Occidental Marks Democracy in W. Germany, Marshall Plan

Los Angeles officials and representatives of the Federal Republic of Germany met at the Occidental College in Eagle Rock on Tuesday evening to begin the city’s yearlong commemoration of the Marshall Plan and West Germany’s 40 years of democratic government.

In brief remarks to an audience of about 50 people, West German Deputy Consul General Klaus Rupprecht thanked Americans for the foresight and generosity that made democracy possible in his country.

Keynote speaker Lawrence Mihlon, whose coming novel “Out of the Ashes” is set in the reconstruction period, summarized the Marshall Plan and the development of West German democracy as “a time of vision and courage the like of which the United States may not see again.”

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre used the event to propose a new Marshall Plan for the poor of Los Angeles.

The reception marked the opening in the Occidental College library of a traveling exhibit on the Marshall Plan, the U.S. aid program that set the stage for democracy in the shattered postwar nations of Europe through economic recovery.

The exhibit consists of dramatic photos of a devastated Europe--battered cities, hungry children, displaced people grubbing for coal in icy fields--and more optimistic pictures of rebirth--buildings being erected, people eating, coal miners working with pneumatic tools.

Figures of the Mid-Century

Alongside the immediately grasped picture story are drab shots of almost-forgotten figures of the mid-century such as British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, French Foreign Minister Georges Bidault, Soviet Foreign Minister V.M. Molotov and U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall.

Among the photos are a scattering of documents, including a copy of the typewritten text from which Marshall read as he proposed the historic plan in a short address at Harvard University on June 5, 1947.

The exhibit is produced by the German Marshall Plan Fund, an organization that promotes scholarship and appreciation for the program that is considered America’s boldest and most successful foreign policy achievement of the century.

It has been traveling to universities and museums around the United States since 1987, the 40th anniversary of the Marshall Plan, and reached Los Angeles in December, first staying two weeks in UCLA’s International Student Center. It will move to Cal State Northridge later this month.

Its arrival in Los Angeles brought the celebration of European recovery to a new phase, keying on the 1949 adoption of the West German Constitution, known as the Basic Law.

Through the formation of the Out of the Ashes committee, Los Angeles became the nation’s first city to honor the anniversary of West German constitutional democracy.

Committee member Jurgen Pelzer, an associate professor at Occidental, arranged for the exhibit and reception at the Eagle Rock campus as a double celebration for the Marshall Plan and the Basic Law of his native West Germany.

At Occidental, the commemoration will continue with a film festival on U.S. and West German relations and a panel discussion in the fall on political issues, Pelzer said.

Throughout Los Angeles, the Out of the Ashes committee will sponsor German jazz festivals, radio broadcasts and a conference on European democracy.