t 820 a.m. The West Berlin subway goes under East Berlin a t one point and comes up again on the other side, but has only one exit, a t Friederichstrasse, in East Berlin. I got off there, went through the screening by the East German authorities, and got through to the other side at 10 a.m. It was only a few blocks to Unter den Linden so I walked. As I walked up to Cafe Lindencorso 10 minutes late for our appointment, Cassebaum came towards me with a questioning look on his face, carrying a picture of me I had sent him. I recognized him also from his pictures. We went inside for coffee and to get acquainted. There his wife joined us. Cassebaum is self-taught in English and my German is halting to say the least. But with the help of a writing pad we got acquainted very quickly. Frau Cassebaum spoke only German. Then Frau Cassebaum left us and we went out to explore East Berlin. We visited the Deutsche Staatsbihliotek, the Pergamon Museum, the Marienkirche where we heard the great organ playing to an almost empty cathedral, a department store full of shoppers, and had a fine lunch a t the Moskvau Restaurant, a really plush establishment. Fmrr Cassebaum came to pick us up in their yellow French sedan, made in Rumania, with their twin sonsand took us to her mother's apartment on the fifth floor of an apartment building overlooking a park. There I was fed and given liquid refreshment a t least three times in about five hours, while Cassehaum and I explored our mutual interests in history and philosophy of science. Frau Cassebaum joined in occasionally, wantingto know about my wife and family. Theybave a house in Magdeburg where Cassehaum works as a pharmaceutical chemist for a pharmaceutical trust. Frau Cassehaum is an "economic engineer" for the railroad. Their lifeseemed surprisingly similar to mine. They are thinking of building asummer house on a lake near Magdeburg and wanted t o hear all about a similar establishment of mine. The bays knew about Pel6 having joined a New York football team, and sang "My Bonnie" in English for my pleasure. At 8 p.m. they drove me back to the Friedericbstrasse U-Bahn station where we said good-bye like old friends and I went back to my hotel in West Berlin.
' Cassebaum, H., and Schufle, J. A,, J. CHEM. EDUC., 52,442 (1975). New Mexico Highlands University Las Vegas, New Mexico 87701
162 / Journal of Chemical Education
J. A. Schufle
