I'm back. I think I've got this except for the last clause:
意外なのは、七〇年からチャペックは文部省の役人をと っくに退いていたことです。彼は亡命までの十九年間、 官職にいなかったのです。職業は教師となっていた。だ からドイツは亡命を受け入れたんだ、とミランはいって いました。
"One surprising thing was that Čapek had already left his position in the Ministry of Education by 1970. For 19 years before he defected, he was not in government service. His occupation was as a teacher. Therefore, Germany accepted his defection, as Milan was saying." ??
I don't understand about Milan. Did Germany accept Čapek because Milan had told them he [Čapek] was a government official, or because he told them he was a teacher? Or was Milan just telling the narrator about this, and was uninvolved in the decision?
I feel like the key is と but that's as far as I can get.
Also, part of my confusion is that I think Čapek's working as a teacher was information Milan found out much later (hence the surprise), which makes that sentence stuck in the middle confusing, unless だから means something other than "therefore" here. If Milan told them he was an official at that time, it doesn't follow that because he was a teacher, therefore they let Čapek in.
If the implication is that the German government already knew he was a teacher, then I don't know what the clause about Milan is for.
