Life is a Journey: Live it (Part 67)

The other autobiography
The NATO Double Treaty meant to increase the number of nuclear weapons in Europe to match the level of the Warsaw Pact arsenal and in phase two negotiating as equals about a reduction of world wide nuclear weapons.

For us of the Peace Movement it was clear this was not the real intention of German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and his French counterpart. They wanted to bring the Soviet Union down. Their idea was the race for more rockets which would eventually lead to an economic crisis in Moscow and the collapse of the regime. We were convinced this would happen sooner or later anyway as the parameters of the Soviet Union were not good at all. The costs on the other side for us in the west to have these atomic rockets Pershing II and Cruise Missiles were far too high. Not only on the economic side but more nuclear materials to store safely would cost generations to come enormous amounts of money.

I became a member of a local Peace Movement group and my children's room in Alte Wöhr became the intellectual hub for us young people from all walks of life. We discussed the various issues involved in the Fabrik in Hamburg Altona, in bars, restaurants, cafes and Hamburg University. The floor of my room in Alte Wöhr was covered with papers. We wrote article after article, laid them out on the floor to publish a two weeks booklet with our ideas and suggestions. The atmosphere was electric.

When I stayed at The Abbey in Sutton Courtenay I did not stop the fight against atomic weaponry. Instead I collected more information and support. One day I went down south to Greenham Common. Around the RAF base young protestors had set up a camp with small tents. Each morning the police came, took the camp down and chased the protestors away. As soon as the officers had left the protesters came back and set up the camp again. As this ritual kept going on for weeks and weeks most of the men dropped out from the camp. So it became an all out camp only with females. This even made the camp more famous and eventually the police stopped harassing the protesters.

I discussed the situation with some of them and my admiration for them to hold on to their conviction grew even more. They invited me for a guided tour half way around the base and just before my time to hear back to The Abbey I witnessed how one huge rocket entered the base. That moment I knew it was right for me not to have served in the army. I was not asked to serve as they examined me and marked me class five with the reason I had a speech problem. If not that I would have applied not to serve rather do civil volunteer work instead.”

Franz Kleve was wondering:”Speech problem?”

I answered:”I am part of the baby boomers. They could not possibly have taken us all. Instead to appreciate my back problems they went for speech problems. Anyway…this made it easier for me.”

Susanne Fröhlich was begging:”Please before we go to bed…let's hear another love story.”