East Germans Balk at McDonald’s Plans

U.S. fast-food giant McDonald’s unveiled plans Monday to open its first outlet in East Germany, but found that its global hamburger empire was not to everyone’s taste.

Environmentalists and city politicians are hostile to the move. snuffed a planned blaze of publicity, ensuring that not a single Big Mac made it across the Berlin Wall to accompany the news.

“We are a successful restaurant chain offering quality products, not some wandering snack bar,” Walter Rettenwender, chairman of McDonald’s Germany, assured a news conference.

Not everyone agreed.

East Berlin’s City Council refused permission for a mobile McDonald’s burger stand in the Alexanderplatz, saying it wanted to cut down on street traders in its main square.

McDonald’s canceled a five-star press reception in an East Berlin hotel, fearing disruption from ecologists who say it is bad for health and the planet.

Even plans to hand out burgers at the news conference went wrong. Journalists had smoked-salmon sandwiches instead.

Rettenwender said The first East German McDonald’s, in the southwestern town of Plauen, is scheduled to open by December, with six to 10 more to follow by the end of 1991.

Eager to present the friendly face of international fast food, Rettenwender brought along his entire board in an effort to persuade journalists of McDonald’s commitment to its workers, its customers, the community and the environment.

But he acknowledged that East German employees would initially be paid less than their Western counterparts.

Last week the chairman of the East German Parliament’s environment committee, Ernst Doerfler, demanded a ban on “McDonald’s and similar abnormal garbage makers.”