Elder and Sister Perry: Berlin

A trip to Berlin for people our age has to include a visit to the Berlin Wall which divided Communist East Germany and West Germany for about 28 years.
The wall fell in 1989 upon the collapse of the Soviet Union. This spot is near Check Point Charlie which was a key crossing point between East and West Germany.

This city became symbolic of the contrast between personal freedom available in a true democracy and the loss of freedoms for people who were not allowed to leave their country if they wished.

Since it was this iconic symbol, political figures such as President John F. Kennedy visited here.

A tense standoff between US Tanks and Soviet Tanks occurred at Check Point Charlie as shown in these photos.

We made the trek to Berlin with three other couples, Robin & Frank Ballard, Carol & Brent Snow and Ward & Karen Anderson.

Parts of the original Berlin Wall still stand in several places as seen in these two pictures.

We visited a museum at Check Point Charlie and learned more about this sad era in world history.

At the end of World War II, responsibility for Germany was divided up between all the Allied Powers that had defeated Germany. (England, France, United States, Soviet Union).

There was a lot of intrigue and power plays between the Soviet Union and the other Allied Powers which resulted in the lands the Soviets conquered becoming a part of their nation.

This map belonged to the British Prime Minister,

Sir Winston Churchill which showed the division of the country. West Berlin, under non-Soviet

control was an island inside Soviet-controlled East Germany.

Food and supplies had to be flown in when the Soviets cut off rail and road connections.

In 1961 the Soviets and East Germans closed their border with the West to prevent the migration of their people out of the failing economy of East Germany. In desperation, regular East Germans who were often separated from family in West Germany, used various ways to escape around, under, and over the various forms that the Berlin Wall took. The photo above shows a common configuration. If a person entered the "dead zone" they would be shot to death by East German border guards.

The Berlin Wall had different forms as show above, depending on the area.

So desperate to escape, people used a variety of ingenious methods to smuggle people inside of car compartments that were allowed to cross back and forth across the boundary. This Volkswagen was modified to hold a person inside the car storage area which is in front on this model.

Carts like these were used to move dirt out of the tunnels so people could flee East Germany.

Some very flexible people made their escape packed into wood crates such as this one.

The story above tells of a family that escaped in a hot air balloon to their freedom in West Germany.

Shown in the picture above is a section of the Berlin Wall, an old Soviet Star and an emblem of the East German government on display outside the museum. People in West Germany would paint graffiti on their side of the wall as seen here. The museum was very somber as the cost of human life became evident. Hundreds perished in their attempts to seek freedom.

We took a hop-off bus tour around Berlin and took in some of the sights of the city that was mostly leveled by Allied bombing in World War II.

Brandenburg Gate. This famous gate famously was fitted with a Nazi Swastika symbol which was blown off the gate by Soviet Troops and then later refitted with its previous bronze sculpture.

This picture below is when the wall came down in 1989 and eventually East and West Germany were unified.

We had heard that the currywurst belongs to Berlin like the Brandenburg Gate or the television tower.

So of course, we had to find a currywurst! To be honest, it didn't measure up to a good old fashioned bratwurst.

This building is the Reichstag, the center of the German government in the capitol of Berlin.

We decided to walk down to the Victory Column. but once there, the bus to take us back never came, so we ended up hiring an Uber. Because of COVID restrictions, no one was allowed in the front seat, so the very back was "supposed" to be an additional seat. Guess who had to fold herself into that area?

The Victory Column was built in 1864 after the defeat of Denmark in the Danish-Prussian War.

The whole monument once stood in front of the Reichstag but was moved in 1938-39 to its current spot at the center of a roundabout as part of Hitler’s ambitious plan to remodel Berlin as “World Capital Germania”.