Germany, poking about the Berlin Wall

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and end to Germany's Iron Curtain, David Molyneaux returns for the celebrations. This is his second blog.

With its museums, theaters, outdoor cafes, fine restaurants, youthful atmosphere  and thriving cultural life, Berlin has reclaimed its position as one of the great cosmopolitan cities of the world.

But for 44 years, after the end of  World War II, Berlin was an international enigma.

The entire city -- with West Germans living in West Berlin, East Germans living in East Berlin -- was geographically inside East Germany, about 100 miles east of the border with West Germany. That meant that West Berliners had to travel through 100 miles of East Germany to get to the rest of  West Germany. It was a journey through enemy territory.

At the end of World War II, Berlin -- the strategic planning center for the Nazi war machine and the massacre of Europe's Jews -- had been divided by the four allied conquerors.

At right, Berlin's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe  

The United States, Great Britain, and France turned their portions over a new free West Germany. The Soviet Union kept its portion as part (and capital) of East Germany.

Sometimes the Soviets closed the route between Berlin and West Germany, but other times West German residents could travel relatively freely back and forth.

That's why post-war West Berlinwas full of clandestine representatives of every major country in the world. It was a cloak and dagger hangout at the crossroads of Cold War political intrigue.

And that's why the Soviets built the Berlin Wall, as snoopy Westerners were sneaking across the ineffective city borders into East Berlin, while far more East Germans were escaping out -- as many as 1,000 a day until August 1961, when the Soviets began to build a fortified wall, effectively sealing East Berlin off from West Berlin.

Building the wall, tearing it down

Most of the Cold War sites are gone, but some significant remnants remain, said Richard G. Campbell, an American guide who remembers watching out his West Berlin office window near famed Checkpoint Charlie on Aug. 13, 1961, as East German wall workman began pouring concrete.

Wall construction began 48 years ago. The hated divider remained for 28 years. 

Since 1989, most of the wall has been carted away and nearby buildings bulldozed, but there are 18 places in Berlin where portions of the wall still stand. Above, near Checkpoint Charlie, with West Berlin on the left, East Berlin on the right. And below, a stopping point for the Trabi Safari Tour. 

I remember the old days of crossing from West Berlin into East Berlin, through Checkpoint Charlie. My old passport carries half a dozen green stamps from the former DDR, the German (Deutsche) Democratic Republic.  Entering East Germany was a creepy experience, as I knew I was being watched wherever I walked.

When the border opened in November 1989, East Germans pored into West Berlin to eat, drink and buy whatever they could get for the 100 marks (about $60) that the West German government suddenly offered citizens arriving from the East.

When talking freely is allowed

Here's a conversation from my notes of Nov. 13, 1989, with two East German men who had just arrived in West Berlin. My son, Miles, then 16, translated for me. He was an exchange student from Shaker Heights High School (Shaker Heights, Ohio), living 1989 in Goslar, Germany.

Is this exciting? I asked.

"Not bad," said Rudiger Vokukv. "Our first time to the West. Most people came to Berlin for the 100 marks. We'll spend it and go home."

I mentioned to an East German student, Andreas Weigel, my difficulty in getting East Germans to respond to questions in any depth. 

"What do you expect?" he said. "The people could not talk for 40 years, and now they can speak freely. It will cause problems for us. A lot of people will be screwed up. We will need psychologists."

The two Germanies -- East and West -- were unified as one country in 1990. 

Today's visitors may rent an audio walking guide that explains details and past events, including where East Germans were killed attempting to escape to freedom in the west.

Berlin tour companies offer walking, bike, bus and Trabi explorations. Campbell books  three-hour narrated walking tours from the main train station to Checkpoint Charlie.

Information on Planning a trip to Germany

Next blog: Along the old Iron Curtain that divided Germany's countryside

First blog: Back in Berlin again, 20 years after the fall of the wall

Also from Berlin: Coffee at Brandenburg Gate

To read the entire series: 

Back in Berlin again, 20 years after the fall of the wall

Poking about pieces of the old Berlin Wall

Guns, dogs, and fear along the old Iron Curtain

When East met West on peaceful soil in 1989 

Lies and dreams east of the old Iron Curtain

Proof of the dreaded secret police of Leipzig

Revolution in Leipzig with candles and prayers