From the S&S archives:
Cheering Germans give Ike hero's welcome

BONN — Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower got a hero's welcome Thursday when he returned to Germany for the first time since the end of his two terms as U.S. President.

Thousands of applauding, cheering Germans greeted him when he, Mrs. Eisenhower and their party arrived in Cologne by train from Sweden Thursday morning on their European tour.

Police had to force a way clear for them along the station platform amid cries of "Bravo" and "Ike, Ike, Ike."

The former President, accompanied by two of his grandchildren and friends, smiled broadly and waved back to the crowds. He looked fresh and well after a night's sleep on the train and seemed delighted with the reception, despite his wish that no fuss be made over his private tour.

The press was so tight that streetcar, bus and auto traffic headed for the main railway station was backed up for blocks.

A middle-aged woman broke through the police cordon around the railway station exit to hand Mrs. Eisenhower a bouquet of five roses, each of a different color.

In front of the hotel, a man carrying his 18-month-old daughter on his arm also slipped through and put down his child which toddled up to Mrs. Eisenhower with a tiny bouquet of field flowers.

The welcome for the man who led the Allied armies to victory over Hitler's Third Reich was one of the biggest and warmest in Cologne's postwar history.

Although he was traveling as a private guest, the general was invited to be the dinner guest of West Germany's doughty old Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, at Bonn, 20 miles south of Cologne. The two men became trusted friends during Mr. Eisenhower's years in the Presidency.

Before the dinner, Mr. Eisenhower and Adenauer met at the home of U.S. Minister Brewster Morris, currently charge d'affaires of the American Embassy in Bonn.

There was obvious cordiality between the two men when they came out of the house to pose for photographers.

From their doorstep conversation, carried on through an interpreter, Adenauer appeared to believe the general could run again for President after sitting out a term.

When Mr. Eisenhower explained that after two terms this was impossible under the U.S. Constitution, the German chancellor, now in his fourth term, appeared surprised.

After Adenauer left to prepare to receive his dinner guests at his chancellery, Mr. Eisenhower remarked, "He's a grand old gentleman."

The official West German government publication 'Bulletin" came out with a special article Thursday on Mr. Eisenhower, hailing him as "an outstanding figure embodying American-German friendship."

"The Germans know," the Bulletin said, "what role Eisenhower played in their own history. They honor him because he turned from a victorious enemy in war into a defender of German freedom against the threat of a new dictatorship (the Soviet Union)."

The general and his party of 11, who arrived in Europe July 23, will leave for Paris by train Friday night, continuing their month-long European tour with visits to France, England and Ireland.

Friday Mr. Eisenhower has left most of the day free to do as he chooses, but a meeting and lunch with West German President Heinrich Luebke in Bonn will take up the midday hours.

Mr. Eisenhower had not been in this country since the summer of 1959, when 100,000 persons, almost the whole of Bonn, turned out to honor the then U.S. President.