GERMANY: Comeuppance

One day last month, at a Bavarian political convention, a long-nosed German politician delivered a scathing attack on the occupation authorities of the western zones. He ridiculed Allied imports as "chicken feed," accused the British of "pilfering," and urged sitdown strikes. Last week, Dr. Johannes Semmler got his comeuppance from the U.S. and British occupation commanders. He was summarily dismissed from his post as executive director of economics for Bizonia.

What Semmler had said was not highly important, since most of it was untrue or half true. What was more important was the responsive chord his tune had struck with Germans,...

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