Leaving London after seven years
Translated from Stuttgarter Zeitung, 9 February 1977
KARL-GÜNTHER von Hase was one of the most successful and popular of the postwar Ambassadors in London. During his seven years in Britain Anglo German relations developed into a partnership of equals in the European Community. He endeavoured to understand the British Isles and their people beyond the limits of the Belgravia cocktail rounds from personal knowledge and historical links. The British responded to his efforts, so evidently inspired by goodwill, to his openness and tactful bearing, the loyal way in which he defended his Government's policies.
He was paid the highest compliment a foreigner can earn in Britain: being considered `very nice' and never making a disagreeable impression. In other words, he did not seem to live up to British expectations of what Germans are like - earnest, without a sense of humour, heavy-handed. Nevertheless, when encountering some of the clichés about the Germans that are so frequently on British television and in children's comics, with all their poisonous effect on the young generation, even von Hase found it hard to keep his cool.
