Open Writing

Nineteen seventy two found me working in Coventry. Anyone working in the Public Service in Coventry at that time inevitably came into contact with and often under the influence of the staff of the Cathedral.

I enjoyed a close working relationship with the Industrial Chaplain and the Education and Children’s officers.
They were very much into exchange visits and had established a particularly good rapport with the Industrial Chaplain in West Berlin.

Many young people had taken advantage of these exchanges and we felt it was time to exchange on a more senior and influential level. Subsequently myself, my colleagues from the Cathedral, five personnel and training Directors from large companies (Rolls Royce, Dunlop, Morris Engines, Massey Ferguson and Chrysler) and the Chief Executive from the Coventry City Council set off on what must have been the most complicated journey to West Berlin in order to study the German apprenticeship scheme.

We drove a minibus from Coventry to Harwich and then travelled by Ferry to Bremerhaven. We caught the train from Bremerhaven to Bremen and on to Hamburg. We finally flew from Hamburg to West Berlin.

The plane had to stay in a designated air lane for the approach to Berlin and we were escorted by a Russian fighter between blocks of flats, so close that we could see the people who lived in them.

Exciting, to say the least.

However more was to come. We were met at the airport by the staff of the German Industrial Mission and driven to our accommodation. I say driven , it was a nightmare, there we were on the wrong side of the road, travelling at nearly eighty miles an hour through a major city, with an attractive young lady social worker at the wheel, cursing and swearing in English and German at those drivers who had the temerity to get in her way.

On arrival at the Church hostel at which we were to stay, we found that the accommodation was limited to seven people and two of us had been booked in at a local pension.

As one of the two unlucky ones I was then transported with the Chief Executive to the designated accommodation. We were greeted by a rather too friendly, seventy year old woman, whose appearance was enhanced by the thickest purple lisle stockings I have ever seen.

She made up for her lack of English and our lack of German, by kissing us and holding us as often as possible whilst she herded us into the only lift I have ever seen that had woodworm.

Thereafter we used the stairs quietly and often in the dark, once we had found the lights were on a time switch which sparked when you pushed the button. It is the only time that I have had to play hide and seek with a landlady whose amorous intentions were only too clear.

The rest of the visit went well; we were royally entertained in Boardrooms and Colleges and were driven in the Mission Minibus at a reasonable pace for the rest of our stay. We learnt a lot about German production, about apprenticeship and training schemes and about the German education system. We also learnt a lot about ourselves

We had chosen to spend one day in East Berlin and to visit the opera there before returning in the evening. Our host, being West German, had to take the minibus through a different entry point to us and we proceeded through Checkpoint Charlie on foot.

My passport in those days was a joint one with my wife and showed both our photographs. The guard asked whose passport it was and where was my wife, and like the fool that I often am, I made some humorous remark in the belief that he would not understand me.

I was taken into a back room; strip searched and told in the very clearest English that precautions had to be taken to ensure that undesirables and any one hoping to trade West German Marks would not be welcome in The East.

Fortunately we had been warned about the trade in currency and had limited our cash to what we were likely to spend and changed it to East German Marks.

On emerging from The Checkpoint we found our minibus waiting and we set off down the Unter den Linden to begin our tour. A hundred yards down the road we came to some traffic lights which were green; so we drove through, only to be hit broadside on by a Soviet police car which was coming through the red lights in the other direction.

We were immediately pulled over and asked to get off the minibus. Having determined that none of us were injured the policeman lined us up against a wall and proceeded to tell us that our driver should have got out of the way and that he would have to pay a fine, equivalent to £20 sterling, on the spot, before we would be allowed to proceed. We collected for the fine and proceeded, parking the minibus within walking distance of the main square.

On walking through the square we were accosted by a man who wanted to trade West German marks. When we refused he produced a badge of some sort and proceeded to examine our cameras, issuing warnings about photography and the consequences of taking sensitive shots. We looked around and saw that there were riflemen on almost every rooftop and quickly put our cameras away.

The main stores were drab and very poorly stocked. The food shops away from the main square were devoid of food, often having only photographs in the window and there was an air of poverty and depression everywhere we went. Our friend from the square followed us all day, even to the extent of having a seat next to us at the opera.

We left at the first interval, despite the superb quality of the music, performed within a beautiful opera house. The tension was just too much and we hurried back to Checkpoint Charlie and the relative calm and safety of the West.

Visiting the naughty nightspots and on the way back, the Reeperbahn in Hamburg in the company of two English Chaplains and a German priest was to say the least, interesting.

We were well entertained, we learnt a lot and the hospitality was overwhelming. We also formed many friendships both in Germany and amongst ourselves. We came back a tightly knit team with enough experience, knowledge and influence to make a difference.

I only hope we did.