Annette von Broecker
Erdmute Greis-Behrendt
Thursday 01 September 2011
Erdmute’s death came much too soon as she would have been such a funny lady for years and years. I saw her whenever I travelled to Berlin, the last time a couple of years ago at a dinner with Annette von Broecker and Colin and Sigi McIntyre, among others. We also met with husband Thomas after the wall fell and gossiped about mutual acquaintances in the old DDR. And we shared a secret that kept us giggling for years. When I first arrived in Bonn 100 years ago, I was on an evening shift when some football story (soccer to me) arrived and was supposed to be translated into British English. As a Yank I barely knew the game, much less how to write about it. I would call Erdmute, send the German story to her and she would put it into English and send it back to me for filing. Then came “curling” – a game I had never heard of – and neither had she. Fortunately Colin arrived in time. I miss her wonderful, infectious laughter and her friendship.
Evelyn Leopold
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Evelyn Leopold
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Erdmute Greis-Behrendt
Wednesday 31 August 2011
Erdmute’s great contribution will be long held in the archives, I hope. She was one of our stars when we made the video “When the Wall came down”. Her joy in re-enacting for the camera how she rushed up the stairs to send her first “snap” from the press conference announcing the end of the Wall, was a delight. “Imagine, I had never sent a snap before,” she told us of her excitement and nervousness.
And it was also a major scoop to mark her dedication! Annette told us that snap was the first news the West German government received, as well as a first round the world. As the video remarked “We were first with the Wall going up and first with it going down,” thanks to her as well as the expat correspondents. The next step was to tell her family, who left for the wall. But she added that even when telling them she could hardly believe it and she stayed at her post. Her role in the video encapsulated not only what was best of Reuter staff in these circumstances but the reaction of so many of the East Germans at regaining their freedom of movement.
Colin Bickler
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And it was also a major scoop to mark her dedication! Annette told us that snap was the first news the West German government received, as well as a first round the world. As the video remarked “We were first with the Wall going up and first with it going down,” thanks to her as well as the expat correspondents. The next step was to tell her family, who left for the wall. But she added that even when telling them she could hardly believe it and she stayed at her post. Her role in the video encapsulated not only what was best of Reuter staff in these circumstances but the reaction of so many of the East Germans at regaining their freedom of movement.
Colin Bickler
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Ronald Farquhar
Friday 22 April 2011
How sad that Ronnie has passed. I never made it to see him again since I retired to thank him for all his kind assistance at the time when I was growing up in Reuters. What a wonderful teacher he was: patient but yet persistent in getting the message across, priorities right. I still hear him say in his terse Scottish accent: “There is never a never. Try again and call every telephone number in the telephone book – someone in there must have witnessed the air crash.” That was in walled-in East Germany. And he was right!
Ronnie was essential in helping set up the German News Service in the early 1970s, exploiting our then exclusive presence in East Germany to give the new service extra value. He himself went from Bonn to East Berlin for the initial period, getting up in the middle of the night to catch an early edition of Neues Deutschland (the official mouthpiece of the communist regime) at the back entrance of the printing works – hours before it was officially available. Reuters and all the colleagues who had the privilege to work with him owe a lot. Thank you Ronnie!
Annette von Broecker
Ronnie was essential in helping set up the German News Service in the early 1970s, exploiting our then exclusive presence in East Germany to give the new service extra value. He himself went from Bonn to East Berlin for the initial period, getting up in the middle of the night to catch an early edition of Neues Deutschland (the official mouthpiece of the communist regime) at the back entrance of the printing works – hours before it was officially available. Reuters and all the colleagues who had the privilege to work with him owe a lot. Thank you Ronnie!
Annette von Broecker
