Amid the noise of the daily news cycle - fear, division, and anger, it is easy to forget one of the great achievements of the last 80 years - the resumption of grown-up relationships with Germany, Japan, and to a significant extent, Vietnam. International reconciliations are assumed to be the work of leaders, diplomats, royalty. And it is true that the reconciliation with Germany was partly borne on cold winds blowing from the former Soviet Union. Yes, politics has its place, and all those glittering state visits have a purpose. But these can only do so much. Individual citizens probably make the critical difference, especially when we visit each other’s countries, for that is when we see that we have more in common.
Family history has Jutta leaving a bombed-out Berlin for the (relative) safety of Hamburg. Her father was a prisoner of the Russians for going on 10 years. Fertile ground then for resentment and blame. But Jutta became a fluent English speaker, and found a ready market for her teaching skills especially if a bus tour of 70’s UK was thrown in. This led to an extraordinary story of shared experience, shared visits, two men who had served on opposite sides greeting each other in mutual respect. Struggles to master a few phrases of English , the better to communicate words of reconciliation. Interest lay in the devastation wrought on two opposing cities by area bombing of civilian targets.
But always the social side - the visits, children and grandchildren, birthdays, anniversaries, all the currency of human friendship, including a mastery of Hamburg’s S-Bahn, and views on a Baltic coast still then scarred by Cold-War watchtowers. A friendship of over 50 years, a metaphor for international reconciliation, ended only by Jutta’s recent death from the complications of old age.
Of such service are true relationships made. Jutta did not display any outward faith; she let her actions speak for her. She walked the talk, but always insisted that we wait for the Green Man before using a pedestrian crossing. Standards must be kept up!
As John Donne was so aptly cited last week, we are not islands. It behoves us all to row to other islands, to greet those we meet there. And Donne was right that one death diminishes us all. We meet that challenge by following the example of those who went before. Once again it has become fashionable to fear those who are not like us, who live on islands we dare not visit. In her life Jutta defied that fashion. We would do well to follow that example. E Hoa, Auf Wiedersehen.
