European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 13, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                File at lip in a ii also i that i for id ret los sizable English speaking expatriate population Here. Quot Well the expats Are the last people who need an i English language publication. They have German and As a i result a multitude of newspapers and journals to inform i themselves he said Quot a want to reach that multitude of transient English speakers who will be in town for a few vye eks or months. Or maybe  a year or two and never have a Chance to learn the  j a Cote said that in addition a successful Magazine has to \ have what he Calls Quot commercial  r Quot the product not Only has to have top Quality Content t but also has to look successful to the Reader. That also a Means Good looking ads and a publication in t interesting to advertisers until it s Selling 20,000 a month. We re interesting to the and people and becoming More so with each issue.�?�. To realize his Dea Cote found a couple of partners and took his idea to two giants in the City Magazine business Kitty in Berlin and time out in London. Quot when they saw i was willing to invest my own Money s and time in the venture they decided to give it a try. That \ was in 1992 and we re still standing Selling Between 20,000 and 25,000 copies a month Quot Cote had impeccable references. He had five years As a senior editor in London with Crane publications a r company that puts out 2 7 business . Quot i Felt at a dead end yith Crane and began looking for i something else to do. Went Home to Philadelphia and i found nothing of interest. My wife who is a Berliner 1 suggested going to her Hometown to look around. We j did i got the idea of doing a newsletter. That was in i August 89, and then the Wall came Down. Quot i was flooded with requests for articles. Crane called j me and had me working like  Cote agreed to revamp the stodgy american chamber of Commerce Magazine and then approached the people i at Kitty about doing checkpoint. Quot the Kitty people Are independents who started from scratch and have built a network of City magazines around the country. They were just the right people because they i know the problems involved in starting a Magazine from scratch. You Don t want to work with a Bank because All j they do is stare at the profit  i working with the time out folks was important Cote said because he could learn from the mistakes and their a experience in trying to publish in Paris. A checkpoint found digs in a Rea  in the old East i Berlin Section called the Scheuner Viertel barn Quarter r pre War slum that was Home to poor berliners thieves a and Many impoverished Eastern european jews escaping pogroms in Russia and Poland. V Quot we were Lucky to find it Quot Cote said. Quot we can stay Here at relatively affordable rent until the City Council. Figures out who owns the property or what they want to do to it. Quot under the old East German regime these houses were falling apart and the nearby underground artist scene a from Prenz Lauenberg spilled Over into the so Zeunen Viert Eland a lot of these houses were occupied by. /  said he enjoys the Scheuner Viertel because it i bustles with Art galleries underground theater and movie j houses. T checkpoint has three full time journalists and six.  contributors who Cote admitted Don t earn much but get paid All the Magazine can afford. The j Magazine s Rock music critic Edward was with rolling i Stone and its classical critic Jerold James cordon is a t composer. A. A \ Quot what you now see is not the checkpoint i envision i Cote said. Quot we want a Magazine that deals with More i political and social issues in the  j Cote said the withdraw of the Berlin brigade in f september will not harm the Magazine although it currently accounts for 10 percent of his circulation. ? Cote said that excluding the military there Are about 8,000 americans 7,000 British 6,0u0 canadians and South j africans and other native English speakers in the City. J Quot we re finding that the americans who worked for the \ brigade and Are staying in Berlin Are subscribing to the Magazine Quot he said. A i Quot and Don t forget we re getting a Tariff in influx of a t americans and other English speaking foreigners into the j City As the German capital moves Here. Quot there Are the Point men of capitalism coming through a then there Are the architects designing the capital and the diplomatic corps and corporate types with their  they should provide the readership to keep checkpoint live for years. A the Battle Over bad Art _ Germany a former communists cling to their collections by Stephen Kinzer the new York times a / r i portrait of Erich Honecker painted on the. Skin of an ethiopian wild boar is at the Center of a new debate Over who should inherit property that belonged to the East German communist party. No one claims that the portrait which was i Given to Honecker by emperor Haile Selassie v a. Of Ethiopia is anything other than laughable i.�. Kitsch. But behind the debate Over its ownership lie serious political and artistic questions. After the collapse of communist Rule in East Germany in 1990, the Post communist East German parliament ordered the communist party and its affiliated Quot Mas organizations. To surrender much of their property. Leaders of the democratic socialist party As the reformed communists now Call themselves agreed to surrender some property and Money but Are fighting to keep the rest court Battles May ultimately decide who has rights to a. Hundreds of millions of dollars that the communists accumulated through party dues and to Choice buildings like the party Headquarters in Eastern Berlin. The dispute Over Honecker s pigskin portrait May be a preview of those contests. A. / a. \. Among the items that the democratic socialists inherited from their communist predecessors were More than 400. Works of Art. Some were painted by East German artists favored by the government others were gifts from foreign leaders and visiting delegations. Although a few of the better the fight for the communists collection has More to do with politics than its artistic Worth not a viewer inspects a portrait of former fast German Leader Erich Honecker painted of the skin of a boar. Ones now hang in the offices of democratic socialist leaders most Are unwanted and unlikely to Appeal to anyone. But last month the Agency established to control and dispose of property formerly owned by the East German state demanded that the democratic socialists hand Over their Art collection. The Agency has assembled nearly 12,000 Art works that formerly Hung in Public buildings in East Germany and says it wants the rest for safekeeping. While it decides what to do with them. All parties to the dispute agree that most of the Art works Are highly uninteresting and will probably end up gathering dust in storage depots no matter who owns them. But the democratic socialists have refused to turn Over their. A collection declaring that it is their property. Quot we would be Happy to give the col Section to a museum but Only voluntarily not under pressure from the. Privatization Agency Quot said Hanno Harnisch a democratic socialist spokesman. Quot we Are trying to make the Point that we still have some gets in this  Quot the privatization Agency came in Here in 1990 and took. An inventory of everything we have every chair and every typewriter Quot Harnisch said. Quot they knew about these paintings then. But now that we Are in an election Campaign they suddenly choose to make an Issue of this. They Are trying to paint us As desperately trying to hold on to Art works that Don t belong to us. It is purely a political move a a /  a. A a leaders of mainstream German parties Are anxious to do whatever possible to prevent the democratic socialists from winning seats in the parliament that is to be elected in october. With the Benefit of one time Only rules imposed after unification they won seats in the present parliament. But if they Are to return they will have to take 5  a the vote nationwide or win outright in at least three a a electoral districts. A a. Seeking to capitalize on what the German press Calls Quot the wild pig ,�?� the democratic socialists have mounted an exhibition of several dozen of the disputed Art works. Critics say some have artistic Merit but most Are unappealing and even repulsive works of socialist realism. The exhibitors evidently want to suggest that the privatization Agency is foolishly making a fuss about a collection in which it has no real interest. Among the works on display Are Many portraits of communist heroes. Marx Engels and Lenin Are represented of course. There Are a variety of portraits of Honecker the communist Leader who died last month including one showing him with Leonid i. Brezhnev and another with Mikhail s. Gorbachev whose Reform policies doomed the hard line Honecker government. Officials of the privatization Agency stung by what seems to be a propaganda Victory for the democratic socialists have sought to defend their demand that the pictures be surrendered. Quot we Are not interested in piles of pictures and no one Here likes socialist realism insisted Wold Schoede a spokesman for the Agency. Quot this is a matter of Law and Legal . Les Day july 13, 1994 the stars and stripes 19