The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project KARL F. MAUTNER Interviewed by: Thomas J. Dunnigan Initial interview date: May 12, 1993 opyright 1998 ADST TABLE OF CONTENTS Background Austria Austrian Army 1 35-1 36 Emigrated to US 1 40 US Army, World War II Berlin 1 45-1 5, Divided Berlin Soviet Blockade and US Airlift .urrency Reform- Westmark Elections, 01 4,1 Federal Basic 2a3 and Berlin East vs. West Berlin Revolt in East Berlin With Brandt and Other Personalities Bureau of .ultural Affairs - State Department 1 5,-1 61 European E5change Program Officer Berlin Task Force 1 61-1 65 Berlin Wall 6ice President 7ohnson8s visit to Berlin 9hartoum, Sudan 1 63-1 65 .hief of political Section Sudan8s North-South Rivalry .oup d8etat Department of State, Detailed to NASA 1 65 Negotiating Facilities Abroad Retirement 1 General .omments of .areer INTERVIEW %: Karl, my first (uestion to you is, give me your background. I understand that you were born in Austria and that you were engaged in what I would call political work from your early days and that you were active in opposition to the Na,is. ould you tell us something about that- MAUTNER: Well, that is an oversimplification. I 3as born on the 1st of February 1 15 in 6ienna and 3orked there, 3ent to school there, 3as a very poor student, and joined the Austrian army in 1 35 for a year. In 1 36 I got a job as accountant in a printing firm. I certainly couldn8t call myself an active opposition participant after the Anschluss. I can8t take credit for that... %: .ut it is true, is it not, that shortly after /itler took over Austria, you came to the 0nited States- MAUTNER: Not all that immediately. My brother came right a3ay. He already had legal status because he had lived in the United States before. So he left immediately after Hitler, and soon my sister too. But I had visa problems. I applied a little later and thought I could stick it out; holed up in Hungary 3here I had 3ealthy relatives 3ho took me in in April 83 . In other 3ords a year after the Nazis had taken over. I left Hungary in February, 1 40 and arrived in the United States on the 2 th of February, a peculiar date, on a bitter cold day in Ne3 Bork. Then t3o days later I took out my first papers, and 3ent to 3ork as a baby and dog photographer. Got started 3ith a loan of t3enty-five dollars from my sister and the eight dollars I had brought along from Europe. Then I got drafted and inducted on April 3rd, 1 41. By that time, I had t3o hundred fifty-t3o dollars in the bank. %: 1ou had already made some progress in the new world, I take it- MAUTNER: Bes. %: I want to go back to one (uestion and that was, you talked about getting your visa. Did you actually get it from our Legation in Budapest- MAUTNER: I got it from our 2egation in Budapest from 6ice .onsul Milton Re3inkel. %: Milton 3ewinkel later went on to a distinguished career himself in the 4oreign Service. MAUTNER: Bes, I ran into him later on 3hen I myself 3as an FSO. In February 1 40 I took a train through Bugoslavia to Italy, got on a ship in Genoa, the C.onte di Savoya.C 2 %: So you arrived in this country. Did you apply for citi,enship- MAUTNER: Bes, I applied for my papers the second day after arrival. First day 3asn8t good because it 3as icy, a very nasty day. %: And then you were drafted in the army, but being a non5citi,en, did that in any way interfere with your career in the army- MAUTNER: No, it didn8t. Amazingly not. It helped that I had served in the Austrian army. I 3as drafted into an infantry unit do3n in Fort 7ackson the 13th regiment. I kne3 my Cright face, left face, about faceC business and advanced fairly rapidly to the high rank of corporal, then sergeant, still earning D21 a month. Then I 3as shipped out as anti-tank platoon sergeant to Bermuda. In Bermuda, 3e replaced a British territorial battalion. The American infantry battalion 3ent there in this s3ap for fifty destroyers and a couple of bases in Bermuda, Antigua, Br. Guyana, etc. %: So Bermuda was your first overseas posting for the United States government, is that correct- MAUTNER: As it 3ere, yes. %: /ow long were you in Bermuda, and from there where did you go- MAUTNER: Well, first of all, it is Euite interesting that I 3as not a citizen. I had an accent and 3as a little bit of a boy scout. I 3as a sergeant in a platoon of pretty tough guys mostly from 9entucky, from the hills, but the uniform, the stripes and evidently something else 3orked so that I managed my job Euite 3ell. I think one of the reasons 3as that 3e 3ent out to the shooting range very soon. I 3as a very good pistol shot having been a hunter in Austria and having shot a lot, and I outshot all those hillbillies. In fact, they had to recount the targets and I had to shoot another set 3hich proved even better, so it established me someho3. But it 3as an interesting time. I stayed there almost t3o years, from September 841 to 7une 843. I couldn8t become a citizen in Bermuda because there 3as nobody to s3ear me in, other3ise you could become a citizen if you had served one year in the army. %: Did we not have a consul in Bermuda then- MAUTNER: I have no idea, but apparently nobody could s3ear me in. It had to be a judge or a commissioner or something like that. Any3ay, my company commander got me a furlough in December 1 42 and I 3ent right a3ay 3ith the help of a friend to a judge and got s3orn in. When I 3ent back to Bermuda, I 3as picked for O.S in Fort Benning, in the nicest time of the year in Georgia--7uly, August, September. After that I 3as sent to .amp Ritchie 3hich 3as sort of the intelligence and language center, graduated there in the 3inter and 3as shipped out to England in 7anuary 844. %: 1ou were a paratrooper by this time- 3 MAUTNER: Not yet. In England I volunteered for the paratroopers 3ith a friend of mine from 6ienna, Alfred Diamand, 3ho is a professor in Bloomington, Indiana, probably retired no3. When the recruiter came around, 3e looked at each other and said: CWho shouldn8t volunteer but usFC %: 6ery good. And that made you eligible to jump on D5Day I take it- MAUTNER: That8s e5actly 3hat it did. %: 8ere you hurt in the landing then on D5Day- MAUTNER: No, fortunately not. By the 3ay, General Gavin 3as the one 3ho pinned the 3ings on me. Shall I tell you a little bit about D-DayF %: 1es. MAUTNER: Well, D-Day, I 3as pretty far back in the airplane 3hich meant a very short opening of the parachute and I 3as right a3ay on the ground. As the plane disappeared in one direction, I figured I had to go in the opposite direction because I had no idea 3here I 3as. I 3as in the middle of a field, surrounded by co3s, and nobody else around. I started 3alking and being careful about 3hat I 3as doing, and about the noise I 3as making. Then I 3as challenged by some of our people--3e all had those click, click, click things. The pass3ord 3as called: Cflash,C and you had to ans3er: Cthunder.C They didn8t like the 3ay I pronounced CthunderC and I heard the noise of readied rifles. That 3as a bit hairy, but one of them eventually recognized me and about five or si5 of us then 3andered in the same direction I had started out, and 3ound up about eleven a.m. instead of four a.m. in Sainte-Mere-Eglise 3here 3e had our designated drop zone and rendezvous site. Then things just 3ent on. %: 1ou made another jump later in the war, did you not- MAUTNER: In Holland, in Nijmegen. That8s right. %: Did you come out of that alright too- MAUTNER: That one 3as a rather comfortable e5perience coming do3n in a nice afternoon on the 17th of September on a soft plo3ed field. The shooting started only a little bit later. %: 8ell, telescope things until the end of the war. 1ou were with the 82nd when they were our first troops into Berlin- 4 MAUTNER: They 3eren8t really the first troops. The first troops 3ere the 2nd Armored 3hich 3ent in on the 4th of 7uly. They 3ere relieved very shortly after by the ,2nd Airborne as an occupation force. %: Now the 82nd Airborne didn9t stay there too long, but you did stay. 8ould you tell us how that happened- MAUTNER: Well, the ,2nd 3ent home in October and let me see. Somebody...one of my friends, .olonel 7im 9aiser...yes, that is 3here I got tied in 3ith the Foreign Affairs establishment. This is a fairly complicated thing. My sister had a job after she arrived in the United States as a governess for a couple of little girls. They 3ere the daughters of Ed 9ellogg, a friend of my brother, 3ho had visited us in Austria. %: 8ho was later a distinguished Foreign Service officer. MAUTNER: He died recently.