THE EDITOR, Sir:REFERRING TO the article 'Going bananas' by Martin Henry on December 15, I would like to direct your attention to the fact that bananas played a significant role in newer German
history as well.
Immediately after the fall of the wall in the night of November 9, 1989, many East Germans crossing over the once deadly border for the first time in their lives were showered with bananas because these were unobtainable in the communist East, and had, therefore, become a symbol of the free market system which provides such exotic delicacies at an affordable price for anybody anytime.
Of much lesser importance, though, is the fact that our national football team's goalkeeper, Oliver 'Titan' Kahn of Bayern Munich, is quite often showered with bananas in some stadiums by hostile supporters of the home and usually losing team because some
people like to interpret his
physiognomy as resembling a chimpanzee. In this act, the banana becomes a 'soft' weapon.
I trust your readers will draw their own conclusions what bananas mean for the contemporary Germans.
I am, etc.,
DIETER FALK
Kingston 5
