AMG Bans Heller From Austria and Salzburg Seminar

U.S. Army officials barred from Austria last summer Clemens Heller, executive secretary of the Salzburg Seminar, Ronald W. Peirce '47, of the Seminar Committee, stated yesterday.

Austrian-born Heller, a former Harvard graduate student, was slated to go to Salzburg in May to take over the administration of the Student Council seminar, when the American Military Government refused to grant him the necessary permit to enter the occupied zone.

1947 Talk Beginning

Junior Fellow Frank Sutton and Kenneth S. Lynn '45 1G, participants in the international project, said last night that an informal talk with Army officials at Salzburg in the summer of 1947 set the stage for the AMG action.

Three Counter-Intelligence Corps officers visited the seminar at that time, and found that some members of the faculty, including Heller, were critical of U.S. foreign policy. The officers later wrote a report, which led to the Army's refusal to readmit Heller to Austria on the grounds that he was "undesirable" to the occupying forces.

Opposition to Heller also filtered to the State Department, which at first refused to renew Heller's passport. He was finally allowed to leave the U.S. this year, but couldn't get into Austria.

When Student Council officers protested, through Professors Merle Fainsod, Benjamin F. Wright, Jr., and Wassily W. Leontieff, the Army justified their action by sending back what they alleged were remarks made by Heller at the Salzburg discussion.

According to one seminar assistant, Heller later denied making the remarks, claiming that the CIC misquoted and misinterpreted what he had said