WEST GERMANY IT IS STILL THERE TWO YEARS HAVE PASSED SINCE BERLIN 
WAS SEVERED BY THE WALL . ON ITS ANNIVERSARY LAST WEEK, 
MOST WEST BERLINERS HEEDED OFFICIAL APPEALS TO REFRAIN FROM VIOLENT, FUTILE 
DEMONSTRATIONS . INSTEAD, THEY OBSERVED THE DAY QUIETLY BY PLACING WREATHS 
ON THE DOZENS OF CROSSES MARKING EACH SPOT WHERE A FLEEING 
EAST GERMAN HAD BEEN SHOT TO DEATH BY COMMUNIST GUARDS . 
ONLY LATE IN THE EVENING WAS THE CITY'S GRAVE CALM BROKEN 
BY A MOB OF SOME 2,000 HELL-RAISING WEST BERLINERS WHO SURGED 
INTO THE AREA AROUND CHECKPOINT CHARLIE, HURLING ROCKS AND INSULTS ACROSS 
THE WALL INTO THE SOVIET SECTOR . IF GERMANS HAVE LEARNED 
TO LIVE WITH THE BERLIN WALL AND THE DEADLY, 830MILE BARRICADE 
THAT DIVIDES THE REST OF THEIR NATION, ON NEITHER SIDE HAVE 
THEY FORGOTTEN OR FORGIVEN ITS EXISTENCE . THE MOST ELOQUENT EVIDENCE 
OF EAST GERMANS' REFUSAL TO ACCEPT SOVIETIZATION IS THAT 16,456 OF 
THEM HAVE RISKED THEIR LIVES AND FLED TO THE WEST SINCE 
THE WALL WENT UP . AMONG THEM WERE 1,304 MEMBERS OF 
EAST GERMANY'S ARMY AND POLICE FORCE, ENOUGH TO FORM 13 COMPANIES 
. AT LEAST 65 MORE EAST GERMANS ARE KNOWN TO HAVE 
BEEN KILLED WHILE ATTEMPTING TO ESCAPE . FACTS OF LIFE . 
DESPITE THIS SOMBER CHRONICLE OF FLIGHT AND DEATH, MANY POLITICIANS AND 
PUNDITS OUTSIDE GERMANY STILL CLING TO THE NOTION BASED IN PART 
ON DEEP-ROOTED FEAR OF RESURGENT GERMAN POWER THAT ITS PEOPLE ARE 
GRADUALLY BECOMING RECONCILED TO THEIR COUNTRY'S PARTITION . IN WEST GERMANY 
ITSELF, THIS VIEW IS ACCEPTED IN SOME QUARTERS, MOSTLY BECAUSE IT 
IS A FACT OF PRESENT EUROPEAN LIFE THAT THE RUSSIANS CANNOT 
BE MOVED OUT OF EAST GERMANY, EXCEPT BY WAR, A WEST 
GERMAN SURRENDER TO COMMUNISM, OR SOME KIND OF SETTLEMENT FOR WHICH 
WEST GERMANY MIGHT HAVE TO PAY A RUINOUS PRICE . AS 
A RESULT, MANY GERMANS ARE BEGINNING TO PONDER MEASURES THAT FALL 
SHORT OF ACTUAL REUNIFICATION SUCH AS TRADE PRESSURE DESIGNED TO PERSUADE 
WALTER ULBRICHT TO GIVE EAST GERMANS A LITTLE MORE FREEDOM AND 
A SOMEWHAT BETTER LIFE . FRANZ THEDIECK, STATE SECRETARY FOR ALL-GERMAN 
AFFAIRS, SAID RECENTLY : " OF COURSE WE WOULD LIKE TO 
SEE GERMANY REUNITED, BUT IF THERE WERE CONDITIONS OF FREEDOM IN 
EAST GERMANY THE EXISTENCE OF ONE SINGLE GERMAN STATE WOULD NOT 
BE ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY . " EXISTENTIAL PHILOSOPHER KARL JASPERS CREATED A 
FUROR BY SUGGESTING IN 1960 THAT HIS COUNTRYMEN MUST ACCEPT CHANGES 
IN THE MAP OF GERMANY AS PART OF THEIR LIABILITY FOR 
HITLER . MANY GERMANS NOW ACCEPT HIS THOUGHT : " THE 
ONLY THING THAT COUNTS IS FREEDOM . COMPARED WITH THAT, REUNIFICATION 
IS A MATTER OF INDIFFERENCE THE THOUGHT IS LARGELY ACADEMIC, SINCE 
IT WOULD BE ALMOST AS DIFFICULT TO LIBERALIZE THE ULBRICHT REGIME 
AS TO GET THE RUSSIANS OUT OF EAST GERMANY . THE 
JASPERS LINE THUS MAY TEMPER BUT DOES NOT ELIMINATE THE BASIC 
URGE FOR REUNIFICATION IN A COUNTRY WHICH ACHIEVED NATIONAL UNITY LATER 
THAN OTHER EUROPEAN NATIONS AND IS FIERCELY INSISTENT ON ITS ETHNIC 
IDENTITY . HENCE BONN'S OPPOSITION TO ANY EAST-WEST AGREEMENT THAT WOULD 
FORMALLY OR PSYCHOLOGICALLY SEAL THE STATUS QUO . SAYS A WESTERN 
AMBASSADOR IN BONN : " THE ISSUE OF GERMAN UNITY STILL 
HAS MORE EXPLOSIVE POTENTIAL THAN ANY OTHER ISSUE ON THE POLITICAL 
SCENE IN GERMANY TODAY . WE'D BE FOOLS TO UNDERESTIMATE IT 
. " SHIFT TO RIGHT . FAR FROM SYMBOLICALLY AND PHYSICALLY 
SEALING GERMANY'S DIVISION, THE WALL HAS BECOME A CONSTANT, INESCAPABLE REMINDER 
TO WEST GERMANY'S 57 MILLION CITIZENS THAT 17 MILLION OF THEIR 
COMPATRIOTS LIVE IN PRIVATION AND TERROR . OLDER GERMANS, INCLUDING DISTINGUISHED 
SOCIOLOGIST HELMUT SCHELSKY, HAVE WARNED REPEATEDLY THAT A COMPLACENT YOUNGER GENERATION 
WILL IN TIME COME TO REGARD THEIR COMPATRIOTS " OVER THERE 
" AS FOREIGNERS . HOWEVER, GERMAN STUDENTS ON THE WHOLE SEEM 
TO AGREE WITH CHRISTA ROLL, A 23-YEAR-OLD MUNICH STUDENT, WHO ARGUES 
THAT IDEALISTIC YOUNGSTERS HAVE BEEN DEEPLY AFFECTED BY THE WALL . 
SINCE IT WENT UP, SHE SAYS, " THE INTELLECTUAL CENTER OF 
GRAVITY HAS SHIFTED TO THE RIGHT . BEFORE THAT, A LOT 
OF LIBERALS WOULD STILL PUT IN A GOOD WORD FOR EAST 
GERMANY NOW AND THEN . BUT THE WALL CHANGED THEM, FOR 
IT WAS EXACTLY THE KIND OF UGLY SUPPRESSION THAT EVERY PROGRESSIVE 
IS SUPPOSEDLY FIGHTING AGAINST . " MOST GERMANS EVEN THOSE WHO 
ACKNOWLEDGE THAT REUNIFICATION CANNOT BECOME REALITY IN THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE AGREE 
THAT IT IS A MORAL IMPERATIVE . RECENT OPINION POLLS SHOW 
THAT 54 PER CENT OF WEST GERMANY'S CITIZENS CONSIDER THEIR COUNTRY'S 
DIVISION " AN UNBEARABLE SITUATION . " ANOTHER SURVEY, TAKEN LAST 
YEAR, INDICATED THAT 40 PER CENT CONSIDER REUNIFICATION THE NATION'S MOST 
URGENT PROBLEM ; ONLY 17 PER CENT GAVE FIRST PRIORITY TO 
THE PRESERVATION OF PEACE . EVIDENCE OF THEIR CONTINUING CONCERN FOR 
THEIR KIN IS THE RISE IN WEST GERMANS' SHIPMENTS OF FOOD 
AND CLOTHING TO COMMUNIST GERMANY : FROM 35 MILLION IN 1950, 
THE NUMBER OF PACKAGES CROSSING THE BORDER HAS RISEN TO MORE 
THAN 52 MILLION A YEAR . A WHOLE NEW LITERATURE IN 
WEST GERMANY CONCERNS ITSELF WITH THE ALIENATION OF EAST AND WEST, 
" THE DREADED DREADFUL STRANGENESS, " AS UWE JOHNSON WROTE IN 
SPECULATIONS ABOUT JAKOB, IN WHICH FRIENDS AND RELATIVES DIVIDED BY THE 
BORDER GRADUALLY CEASE TO BE INDIVIDUALS IN EACH OTHER'S EYES, INSTEAD 
BECOME POLITICAL SYMBOLS . EMOTIONALLY, AT LEAST, A UNITED NATION REMAINS 
THE ASPIRATION OF A VAST MAJORITY OF WEST GERMANS . THE 
U.S . WOULD ONLY PAVE THE WAY FOR A NEW AND 
DANGEROUS WAVE OF GERMAN NATIONALISM BY IGNORING IT . 