BERLIN AND THE WALL
SOME MEMORABLE VISITS IN TWO DECADES

I have made some memorable visits to Berlin, one in 1983 when there was an EAST Berlin, one in 1989 when the Wall came down and Berlin became one city again. (See below)

Then I made the trip in
DECEMBER 2004
for the Christmas Markets.

In 2005 I have been back THREE TIMES !

FEBRUARY 2005 ,
APRIL 2005, and
DECEMBER 2005

AND IN 2006 TWICE MORE !

SEPTEMBER 2006
DECEMBER 2006.


Comparing these visits was like comparing chalk to cheese. The feeling in 1983, when it appeared that the officialdom had gone mad and everyone walked zombie-like with few smiles, was in sharp contrast to when I and hundreds of others made a trip into Berlin in late 1989 to witness the reuniting of a divided city and nation, and shared in the emotions of joy and happiness. Families were reunited and people could move freely again.

Firstly, I would like to take you back in time to 1983 when my family and I were on a multi-country continental holiday. I am forever impetuous and can change an itinerary at the drop of a hat, much to the dismay of my wife. We had been to Munich and Berchtesgaden. (see Eagles Nest section ) We were now driving north and "somehow" I got on the Munich to Berlin Autobahn which took us up to Bayreuth and then on to Hof which was close to the East German border........."We" decided to make a skirmish into East Germany to get our passports stamped.....
Something to show our friends when we got home. However the skirmish turned out to be a full scale run up the South/North corridor which just happens to go into Berlin.


A TYPICAL BORDER CUSTOMS POST


So somehow we arrived at Hirschburg which is the border control and were greeted by a uniformed, armed official who directed us to the Bureau, a large single story building
I parked the car and entered the office to be welcomed by a powerfully built, large blonde soldier (female !) who thrust a mass of paper at me. These were in triplicate so she handed them out to my wife, son and me. We had to give every possible detail including birthplace, d.o.b., jobs etc -- Even details of the car had to be given and a journey plan drawn up and submitted
Then we had to count up our mixed money and list the totals
Since we had travelled through a number of countries by now, it was a long list.
The sheaf of papers were now taken away and we waited for some time while a group of officials read them carefully. After a very long time the Big Blonde returned bearing another wadge of papers which were our visas, maps, ORDERS, and requirements. We took all this paper to the next office--and they took it all off us again. We were motioned to our car and a set of guards went over the car from top to bottom
THEN one guard noticed my C.B. radio. There was a lot of shouting and hand waving and my wife said under her breath "YOUR B****y CB -- Theyre gonna shoot us now !"
I was able to calm down the guards AND my wife and son as I was "assisted" to yet another office womanned by a very pregnant beauty. I explained that this equipment in my car was a" radiotelephon" and I showed all the licences and booklets pertaning to the use of the sideband President 144.
Would you believe it--I was given a LICENCE to use the CB in Berlin ! We then were allowed to drive slowly to the end of the border control as our papers and visa travelled alongside in a cricket-pitch-long perspex tunnel on a moving belt. At the final control, we were given all the papers and some cigarette coupons ! Carole looked closely at them and found them to be EAST GERMAN MONEY..
And so I ended up driving up the corridor to the outskirts of the Divided City. It was quite late and we were really looking forward to finding our campsite. "BERLIN-SCHMOCKWITZ" and very easily found it to the south east of the city centre near Konigs-Wusterhausen among glorious pine trees.
We noticed the Wartburgs and Trabants which were white white or white. Most bore the signs of crashes and patches of rust. Our car drew a lot of attention being red !
We stopped to ask for directions (Hmmm, we may have taken a slight detour perhaps !) and a huge crowd formed round us near a derelict railway station. An old toothless man shook my hand and said with horrible breath "ENGELAND NOOMBER ONE". We found where we had gone wrong and the crowd all waved and cheered as we took the right road.
We went to sign in, seeing close by an ideal spot to erect our supertent. Yet another buxom blonde (yes there was a few of 'em !) made it obvious that we were not at all welcome ---- until we had gone in to the city center to sign in as foreign travellers !
By now, all we wanted was to eat and sleep in either order. But we had to drive into the centre to find the building where we were to clock in.


THE ROAD INTO BERLIN, NOTE WALL ON LEFT


The roads were in a frightful state and soon the roof rack and suitcases detached themselves and I had to stop to strap them back in place, using my spare pair of jeans.
When we had signed in and received even more papers, we went all the way back to the campsite.
Our chosen spot had gone and we were re-allocated to an area dominated by Bulgarians !
We then met a young man from WEST Berlin who told us he was courting an East German girl.
He had to camp in the east for a few days each month so he could see her.
The police then came on the scene, took down our car reg no., chatted to the young man who they apparently knew very well and then went into the Bulgarian encampment to scrounge some bottles of Bulls Blood wine.
I "talked" back to England on my SB CB and the contacts were extremely surprised to hear from whence I was transmitting and subsequently exchanged DX Cards with me
We crashed out to the sounds of "Dallas" in American, being viewed on a television next door

We woke to the live sound of gipsy music and ate a hearty German breakfast.

We then drove back into the city and did all the sights



ON THE EAST SIDE OF THE WALL



UNTER DEN LINDEN


BRANDENBURG GATE


CAROLE AND SIMON


IAN AND SIMON


IAN AND CAROLE


CAROLE AND SIMON


SIMON AND DOM


SIMON AND NEU WACHE


The Unter den Linden and all the shops.
The Alexander Tower.
The Museums.
The Cathedral (Dom).
and then the Brandenburg Gate
and the Wall.



It was strange being on the "wrong" side of the Wall watching the "free" tourists watching us
I parked in the Marienstrasse---to our left was the remains of Hitlers Bunker and Chancelry



We could see the Seigesaule and the Reichstag, and to our left again was Checkpoint Charlie
At this point we were listening to the American Forces Radio and heard to our dismay that a South Korean Jumbo jet had been shot down
So we decided unanimously to call it a day and head for the west in case an "incident" ocurred
We covered the 100 miles to the border via the EAST/WEST corridor carefully and resolutely
At Marienborn near Magdeburg we signed out and headed for the friendly territory of the Ruhr

It was an exciting visit for all the wrong reasons and as I stated at the beginning we got fed up with what was over the top officialdom.
If people didn't carry guns, they carried briefcases.
If they didn't wear uniform they wore black suits--and that wasn't only the men !
If you wanted to go anywhere you had to tell them


ALL THE STAMPS NEEDED FOR A QUICK VISIT TO EAST BERLIN
BUT I ALREADY WANTED TO GO BACK INTO BERLIN
HOW I DID IT COMES NEXT
STOP PRESS......BERLIN WALL COMES DOWN.......CITY RE-UNITED.....IAN HUNTLY GOES THERE ON BEHALF OF SCANNER APPEAL--REPORTS AS IT HAPPENS--slough observer


Towards the end of 1989 it was obvious that a great dark beast was in its death throws
Communism as we knew it, was changing and there was talk that the Russians were going to pull out of Berlin and that the old Capital City would be reunited and Bonn would lose its status

I was doing some freelance journalism for the local paper and mentioned in passing that I had been there only six years previously and would love to go again
The editor (bless him) told me to put my ideas on paper and he would consider them as a feature in the main Friday edition...

So, very, very early on a cold snowy morning I found myself sitting in an aeroplane with 227 similarly-minded other people, on a slushy Luton Airport runway waiting for clearance for take off.
We were on our way to Tegel airport, BERLIN, and my carefully worked out brief was to bring back some pieces of Berlin Wall to be mounted on wooden plaques ( by BULLSEYE on Bath Road) and raffled for the Slough Observer "Breast Scanner Appeal"
The editor had liked my idea and I had tied up the ends with sponsors paying for the air ticket and my trip.
I had a case full of items from Slough to distribute in Berlin and a few cameras to record everything.
We landed and felt the seven degree drop in temperature compared with that at Luton
Buses were waiting and we were transported to the Scheidemannstrasse near the Reichstag.

We saw the crosses where people had died trying to escape from the East and we could see on top of the Wall East German soldiers standing very still, facing us.

We walked arm in arm down the Moltkestrasse to the Wall and everyone was laughing, smiling and cheering
I had brought a large hammer with me and I gave the Wall some token blows

Everyone cheered and the soldiers on the top of the wall began dispersing
The TV crews now moved in
The Wall bulged and fell and on our side people ran forward for souvenirs.
I got some lovely chunks and consigned them to my bag.
An East german guard shouted down to us
Everyone laughed...

I asked an english speaking german girl what had he said
He said "Could I have my Wall back" she grinned
How different from 1983 !
I took masses of photographs with my camera and with the cameras my friends had loaned me and the feeling was of joy and happiness..
A wide gap appeared in the Potsdammerplatz and the parade of Trabant cars came from the east side to the west with people crying with emotion as they ran to cuddle friends and relatives.
I bought the T-Shirts and the badges..
I placed my sponsors stickers on the Wall and took pictures so that they would have a record of the event.
We were dancing kissing and crying all at once and we were all carried along on the tide.
I met two nurses who wanted to go through into the eastern side so we went to the now-defunct Checkpoint Charlie.

We had our passports stamped by the guards to prove we had been there and then walked down the Unter den Linden and had beers with a party of people I had never met before.
We didn't understand each others language but for one day I had a day I shall never forget.

I went back to Tegel by underground, stopping at Schumacherstrasse for another beer or two
I arrived safely with all the pieces of Wall, had my hammer confiscated !!!
( I got it back in Luton airport in a fluorescent bag!)
and had a celebratory meal in the Otto Lillenthial restaurant high up in the Tegel Complex.

My thanks to HOECHST PHARMACEUTICALS and the ADLER CAFE, BERLIN, who helped me to visit the city in in 1983.
My thanks to Slough Observer, Slough Estates, Ginos, Hornet Couriers, BBHMG and SMC Motorcycles who were my sponsors in 1989.
THE
"SLOUGH OBSERVER BREAST SCANNER APPEAL"
PLAQUES OF AUTHENTIC BERLIN WALL

MY RETURN TO BERLIN 2004 AFTER 15 YEARS
OUR ANNIVERSARY IN BERLIN IN FEBRUARY 2005
RETURN