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As I began to settle more firmly into my role as agent for the international underground in Berlin, so my role as a power—or at least an influence—on the local scene also began to grow. Copies of my coverage of the incidents rocking Germany had leaked back into the country through various routes, and I found myself being interviewed for my views on where Germany might be headed—or England or America for that matter. One of the most popular guessing games of the 'Sixties was entitled "What Is The Younger Generation Up To?" and all those with a ghost of a notion were quite quickly set up as authorities whether they were or not. A German publisher also started to import copies of International Times for sale to Germans who could read English, and this got written up in Der Spiegel, which of course led to yet more publicity.

But by far the most rewarding consequence of my journalistic work was not any superficial and transient notoriety I may have garnered in passing, but rather my coming to know and appreciate a small group of unique human beings, commonly known at that time as the Berlin Commune, dubbed the "Horror-Commune" by the reactionary press, and simply referred to by the students and themselves as Ka-Eins, or "K-One."

I had been aware of the existence of this group since my arrival in Berlin the previous fall, but until the summer of 1967 I had been put off by what I imagined to be their doctrinaire political views and their penchant for gratuitous threats of violence. What I did not realize was that this was only one side of the commune, and even then mainly the work of only one or two individuals in it. Furthermore, I had until that summer allowed myself to misjudge them by not reading their leaflets and publications for myself but accepting the views of a few of my student friends, themselves doctrinaire in their own way.

I have mentioned earlier how basically boring and verbose I had found so many of the demonstrations staged by the Berlin students, how predictably they were staged, and how even more predictably they were countered by the police. It was my hope that something would happen, some group would emerge to break this pattern and attempt more ambitious demonstrations, both as to goals and means, such as I knew were more the rule in Holland and already, to some extent, in America. I was at that time unaware that a representative of the Dutch provos had come to Berlin the previous winter and had sought to convert the students to precisely this sort of activity.

One of the students who had been imprisoned at the time of the police riot when Ohnesorg was killed was in fact a member of the Berlin Commune. His name was Fritz Teufel, and along with Rudi Dutschke he had been singled out by the Springer press as one of the chief student villains to arouse their readers to self-righteous fits of fury.

His name Teufel literally means "devil" in German, which no doubt contributed to the hysteria which came to surround him. He spent seventy days in jail for ostensibly having thrown a rock at the police on the night of June 2, although no witnesses could be found to corroborate this crime. During these seventy days Berlin was plastered over with stickers and posters calling for his release. And the Springer press just as insistently cried out for his indefinite detention.

Perhaps the best way of conveying to Americans the impact and the importance of the Berlin Commune in Germany is to imagine what the cumulative effect might have been if Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Bobby Seale, Joan Baez, Grace Slick, and Tim Leary had all lived together in a commune throughout a two-year period of the mid-sixties, with Patty Hearst thrown in through a time-warp for good measure, and with other superstars of the new left moving in and out over that period along with an ever-changing crowd of female groupies. If this had happened in America, the resulting barrage of publicity might have approached that surrounding the Berlin Commune.

I say might have because the break with the ordered, disciplined past which the Commune represented was even more unprecedented for Germany than our own 'Sixties were for us in America. This is because self-determination and independence of spirit have traditionally been closer to the norm in America than in Germany or at least lip service has always been paid to these qualities in America. This was very far from being the case in Germany, where the social system and the social hierarchy had always come first.

On August 12, exactly seventy days after the demonstrations of June 2, Berlin entered in on a new era of demonstrations, The occasion was the release of Fritz Teufel from prison, and I wrote about it as follows in International Times:

 

"What occurred was a festival of joy worthy of London or San Francisco, but most important, it represented a complete break with the traditional, sober-sided German political demonstrations with placards and leaders and solemn-faced demonstrators. Food, wine, and flowers were distributed to a crowd of one thousand by gaily costumed Commune members and others as they chanted:

"Ein, zwei, drei.
Wir lieben die Polizei!
Ein, zwei, drei.
Fritz Teufel jetzt ist frei."

As usual, the police were totally baffled by these protestations of love. Though a few disgruntled burgers muttered complaints about the alleged disorder, the police did not know what to do with a group of demonstrators who insisted on their love for them—the female members of the commune openly flirted with the police.

"The commune was assisted by a cross-section of Berlin's artists, actors, and students. Passers-by donated money, and more wine and food was bought. People gathered along the Kudamm to discuss what had happened for another six hours after the five-hour be-in was over. The bright, wide streets of Berlin are ideal for this sort of demonstration, and the overall gaiety was in distinct contrast to the terror which marked the gatherings on these same streets following the purely "political" demonstration which led to the death of Benno Ohnesorg."

While the demonstration I have just described may seem old-hat today and compared to Amsterdam or San Francisco was slightly behind the times even then—it nevertheless represented an enormous step forward for Germany at the time. I made it a point to find out a great deal more about the Commune after that and ended up writing several more articles about them, which soon appeared in many underground papers.

This was to a great extent a labor of love, for the Berlin Commune, despite the various alarms and persecutions it was continually subjected to, was at that time one of the most idyllically tranquil places I have ever laid eyes on, the proverbial eye of the hurricane. Both Ilene and I spent many hours with the Communards, talking, discussing tactics, answering questions about England and America, and just sitting around listening to music or watching TV.

Fritz Teufel was the resident writer and chief martyr of the group, though his exploits were soon to be challenged by others. He was given to a dry sort of ironic wit that cut several ways and was probably the most dispassionate and objective of the commune members, quick to criticize anything, including the Commune's own established policies on any matter. He was favored with a continuous stream of young German girls passing through the Commune, anxious to sleep with this little piece of German history. He accepted this tribute amiably enough and was always on the lookout for new worlds to conquer. At one time Fritz and I discussed swapping Ilene for a night or two in exchange for one of the more regular Commune girls, whom I found attractive. All parties were agreeable, but because of the intense pressures of demonstrations, arrests, and trials, we were never able to put this plan together.

The chief Commune strategist was Rainer Langhans, an extremely nervous young man with horn-rimmed glasses and an enormous German afro, at that time and place quite unique, and it was he who would lead the ideological and self-criticism sessions which were held each day. During his period of compulsory military service he had been a lieutenant in the army and had learned the art of using explosives, an achievement which sent the Springer press into paroxysms of panic. Rainer also had a great gift for words, and he and Fritz wrote most of the Commune literature.

The third major personality in the group, somewhat overshadowed by Fritz and Rainer—and occasionally resentful over this—was a red-bearded young man with intense eyes named Dieter Kunzelmann. It was Dieter whom I have already described as getting up at the previous year's debate on China and accusing everyone present of being hypocrites for not travelling to China and taking up arms against the reactionaries, or at least taking comparable steps closer to home. Dieter was always given to impassioned declarations of principle, which would then be patiently analyzed and usually torn apart by the other Communards. Yet many ideas, which with some refinements by others proved quite workable, were originated by Dieter, and despite his fierce demeanor, I found him to be a quite gentle person in our talks together.

Dieter had helped to focus the attention of German students on the importance of sex and the need to solve sexual problems. This he had done in his usual direct way by proclaiming to the entire student body both in oratory and in leaflets that he was having difficulty with his orgasms and that one reason he had joined the Commune had been in the hope that he might find some female student willing to help him solve those problems. Whether this was just a come-on for girls or whether he actually suffered from such problems was something I never found out, though from the number of girls in attendance at the Commune, I would say he had a good chance of being cured.

The question of women in the commune was one which greatly concerned me. Feminism was several years away in America at that time, much less in Germany, but it seemed to me that the attitude of the women in the commune must be crucial to determining whether this group was as successful in finding a new life style as it claimed. The one girl who stayed longest with the Commune, who had in fact been one of its charter members, and who continued to live in another commune after the dissolution of Ka-Eins was Antje Krüger. She was an extremely charming, well-adjusted person and an admirable human being. Most of the other girls remained at the Commune for comparatively shorter periods, some only a few months or a few days.

The Berlin Commune had of course its share of organizational problems—or perhaps I should call them disputes over assigning duties. But it should be remembered that they were building largely from scratch: they were the first such commune in German history and were under continuing and relentless pressure from the police, the press, public opinion, and members of their own families. When the group finally did cease to exist, it was not because of any intrinsic problems in the commune arrangement but mainly because some had no choice but to hide in the real "underground," others were in jail, and yet others had become convinced of the futility of trying to maintain such a group in the hysterical environment of Berlin political life. The latter finally moved to Munich and organized other communal groups there. By this time various degrees of communal living among students had become commonplace not only in Berlin but throughout Germany, some including sex among the communal activities but most regulating this by more monogamous adaptations.

A typical day at the Commune would begin--after the women had been persuaded to make breakfast--with all the members reading through the local newspapers and a few from West German cities as well for items of ideological importance. Anything having to do with politics, economics, or culture might be interpreted as having ideological value. All of these items were then cut out and pasted into huge scrapbooks under various categories. Although this was the most anarchistic and dadaistic of the German student groups, its members were nonetheless nothing if not methodical and German. Their shelves were lined not only with scrapbooks going back over a year but also with collections of all the political literature published by the major political parties and the various student groups.

The commune members followed the press with great attention and were especially interested in articles about themselves, which they pored over with intense concern, repeating the phrases—most often abusive—used to describe them in the Springer press. The worse the comment, the greater satisfaction and glee it seemed to give them. Although they knew little of McLuhan or other such theories of the media, they acted intuitively on the principle that "all publicity is good publicity." Considering that many of their ideas were being presented to the German masses for the first time, however defectively, by their ideological opponents, and considering that they had maneuvered these right-wingers into the position of having to publicize their theories, their pride and occasional narcissism can perhaps be forgiven.

After going through the papers, the Communards would usually go out to make contact with the various other student groups and determine if there had been any significant changes in the ever fluid Berlin political climate. Or perhaps they would go out leafleting, or prepare for a demonstration, or work on their various publications, which they printed on the premises. The afternoons were for ideological sessions or self-criticism meetings or simply business discussions to work out the logistics of running their twelve-room household, located in the only building in Berlin which would accept them as tenants, a delapidated. hulk also housing a whore house and a strip-joint,

Sometimes members of other student groups would come to confer and occasionally the police would make a quick raid and search for guns or explosives. Representatives from budding groups of high school radicals would also sometimes visit, for the Commune members had become heroes to young people throughout Germany, thanks to the Springer press. Rainer, Fritz, and the others took their visits quite seriously and spent long hours explaining their positions and granting interviews to high school newspapers. All in all, the youth movement may have spread more thoroughly among high school students in Germany than it did in America (and certainly than it ever did in England), and there were even demonstrations and report card burnings on the elementary school level in a few places.

Professional reporters of various nationalities were constantly passing through, and these were often charged exorbitant fees to interview members of the Commune, as this was one way the group kept itself going financially. Naturally, the underground press was always an exception to this. Lawyers would also drop by to consult with their clients in various cases pending against the Commune, prominent among them Horst Mahler, whom I have already described as the William Kunstler of Germany (though in the growing chaos, he himself would later run afoul of the law).

Evenings, if no demonstrations were planned, the Commune would just relax and sit around watching television like any other German middle-class family, though their comments on the programs were in a very different category. Weekends they would do much the same. Ilene and I spent several weekends with them in these simple-minded activities. They especially enjoyed schmaltzy historical films about the royal family of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and would watch them even in reruns. When challenged as to why they were viewing them, they might at first utter some ideological justification but would then concede they were just doing it because it was fun. If Ilene and I spent long hours at the Commune doing seemingly nothing, it was not out of political or reportorial zeal. Despite the heavy political tensions surrounding the Commune--or perhaps because of them--the Commune's apartment was simply one of the warmest, happiest, and most relaxed places in Berlin at that time.

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