European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 19, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                An artist offers some of her works for Safe to tourists visiting the swinger Palace in Dresden. A ast germans Tine up for coot treats in Erfurt. The Quot american Quot ice Cream was made in West Germany. Ruins serve As a brutal reminder of the firestorm that consumed most of Dresden in 1945, guide at Fischer lectures tour members. Despite areas still rising from the ruins and belts of Industry that make the old jewel look like smokestack City in places Dresden is also a feast of museums full of priceless paintings and other objects d Art that were hidden away during the War a few hours away is the second largest City Leipzig known As the City of books and music and Trade fairs with its Karl Marx Square where the Freedom marches started last fall. One question which arises in this ferment of new capitalism and political change that is remaking the map of Europe is How Long will Karl Marx Square Square continue to be named Karl Marx Square and Karl Marx University and Karl Marx this and Karl Marx that because there s a new Boss coming to town named free Market a real Tail kicker when it comes to voodoo economics out of Marx Leipzig the place by the Lime tree san intersection of ancient Trade routes has been for years the single most important meeting place for East european and Western Commerce and Trade. Heavily damaged during the War it is another one of those bomb cracked cities still piecing itself Back together. There Are other places full of contradictions taken in. On this tour a like Weimar Home of poetic greats Goethe and Schiller and renowned painters musicians and philosophers. It was a Center of German humanism and the Birthplace of the Weimar Republic Germany s attempt at democracy before Hitler came to Power. Just outside quaint Weimar is grisly Buchenwald where a Quarter of a million people were imprisoned in world War ii and 65,000 were put to death. There s Erfurt one of the oldest towns in Germany spared heavy bombing during the War. Old Erfurt has its famous Bridge of the traders statue of Roland and a medieval flavor while swinging new Erfurt has California ice Cream shops full of Western goodies and people who dress As if they re already westernized by osmosis. Indeed the closer to the defunct Border you get the More the fast looks and feels West. There s Eisenach the Birthplace of Johann Sebastian Bach and site of splendid Wartburg Castle. In the Castle is the room and the very desk on which Marlin Luther translated the new testament into German and the Story goes from which he threw his Ink Well against a Wall where he saw the Devil smiling at him. Speaking of devils in a couple of places 1 he traveler sees a few swaggering Neo nazi skinheads dressed in Black clubs in hand. One sees communists passing out literature condemning unification. And there Are still All those soviet soldiers and their guns and tanks. But though there Are 380,000 russians the casual traveler does t see much of them. Neither do the East germans in any very personal Way says one easterner. Russian soldiers stick pretty much to themselves he notes Wilh Little of the mingling one would expect from old allies. Quot some East germans hate them most of us tolerate  a broke Young soviet Soldier desperate for Marks continue to a on Page 10 Juty 19, j 990 stripes Magazine 9