501 Places

Berlin Wall from the west

We waited for over 90 minutes in Berlin’s Ostbahnhof. Guards came through the train carriages. First our documents were checked. Then we were asked to leave the cars while they lifted the seats and pulled the panels from the ceiling. We then climbed aboard and watched the dogs get to work under the trains, looking for desperate stowaways. All this for a train that had not originated in East Germany, and had not made any stops in the country. We were about to cross into West Berlin, and no chances were taken to miss a potential refugee.

A vantage point over the wall in West Berlin

This was my first taste of the Cold War. It was 1987, and no-one could have guessed that a little over two years later the wall and the fear and repression that divided the city and the people within it would be torn down. For me it was a great adventure; seeing the extreme lengths the East Germans went to in order to protect their border from their own people.

A few minutes after we started moving we were in Friedrichstrasse, and the mood changed. The station was alive, we were free to leave the train and the feeling of suspicion and danger had passed.

Checkpoint Charlie

As a tourist in 1987, Berlin was all about the Wall. From the West, vantage points were set up to peer over the wall. It was traditional to hurl abuse over the wall at the East German guards. For many Berliners it was their only view of the secret world on the other side where other family members were trapped. A visit to Checkpoint Charlie gave a view into the security that divided the two parts of the city. By the checkpoint the museum told visitors of the daring ways in which people had tried to escape to the west.

Checkpoint Charlie

I wanted to visit the east, and for one day I took the train across the border again. It was compulsory to change 30DM into East German DM at a rate of 1:1. Having 30 East German DM made you into a rich man, and I found it very difficult to spend this money (around the equivalent of $15) in one day. I even called home and spoke with my mother for around 20 minutes.

The empty spaces of East Berlin

Walking around the East, the striking thing for me was the emptiness around. The streets lack life, and the drab concrete buildings of the back-streets betrayed a place that seemed to live without laughter. I did spend a few of my DM on one of the largest ice cream sundaes I think I’ve ever had, and enjoyed it in a cafe where I was the only visitor.

Brandenburg Gate, from East Berlin

You were not allowed within 100 metres of the Wall, and nowhere was this was evident than at the Brandenburg Gate, where you could only view it at a distance and see the grey wall immediately behind. This of course became a symbol of the night of people power in 1989.

I will be interested to return sometime, and wonder what I will recognise from the days I spent from my days there in 1987.