Berlin

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Berlin was the most fitting place to conclude our trip to Eastern Europe. The seat of power for Adolph Hitler and the democratically elected National Socialist party that conducted a campaign of terror and extermination between 1933 and 1945, Berlin was also the epicentre of the cold war that saw West Berlin encircled by a wall constructed by the Soviets to isolate the democratic influences within the soviet controlled Eastern Germany.

The Berlin wall was not constructed until 1961. During the period from the end of WWII in 1945 when the administration of Berlin was divided between the Soviets, the Americans, the British and the French and 1961, travel between East and West Berlin was open. In fact in the early years, many westerners fled the capitalist west to Stalin’s socialist paradise.

By 1961, the socialist paradise had lost its appeal and many Berliners were working in West Berlin where wages were higher, and returning home to East Berlin where apartment rents were lower. Emigration from east to west was also escalating at an alarming rate. To stop this movement, one weekend the soviets erected a barbed wire fence surrounding West Berlin. As the west offered no serious objection the soviets started to replace the wire with a permanent brick then concrete wall.

The wall came down in 1989 thanks to negotiations between Gorbachov and Regan at the same time that other ex-soviet countries were declaring their independence.

Berlin has based an entire tourist industry around these events. We enjoyed a 4-hour walking tour led by Mike, a New-Zealander who married an East German girl whose parents still long for the good old days of socialism, when everyone had a home and a job. The following day we joined a walking tour on the Cold war led by Nikolai, a Bulgarian whose family escaped to the USA when he was a child. He still has family in Bulgaria who suffered reprisals from the secret police.

There are a number of sections of wall standing as memorials to the past. Where the wall was removed its location is marked with a double row of cobblestones. Our hotel in the Potsdam was close to the wall where the British and American sectors met and a few minutes’ walk from Check Point Charlie where there resided a museum showing all the inventive methods of escape.

We also visited the Stasi museum which was home for the secret police. They kept files on people for the protection of the state. I could not help but reflect on the current situation whereby Russia has offered asylum to Snowden, a whistle blower who has exposed the USA for similar activities.

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Photos

Berlin
Memorial to the murdered Jews

Berlin Wall
Many sections of the wall remain as a tourist attraction.

Brandenburg gate
No visit to Berlin would be complete without a visit to the Brandenburg gate.