Blades of Winter (22 page)

BERLIN—Marlene Höhler, wife of Foreign Trade Minister Johann Höhler, was abducted from her home this morning as she prepared to take her two children to school. The children were not taken or harmed, and
their account of the event makes it clear that the operation was professionally planned and executed. This is the fifth family member of a public official to be kidnapped since the beginning of the oil embargo against the United States.

The U.S. embassy in Berlin has issued brief statements officially condemning the abductions. Minister Höhler fired back that American agents were clearly behind the kidnapping of his wife and vowed that his ministry’s policy would never be dictated to him by terrorists.

BERLIN—An anti-U.S. political rally staged in front of the American embassy here spiraled out of control yesterday when German terrorists stormed the building and captured the ambassador and his entire staff. A report on casualties was not immediately available.

The rally was held to protest the alleged American kidnapping of several prominent German officials and their family members. Fueled by hours of passionate speeches and heavy drinking, the crowd became violent and began pelting the embassy with bottles and rocks.
At 8:05
P.M.
local time, a group of paramilitary radicals led by the infamous Gudrun Ennslin broke through the embassy’s front gate and occupied the building.

German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer refused to censure the violation of diplomatic immunity. “Now we will see if the Americans can take it as well as they dish it out,” he said, adding that he would do what he could to ensure the safety of the captives. “We are not monsters, after all.”

Denounced in the U.S., Ennslin and her followers in the Red Army Faction have been praised by German conservatives for demonstrating “the consequences of clashing with Germany.” The headline of this morning’s edition of the far-right German tabloid
Bild-Zeitung
screamed
“Nehman Dass!”
which approximately translates to “Take That!”

President Nixon condemned the act and vowed that he would see the situation resolved. “American citizens have inalienable rights no matter where they are,” the president declared, “and I will bring our people home safe if it’s the last thing I do.”

BERLIN—The German newspaper
Der Tagesspiegel
reported this morning that the spectacular shootout here yesterday was a failed attempt to rescue the hostages being held in the American embassy. According to the report, the embassy hostage takers came under attack from eight U.S. agents who inflicted an enormous amount of damage before they were routed by Wehrmacht helicopter gunships. Seven American agents were killed along with forty-eight Berlin policemen, three German Army helicopter pilots, and thirteen members of the Red Army Faction. One of the American agents
was wounded and captured but later escaped. He apparently remains at large.

This open violence could signal a breaking point in the Shadowstorm, which has thus far been a relatively discreet battle between the clandestine communities of the Big Four. The combined pressures of the embargo, the kidnappings, and the hostage situation have resulted in the worst diplomatic crisis since World War Two. Vice President Lodge, formerly the U.S. ambassador to Germany, had a long phone call with his friend the chancellor to head off a general mobilization. The vice president then had an equally long meeting in the Oval Office with the president and his cabinet.

Although details of this meeting are unknown at the time of this writing, one thing is certain. Yesterday’s street battle may have been an operational disaster, but domestically it was necessary for the White House to display a show of strength before the one-year anniversary of the storming of the U.S. embassy in Berlin. Despite the mission’s lack of success, it still sends a message to the American people that President Nixon is doing all he can to resolve the hostage crisis.

BERLIN—A spokesman for the Abwehr alerted the German media yesterday that his agency has collected clear evidence of a Soviet buildup all along Germany’s eastern borders. He went on to say that the KGB has increased their presence in Berlin to the point where there may be more Soviet agents in the city than German ones. Citizens were warned to report any suspicious activity immediately.

This dire news comes less than a week after Berlin was rocked by a bloody street battle around the American embassy. This event marked a new low in German-American
relations and no doubt served as the impetus for Russia’s latest aggressive maneuvers. Despite the charged anti-American rhetoric flying around the Reich, the chancellor and the Reichstag have so far decided to maintain their alliance with the U.S. while Germany faces such an immediate threat from the Soviet Union.