Berlin

Brandenburg Gate

Actually I wanted to publish on this side only trip reports abroad, but recently I got attentive by a chance on our trip at that time to Berlin and the pictures again. The trip was almost like a trip abroad. We drove court by car to Berlin - West about the border crossing. For it we also needed in April and May, 1990 a passport, the identity card was not enough. The transit highway was still in a very bad state. Berlin itself was in the rapid change. The difference with our both traveling in April and May was clear to feel. I see these photos today as a kind of time document, an epoch, which existed only for weeks or days in this kind. On the left they see me on the wall directly before the Brandenburg Gate. The wall was about 4 meters wide at this point.

Frontier Station Brandenburg Gate

At the Brandenburg Gate the wall had been opened and a temporary frontier station had been furnished. With the crossing you got one more stamp in the passport. When we wanted in our visit of East Berlin to go again in the west and wanted to use the famous border point Checkpoint Charlie, we had to find out that this crossing was also in April 1990 only for foreigners. German citizens could not cross here.

Frontier Tower

In many parts of Berlin, like here in Kreuzberg, the border arrangements were still in flawless state and provided an impression of the partly town. This photo was done from the window of an apartment directly by the wall. The tower was unoccupied. Nevertheless you could understand like this wall influenced the life, because an easy crossing was not "still" also possible here.

Working O The Wall

Of course we tried to take also our souvenir of the Wall. We attempted to win a piece from the Wall with hammer and screwdriver, a strange request, which we would not have ventured 6 months before. Unfortunately our tools were not adequate enough or the East German concrete, better than expect.

View through the Wall from East to West

Others had already managed this better. At many places already clear pieces of the wall were absent. Here even a look of the east was possible to the West through the Wall.

Panda Bear in Berliner Zoo

In the end, we were still in the Berlin zoos, watching pandas. At this time 2 pandas were in the Berlin zoo. Then we still visited the East-Berlin zoo. Here you could go to an area in which hummingbirds freely flew around you, also a very interesting experience.

Published 04/24/2004
Last update 04/24/2004

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