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Other Evidence of Eff ectiveness
The Police State (one exampl
On June 29  195o, RPAS warned Sovie t Zone listeners that mills and
grain storerooms would. be subject to strict inspection the following
morning. One listener wrote: "The announcement saved not only my father
but a number of 'hers in the same business from having their mills
closed or perhaps expropriated.. What RIAS means to us business people
in the Soviet Zone is something only we can jud~ge. " Another listener
sent the following report: "The message was a great success. Shortly
after it was broadcast the mill owners of this county took-the neces-
sary measures."
"The Next SteD to German Unj     Freedom:'t
On July 16, 195o, RIAS announced a prize-letter contest on the theme
"The Next Step to German Unity in Freedom." Prizes offered ranged
from
books to 1,000 DM. Soviet Zone participants were instructed to submit
their letters under a code name and a five-digit number. Judges were
Jakob Kaiser, Federal Minister for National Affairs (the Ministry
offered. a  special prize of l.C0O DM); Ernst Re'uter, Lord Mayor of
Berlin; Herbert ItJehner, Bundestag deputy and chairman of the Bundes-.
tag Committee -for National Affairs; and Eugen Kogon, well-known vFrank-
furt publicist and author ofi "The SS State."
When the contest closed on September 18, the station had received.
19,764 entries. Of these, 13,907 came from the Soviet Zone; 1,8o2 from
the Soviet Sector of Berlin; 3,438 from 'Wrest Berlin; and 617 from the
Federal Republic. All but four of the 21 prize winners were residents
of the Soviet Zone. One of the Wiest Berlin winners was an unemployed
worker, another a student and political refugee.
The Communist Collective Contracts
It is widely recognized in Germany that RIAS played the leading part
in a major Communist setback in 1951. The Soviet Zone regime had -
planned to introduce factory collective contracts throughout the Zone
witbee a      e     conse   o  the workers, although close examination
of the contracts showed tha~t they would mean a backward step for
Soviet German labor. Largely because of RIIAS's early and protracted
intervention, the measure was delayed until almost the end of the
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