What was going on when I was born?

Erich Honecker, the East German leader, told Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of West Germany today that the future of inter-German relations was linked to West Germany's position on its planned deployment of new American nuclear weapons. In a statement clearly aimed at influencing West German public opinion, Mr. Honecker said, ''Good neighborliness cannnot flourish in the shadow of U.S. atomic missiles.'' Both Mr. Schmidt and Mr. Honecker, speaking at the first full-scale meeting of German leaders in more than 11 years, said their countries had a particular role to play inside their alliances in improving the East-West climate. East German Accuses U.S. But Mr. Honecker's remarks, coupled with accusations that the United States was the cause of the world's tensions, placed conditions on further progress on inter-German cooperation. Mr. Honecker clearly seemed to be attempting to establish a choice for West Germans between contacts with East Germany and the NATO weapon program. Relations between the two Germanys have been largely dormant since the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan and the development of the Solidarity labor movement in Poland.

Through two years of trials on corruption charges, Nassau County Republican chairman Joseph M. Margiotta's line of defense was, essentially, not guilty by reason of politics. Last week a jury decided that what Mr. Margiotta called routine patronage was actually fraud and extortion.

AMONG oil rich Texans, almost none have a lower profile than the Bass family of Fort Worth, itself a quiet, folksy city of 385,000 some 30 miles west of Dallas. The Basses themselves are unknown even to most Texans, although they are probably among the five or 10 wealthiest families in the United States. Several prominent Texas businessmen interviewed said that they doubted that the Basses were as big as the Hunts of Dallas. But both are so big - with each clan's total worth easily more than $1 billion - that neither family really knows how wealthy it is. But a former executive with Morgan Stanley, the investment banking firm, offered one indication of the Basses' wealth: ''We looked at their operations a while back,'' he said, ''and they were so well-heeled it was hard to find anything we could do for them.'' ''They are very, very quiet, and very, very powerful,'' added the former Morgan officer, who asked not to be identified. The extremely private clan, which shuns the press and refuses all interviews, came to national attention last month, when it was disclosed that the family was the second-largest shareholder of Marathon Oil with 5.1 percent of the stock, after another Texas investor, Sedco Inc., which has 7.7 percent.

''I SOMETIMES enjoy saying that anybody's life can be encompassed in about 10 wonderful jokes. One of my favorites is about an American singer who makes his debut at La Scala. He sings his first aria to great applause. And the crowd calls 'Ancora, vita, vita.' He sings it a second time, and again they call for an encore. Then a third time and a fourth ... Finally, panting and exhausted, he asks, 'How many times must I sing this aria?' Then someone tells him, 'Until you get it right.' That's how it is with me - I always feel I haven't gotten it quite right, and so I go on singing.'' Saul Bellow tells this story with great relish. Sitting down in a black leather easy chair, he gazes out through the window of his high-rise apartment to the dark waters of Lake Michigan beyond, and throws his head back and laughs. His conversation, like his books, is at once colloquial and lofty, intellectual and passionate, filled with jokes heard on the Chicago streets and the high seriousness of Academe. The author himself bears a certain resemblance to his own heroes: earnest, elegantly dressed and deeply thoughtful, he too is ''a hungry observer'' of everything around him.

RYE IN the last three years, the Cross Cultural Center at Wainwright House here has grown from a one-person tutoring project into an active international gathering place where a variety of programs are provided for foreign-born adults who live in the county and in neighboring areas. Its Cross Cultural Conversations program has 80 volunteers teaching English on a one-to-one basis to foreign-born adults. About 85 percent of the women in the program are Japanese; the others come from Peru, France, Uruguay, West Germany, Argentina, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Austria and the People's Republic of China. Because of the large numbers of Japanese wives living in the area, a special women's forum has been organized to present monthly programs on subjects of particular interest to them. Called Tsudoi, or gathering, the forum has explored such topics as Japanese women and ''culture shock,'' homemaking skills in the United States, breast cancer, adolescent sexuality and bilingualism for Japanese children. The speakers are experts in their fields, and Masako Esaki, a Japanese writer living in the county, generally serves as interpreter.

HARTFORD TWO months ago, Nikki O'Neill, the wife of the Governor, sent out a request for artwork and books by Connecticut artists, craftsmen and authors to be displayed in the Executive Residence at 990 Prospect Avenue. ''It's been like Christmas here ever since,'' Mrs. O'Neill said last week. By United Parcel Service, mail and personal delivery, Mrs. O'Neill has received more than 300 novels, biographies, histories, reference and children's books and collections of essays, poems and plays written by a total of 96 Connecticut authors, among them William Manchester of Middletown, Arthur Miller, who lives in Roxbury, and Francine du Plessix Gray, a Warren resident. And almost 50 paintings, drawings, sculptures, baskets, quilts, bowls, plates and vases by 34 Connecticut artists and craftsmen are being exhibited in the entryway, reception room, library, sun porch, breakfast room and upstairs guest rooms of the 19-room Georgian Colonial mansion.

ST. LOUIS THE three boys had waited patiently at the head of the line for more than an hour. Now that Neil Lomax had finally arrived at the store, ''like Santa Claus,'' someone jokingly observed, the boys wanted more than autographed pictures of the Cardinals' exciting rookie quarterback. ''How come Jim Hart don't scramble but you do?'' Brian Phillips, a chubby-cheeked 7-year-old in a Miami Dolphin sweatshirt, asked as he nudged closer to the table where Lomax sat. ''Is Hart old?'' Lomax, dressed casually in corduroy jeans, plaid shirt, cotton Vneck sweater and running shoes, steadied a swaying table, adjusted the red tablecloth, scribbled another signature on one of the glossy pictures and then smiled. ''He's older than me,'' he said. ''He's older than you. C'mon guys, that's not a fair question.''

Triple-Digit Deficits ''Wall Street doesn't discount the same news twice.'' That's how Treasury Secretary Regan sees it, and consequently the Administration believes the fallout would be minimal from recent announcements that the Government would be far deeper in deficit than it had thought. Private economists, who had questioned the accuracy of earlier deficit forecasts, tend to disagree. Figures that suggest deficits could rise from a $100 billion the current fiscal year are likely to prevent interest rates from falling as far as they otherwise might in a period of economic contraction, says David Jones, an economist at Aubrey G. Lanston. By publishing these figures, the Administration may have prolonged the recession, he adds.

THE conviction of the Nassau County Republican leader, Joseph M. Margiotta, for extortion is not likely to turn Long Island voters away from his party, political leaders and observers from both parties said after the verdict became known. ''It would be a grave error for any politician to think that using the conviction as an issue is the way to the top,'' said Richard Kessel, a consumer advocate who has also been a persistent critic of Nassau Republican officials. ''The fact is that the fee-splitting issue has been before the public for a long time now. It was a big issue this past November, and it made absolutely no difference.'' The issue has been before the public because the conviction of Mr. Margiotta, one of the state's most powerful political figures, came after his second trial on charges that he had forced the county's insurance agent to split his fees with numerous Republican supporters who did no work for the money.

John Foreman is a writer of travel guides and health and beauty books whose first novel, ''A Corporate Affair,'' is to be published next year by Fawcett. He has an ownership interest in two Manhattan brownstones, but at one time he owned 88 apartments in brownstones and a larger building on West 157th Street. By JOHN FOREMAN I bought the building for love, even though in the beginning I did expect to make money. I was already the owner of five small but profitable brownstones. It seemed to me I was ready for bigger game. Each day in the mail I used to receive what are called ''setups'' from real estate brokers. Setups contain financial data that purport to show why a building for sale will make money. I have yet to see a setup that doesn't show a hefty cash flow on the bottom line, an effect achieved by underestimating costs of fuel and repairs while overestimating the ability of the tenants to pay rent.

EAST HAMPTON ASSERTING that economics, not politics, dictated the decision, the newly elected Republican majority of the Town Board here intends to abolish the town's Planning Department when it takes office in January. The move, which will oust Thomas Thorsen, the town planner since 1971, parallels a step taken last month in Smithtown, where another Republican-dominated Town Board eliminated its planning staff. The board subsequently shifted 15 of the 17 employees to other town departments, but did not find work for the planning director, Frederick Meyer, and his chief aide. In both cases, the top planners have Civil Service status and could not be discharged legally without proof of either incompetence or misconduct. Civil Service certification was introduced to the field of planning to insulate the planners from possible political pressures.

After 17 years as the owner of a small, independent real-estate agency in Norwalk, Conn., Harriet Haffner can no longer afford to go it alone. Like others in the same position, she has found that the slow market of the last two years plus sharp inflation have pushed her overhead, currently running at $4,000 a month, beyond what she can afford. In addition, an increasing number of large, regional real-estate chains are draining what is left of the available sales in the area. Such chains are better able to attract the lucrative, corporate relocation clients because of their size and range of auxiliary services, such as specialized financial experts. As a result, several months ago Mrs. Haffner began merger talks with a former colleague who owns an agency of a similar size a few blocks away. They reason that only by creating their own, more substantial base can they hope to survive and compete when the market improves, as has been predicted for the early part of 1982.