Founding a "club"

By Gerhard Kunz

Head of the German Embassy's Political Section from 1992-96

Regular contacts with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) was naturally a main activity for a head of the Embassy's Political Department. I always regarded my visits in that imposing building of the imperial past as profitable, and indeed, enjoyable. Our British partners were usually very competent, openhearted and open-minded - even when there were differences of opinion - and, above all, they were agreeably free of the bureaucratic bug.

One day I called for the first time on Alyson Bailes, the newly-appointed head of the NATO-Department, a very sympathetic and super-clever lady who happened also to be, like many of her FCO colleagues, a linguistic genius. She spoke Norwegian, Hungarian, and also fluent German. And as she was just before an "upgrading" exam in German, she asked me whether there was someone who might help her with conversation classes in German. I knew nobody but said that I was willing to oblige. She agreed and promised to come up with names of some other German-speaking colleagues who might like to join in. I also approached my Austrian and Swiss opposite-numbers to take part, which they were ready to do, and soon we had a list of some forty to fifty names. With some nervous anticipation I arranged a first meeting in my small but comfortable Mews house. Was I, perhaps, giving the wrong signals? Could I be accused of a touch of neo-German "cultural imperialism? Could my cultural apostolate for the German language be misunderstood? I insisted, therefore, that nobody's name was to be put down on that ominous list without his or her agreement.

All this probably suggested two things, first, that we Germans tend nowadays to be inclined to an over-scrupulous searching of our conscience, and, second, gestures of good will are not, usually, misunderstood. At any rate not in London and especially not in the FCO. There was then quite a successful debut with some two dozen ladies and gentlemen turning up, happily gabbling away in German. Informal, of course, and nonetheless keeping up quite a good level. Not least for me it was a useful English lesson which showed that the famous British sense of humour could be expressed equally well by Brits speaking German.

My "club" prospered. Again and again colleagues phoned and asked to join, just as others, posted abroad, said thank you and goodbye. And there were additions from other embassies, (for example, from Finland and Sweden). And we were lucky also to meet outsiders whom one would hardly have met in the normal diplomatic round, such as the charming Dorothy Seams, head of the FCO Health Department, who proved a particularly loyal member of the club.

We also met for special events, such as Maibowle, that strange custom to celebrate overdue spring, though in Chaucer's times it might have been familiar: "A-way is huere (=their) wynter wo, when woderove (=woodruff) springeth."  I had Waldmeister flown in specially from Bonn and we went into deep, possibly incoherent consideration of the etymology of that German word Bowle and the translation of the wrongly neglected rubiaceous, sweet-scented, white-flowered herb from our woods, (Woodruff, Woodrow). We also celebrated a Swiss fondue occasion and an Austrian Jause. Thanks to the Agricultural Secretary of our Embassy we were allowed to partake of a wine-tasting which was later long-remembered and our cultural activities extended to  guided tour of a Nolde Exhibition in Germany.

There were two events which for me personally were of special significance. One was a reception, hosted by our British club members. I had expected something informal like my own Mews dos, and I was very surprised, when half the Foreign and Commonwealth Office seemed to have turned up. Andrew Woods, Chief Clerk and Head of the Personnel Department, made a charming little speech in German. Naturally I had to respond, although I was not prepared for this, but the warm-hearted atmosphere and the genius loci may have helped, and I managed at least to raise a laugh or two, and that is, happily, in Great Britain, still a measure of oratorial success. The second occasion was my own farewell reception held in our Embassy. Members of the "Club" were represented in force. It went off, as these occasions do, with the usual mixture of melancholy and gratitude, when speeches are not normally the custom. But suddenly some of our club members asked for silence and said something very nice and flattering about myself, combining this with a presentation such as I had not anticipated at all. It sweetened my departure from London, and what is more, I am pleased to know that our Club continues to flourish.

Gerhard Kunz, Head of the German Embassy's Political Section from 1992-96, and was afterwards Ambassador to Malta.