Sidney Rittenberg

Sidney Rittenberg (2012)

Sidney Rittenberg (born August 14, 1921 in Charleston , South Carolina , † August 24, 2019 in Scottsdale , Arizona ; Chinese name: Lǐ Dūnbái李敦白) was an American interpreter and scholar who lived in China from 1944 to 1979 .

He worked closely with the founder of the Chinese Communist Party , Mao Zedong , the People's Army Commander-in-Chief, Zhu De , and key party leader, Zhou Enlai , and other cadres of the Communist Party. He was the only American citizen accepted into the Chinese Communist Party . He made the acquaintance of the central heads of the party at the end of the Long March in Yan'an and is considered an important contemporary witness of the life of Mao and his followers. He was later imprisoned for a total of 16 years, most of which he had to spend in solitary confinement. As an eyewitness, Rittenberg was able to report much of what life was like at the higher level of the Chinese Communist Party and knew many of the leaders personally.

Life

The early years

Sidney Rittenberg lived in Charleston until he began his studies. He turned down a scholarship to Princeton University , preferring to stay in Carolina, where he enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . There he studied at the "Porter Military Academy," the university major in philosophy . During this time he joined the US communists . In 1942 - he had already resigned from the Communist Party - he joined the United States Army on the occasion of the United States' entry into World War II . The military sent him to the Stanford Army School for Far Eastern Studies to learn Japanese . Rittenberg, however, preferred to learn Chinese and ultimately achieved his wish. This led to his being sent to China in 1944 . After the war ended, he decided to stay in China to work for the UN hunger aid program. This in turn led to the fact that he met the communist leaders in Yan'an .

Yan'an

In Yan'an, the target area of the Long March, Rittenberg was able to observe the life of the Chinese people under Mao's reign during the civil war. He saw how people lived in caves because the cities were destroyed by bombs. The food was rationed in such a way that there was exactly one portion of meat or bread alternately each day. No one except the sick was allowed to drink milk . The leaders received slightly better meals, but also no milk. According to the descriptions, there was a good mood between the two classes despite the emergency. You greeted each other and although there was a class difference , you didn't feel a difference in value, but harmonized.

Relationship with Zhou Enlai

Rittenberg maintained the closest relations with Zhou Enlai , more than with any other communist leader. According to Rittenberg, Zhou had a special talent for winning people over and making himself popular. As an example, Rittenberg likes to tell the anecdote when the play Uncle Tom's Cabin was once staged and Zhou had reserved six seats for himself and his people. Just before the curtain opened, a farmer spread out - right in the reserved seats. Zhou was just arriving to take his place, so one of his bodyguards tried to drive the farmer away. However, Zhou took care of the farmer, took him back to his own seat and sat down next to him. An argument broke out that he, Zhou, could not do this, and Zhou threatened to leave the place immediately. Finally, one of Zhou's entourage sat down somewhere else. Rittenberg also reports that Zhou cleverly managed not to appear arrogant. If someone came and tried to flatter him, he would return all praise.

Translate for Mao

Rittenberg translated Mao's messages to the United States twice . The content was the same in both cases. Mao said that now that the war in China was over and that he, Mao, became the leader of the country, he wanted good relations with the United States. There were two motives for this wish: First, the USA was the only state that could provide it with the necessary funds to rebuild the country. Second, Mao didn't want China to be completely dependent on the Soviets. In both cases Mao's concerns were rejected by the US. In Rittenberg's opinion, US concessions could have averted both the Korean War and the Vietnam War .

First stay in prison

In 1949 Rittenberg was incarcerated in solitary confinement because he was accused of being part of an international espionage network. He was held in an absolutely dark room for a year, and then in “normal” solitary confinement for another five years. Rittenberg attributes his liberation to a poem written by Edwin Markham :

He drew a circle that shut me out
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout
But love and I had the wit to win;
We drew a circle that took him in.

Rittenberg remembered that his sister always read these lines to him when he was sick as a small child. In his desperate situation, they came back to his mind and he used them as inspiration to convince the communists to finally let him go. In 1955 he was released, which he also connects with Stalin's death.

Cultural revolution

During the Cultural Revolution , Rittenberg was enormously committed and determined: In the summer of 1967 he took over the chairmanship of the “Dr. Norman Bethune - Yan'an rebel group “(白求恩 - 延安造反团), a group of around 70 members, many foreigners who wanted to improve and modernize living conditions in China. He fought political disputes on China Radio International - the Chinese counterpart to Deutsche Welle . Han Suyin said at the time that Rittenberg had the entire station under control. On April 8, 1967, the People's Daily Renmin Ribao published a sensational, critical article ("中国文化大革命打开了通向共产主义的航道"). Two days later, he gave a protest speech at Tsinghua University on behalf of the politically active foreigners in China , who mainly turned against Wang Guangmei王光美. But in his actions he also attacked foreigners who were living in China at the time, in particular Dr. Ma Haide 马海德 ( George Hatem ). Ma Haide had previously advised him not to interfere in the political affairs of China.

Second stay in prison

Over time, the use of foreigners like Rittenberg was increasingly felt to be a nuisance. From September 1967 a political campaign called “16. Mai Elements “(五一六分子) was launched, which the rulers were supposed to put aside as uncomfortable and politically active. Some foreigners, including Rittenberg, were targets of the defamation campaign and accordingly labeled as spies and "harmful elements". A poster with the title “How an American seized communist power on Radio China International” was placed in the headquarters of the radio station that Rittenberg had once directed. Similar posters were put up in the “Friendship Hotel”, where many foreigners resided.

February 1968 some members of the “Dr. Norman Bethune - Yan'an rebel group ”, including Israel Epstein , his wife Elsie Fairfax-Cholmeley ( Qiū Mòlì丘茉莉), Sidney Shapiro and Rittenberg. This time the reason given for the imprisonment was “activities and criticism against the dictatorship and bureaucracy ”. Ironically, he was also accused of being a family friend of the "Chinese Khrushchev " Liu Shaoqi , whom Rittenberg, on the contrary, had strongly attacked in his own political campaigns. His Chinese wife, Wang Yulin (Chinese: 王玉琳) was sent to a political cadre school ("May 7 Leadership School"). In prison he wrote down a Confucian -style saying: "A man who climbs on a branch should prick up his ears to see if he can hear someone sawing!" (Man who climbs out on limb should listen carefully for the sound of saw).

On March 8, 1973, on International Women's Day , China hosted a reception in the Great Hall of the People for foreign intellectuals, the majority of whom had just been released from political custody. Zhou Enlai made a speech and apologized to the foreigners, but also said, “There are also some foreigners who were part of a political group during the Cultural Revolution that engaged in destructive activities with harmful elements. Sidney Rittenberg is one of those people; he was involved in the counter-revolutionary group around Wang Li , Guan Feng and Qi Benyu . "

In November 1977 Sidney Rittenberg was released and rehabilitated - probably as the very last of all foreigners. In March 1980 he went back to the USA.

Back in the USA

Rittenberg served as President of "Rittenberg Associates, Inc". He was married to Yulin and had four children. In 1993 he wrote a book called The Man Who Stayed Behind , with the help of co-author Amanda Bennett.

Rittenberg and his wife ran Rittenberg & Associates, a consulting firm that supports companies that cooperate with Chinese companies. Some well-known US customers were Billy Graham and Mike Wallace . Rittenberg was often public about his experience in China and lived on Fox Island , Pierce County , Washington.

He died on August 24, 2019 at the age of 98 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

literature

German

Rittenberg: "China lacks moral values" .

English

Individual evidence

^ Obituary of the NYT

personal data
SURNAME	Rittenberg, Sidney
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	李敦白 (Chinese); Lǐ Dūnbái
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American interpreter and scholar
DATE OF BIRTH	August 14, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH	Charleston , South Carolina
DATE OF DEATH	August 24, 2019
Place of death	Scottsdale , Arizona

[1] Obituary of the NYT