European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 17, 1950, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Visitors to the Leipzig fair look in windows featuring sporting goods above attending the opening of the fair below Are East German president Wlhelm Pieck second from left and Premier Otto with Leipzig lord mayor Max at two of the fair exhibition Koniges and Stenzler looking about behind the Iron certain Ftp Here were freshly painted signs Al in huge red Block letters along the 100 Miles of autobahn that Lead from Berlin to Leipzig in the heart of the soviet the masters of the unsubtle word and twisted were greeting Western visitors to the Leipzig fair in typical terms go this Blunt cancellation of the warm invitation to Western businessmen and journalists to attend the fall display of soviet zone merchandise and and communist alternated with a sly thrust at the zone in a perversion of a postwar safety slogan death is so the atom As if to make their meaning armed members of the Peoples police stood guard at each intersection along the Highway to make sure that All trav sleds from Berlin were tunnelled directly into instead of wandering through the byroads of the soviet the fair itself was far less interesting than the insight that this rare Opportunity to visit the soviet zone gave Western journalists into life behind the Iron cur the Leipzig fairs Are held each Spring and and provide almost the Only Opportunity accorded correspondents to enter the sealed off soviet aside from the Berli Helmstedt autobahn it is a speech making week of communist Mambo jumbo which is supposed to show off East zone merchandise to traders from the the merchandise is and so is the one gimmick this year is an outdoor movie theater a red of course which contained no but at least Cost where the reds run a continuous celluloid offering for the local feature Section Leipzig fair coated in propaganda streets swarm with Peoples police Dwight Schear and Phil staff writers populace and the film fare was As Subtle As a Blunt we caught one film about two Drunken american army officers terrorizing Chil Dren and beating up the patrons of a German Beer it developed into a fantastic plot in which a couple of Friendly russian soldiers foiled the americans dastardly scheme to Kidnap some Ger Man funny but the old Goebbels technique of repetition is you dont see too Many russian sol Diers in the democratic zone of Ger but when you they Are armed with the inevitable russian Tommy the Soldier without his Type writer is like one of the Smith Brothers without a but the East German is Well policed by an unbelievably Large contingent of Blac uniformed Peoples whose dress looks All too much like the old is this is the first City Ive a visiting american where every third Man is a a great num Ber of were in most of them engaged in traffic one correspondent made the mis take of parking his car outside the Down town russian in a perfectly Legal parking after leaving the car for a few the correspondent re turned to find two russian soldiers and an officer playfully letting the air out of his a Small crowd had gathered to witness the i could the correspondent was to stand about and look sour until they were finished then Call a taxi to Hunt up some the Large Leipzig jammed with exhibits last this time contained Only a stamp collectors exhibit a few downtown buildings provided ample space to House the August Heinrich soviet zone minister for economic made it Clear in his fair opening speech that the affair was being staged primarily to lure West Ger Man businessmen into Trade with the Rau suggested a greatly expanded Trade agreement Between the two halves of and said the German demo cratic Republic would be Happy to act As a go Between for West German firms who want to Trade with the soviet Union or the Peoples the people of the German democratic Rau will be willing to extend additional help to the people of West Germany provided the West Ger mans fight for the abolition of the Trade restrictions imposed by the Western occupation Rau disclosed that 84 per cent of East Ern Germany Export Trade is with the soviet Union or other nations of Eastern he said a Trade agreement with Korea is expected according to fair exhibitors were represented at the of were from Eastern 63 from foreign 135 from West and 401 from Western last 266 West Berlin and 441 West German firms were fair officials claimed that More than foreign visitors arrived on the first Day of the a few and British businessmen primarily to buy the famed Dresden and Meissen leather House hold personal accessories and formed the chief some famed West German which have been traditional part of the Leipzig fair for scores of As steel products from Solingen find leather goods from again on fair visitors from Western countries found the prices of drink and lodging special fair checks issued in Exchange for foreign currencies were sold at rather than artificially pegged persons possessing these fair checks ate though not and drank Fine russian wines in special dining rooms operated by the soviet i tourist a special Economy was thus totally separate from the East Mark Economy of Leipzig As on the occasion of previous postwar Leipzig All hotels and a number of rooms in private residences were requisitioned for fair every available automobile was pressed into service As a the Scarcity of vehicles on the Berlin Leipzig autobahn contrasts sharply with the Busy highways of Western the Leipzig throngs which shuffled about the downtown fair area found Little to amuse there was none of the Gay carnival atmosphere which characterizes most the vastly inadequate number of dance Halls and to official Trade organization restaurants were packed to the at almost every mannered slogans warned that Anglo american imperialists were preparing for a new i