BERLIN: End of the Short Fuse

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The signing of a preliminary agreement on Berlin last week was the most important step toward detente in Europe since the Austrian Peace Treaty of 1955. One by one, the ambassadors of the U.S., Britain, France and the

Soviet Union entered the palatial Allied Control building in West Berlin, once the seat of the Prussian High Court. Then, seated at a long oak table, each man signed his name no fewer than twelve times. U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Rush welcomed the agreement "as a sign of the Soviet Union's desire to move from confrontation to negotiation." Soviet Ambassador Pyotr Abrasimov threw out his hands and shouted: "All's well that ends well!"

And so, apparently, it had. After 17 months of negotiations, the ambassadors had produced an agreement marking the end of a quarter-century in which Berlin has stood as a symbol and focal point of hostility between the Soviet Union and the West. The most important gain for the West was a Soviet guarantee of free and "unimpeded" travel along the Autobahnen, rail lines and waterways that separate West Berlin from West Germany (TIME, Sept. 6). The Soviets promised to improve communications and to permit West Berliners to visit East Germany. The Soviets, in turn, won an acknowledgment that West Berlin is not a constituent part of West Germany, plus the right to open a consulate general in West Berlin.

The actual agreement was reached three weeks ago, but the week of the signing was a time of high tension. For three days, negotiators struggled with snags in the German translation of the agreement-a crucial document that will be used by East German and West German negotiators in working out details. The problems arose from the fact that the West Germans made their translation from the official English text of the treaty, while the East Germans used the Russian text. The result: a translation gap.

Ironed Out Snags. The agreement, for instance, refers to "transit traffic" between West Germany and West Berlin. The West Germans translated the phrase as "Durchgangsverkehr," literally, "through traffic," while the East Germans wrote it as simply "transit," which means travel between foreign countries. The Russians complained that their language did not even contain a word for Durchgangsverkehr. The West Germans feared that acceptance of the word "transit" without qualification would imply an admission that West Berlin was foreign to West Germany, and might even allow the East Germans to reapply traffic controls along the access routes in keeping with "international practice." Eventually such snags were ironed out.