I've been meaning to post this diary for months, but Joe Miller's insane comments about East Germany have prompted me to share my story of East Berlin.
My father was a US Army tank battalion commander in Schweinfurt, Germany, guarding the borders with East Germany and Czechoslovakia. His tour ended in 1968, and we decided to take a vacation to Berlin and Greece before heading back to the States. This video documents parts of our trip, primarily of our tour of East Berlin. It's kind of blurry and shaky, but it was taken by a 12 year old on a pretty gray day. I put it together for my daughter's boyfriend, who was taking a course in Eastern European history at UNC Wilmington:
In the video, you see my dad's tank battalion on the firing range and at the change-of-command ceremony. It gives you a feel of the US military in Germany during the Cold War. This is followed by a barbeque at the Berlin house of my dad's friend, who was a spy. Then the family (minus Dad) goes through CheckPoint Charlie and tours East Berlin, which is drab, shabby, grey, and, in general, pretty creepy. The scariest part was the East German guards goosestepping. Still gives me chills. At the end of our tour, the West German tour guide took us to Potsdam Square, which used to be (and is now again) the center of German culture, government, and education. East Berlin had riots there so they put it all within the Wall. I will never forget the rubble, the trees growing on rooftops, the East German guard staring at us, and the unbelievable quiet. The only sound was the wind, cold even in the summer.
So why is this important to us? What I noticed about the wall was the colorful graffiti on the West German side and the completely blank walls on the East German side (if you go to the Newseum in DC, you can see a fragment of the wall that shows this). So... let's look at the wall on our border with Mexico from the Mexican side:
And from the US side:
Remind you of anywhere?