I was in Berlin with my family in the late summer of 1990 (about 8-9 months after the fall of the wall). By then, much of the 109 miles of the wall was being systematically torn down. I was on leave from my assignment at the Navy HQ in London where I had been read into a number of special programs. We took an MWR tour of Berlin, which unbeknownst to me, included a trip to the east side of Berlin. The comparison to West Berlin was incredibly stark. West Berlin was a vibrant city, while the East Berlin store fronts had very few items in their windows, bomb craters from WW2 could still be seen down side streets, and the people wore extremely drab clothing. They seemed to slowly shuffle along the sidewalks. We eventually went to the museum where the German surrender was signed in 1945. It happened to be right in the middle of the Russian HQ compound. From a distance of maybe 60 yards, we could see the Russian guards with their binoculars examining everyone as we got off the bus. Glad they did not have facial recognition programs then. For me, I was relieved to get back on the west side.
|