ABSTRACT
The hamlet of Langenbroich, in the Eifel hills west of Bonn, normally has a population of about one hundred inhabitants. On the evening of Solzhenitsyn’s arrival, it had been swollen to more than twice that number by reporters and television crews from all over the world. Solzhenitsyn’s decision not to make a fuller statement on his first day in the West was partly tactical. In Cologne, Solzhenitsyn expressed an innocent desire to visit the famous cathedral, but the podium linking cathedral and station was a sea of photographers and tourism was out of the question. The nearest Solzhenitsyn could get was the roof of the station post office, to which he was led via a back entrance and from which he had an uninterrupted view of the east front. Solzhenitsyn was assisted in settling in Zurich by his new friend and patron Mayor Widmer.
