Checkpoint Charlie

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by dd74

Two questions:

Rick: all those photos were taken from the Eastern side of Berlin, right?

The interesting thing is that once you got to know East Berlin, you could duck around corners in the less traveled parts and find buildings that had not been repaired from the war. Finding bullet holes and so on was a common thing in many parts of the town if you knew where to look.

Joe A

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by Rot 911

I was in the Army in Germany in the late 70's. You had to get flag orders (so called because they had a U.S. Flag, in color, at the top of the orders) to go visit East Berlin. We would take a train through East Germany to Berlin. You could not get off the train anywhere along the way in East Berlin. Would cross over into East Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie. Was fun to trade Playboy and Penthouse magazines with the East German guards for military belt buckle or hat.

Active duty military were not allowed to drive the "transit road" to the West from Berlin. We were in the "grey zone" as we had full military ID cards but were not on active duty, so could drive to and from.

It was a lot of fun and even did it when going to Denmark heading through areas not normally driven by Westerners. You should have seen the looks I got on a brand new BMW bike when stopping in the rest stops. They had never seen the newer models, and at times it was hard to get going again as they all wanted to look and talk about something that they had only dreamed about. Same way driving the 911 but at least they had seen one of those before!

Joe A

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by Jim727

Amazing times - I was living in Berlin then and even though I knew history was in the making it took a while for the magnitude to sink in. Was at the Brandenburg Gate for both the first New Year (Silvester) and October Wiedervereinigung. Even today it seems surreal.

Right after the wall fell I went to Bauhaus to get a good chisel. Behind the Reichstag I was working doing my bit to dismantle the thing and locals would come up and ask for pieces. I finally got to where I would give them the hammer and chisel along with "selbst bedienung" (self-service). They would grin, take a few whacks of revenge and then get their pictures taken with the hammer and wall.

So many memories...

Did you fly for PanAm with the IGS? Know Rick Strand? Forget the other names...

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by dd74

I wonder if anyone here had been to E. Germany before the wall fell. I'd be fascinated to see the differences in technology and advancement between East and West Berlin.

I've heard E. Berlin was anything from idyllic to an all-out slum.

Lived in Berlin from 1986 to 1994. Flew the medivac bird off of Tempelhof Air Base, where the Berlin Air Lift was started. Was flying a mission the night the wall came down.

Was a large change in so many ways. East Germany had not had any advances in anything since the 1930's so the telephone, roads, trains and so on were still pre-war. Now they have been upgraded and are very good in most cases.

I still have friends and family living there, so try to visit every year or two. It will always be Berlin and really miss it...

[Dottore]

BTW I can endorse Rick's earlier film recommendations if you are interested in a glimpse of life in the former east Germany. Particularly The Lives of Others. (More dramtic and accessible for foreigners than Goodbye Lenin IMO)

It even won an Oscar a few years ago.

[Dottore]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

Lived in Berlin from 1986 to 1994. Flew the medivac bird off of Tempelhof Air Base, where the Berlin Air Lift was started. Was flying a mission the night the wall came down.

Was a large change in so many ways. East Germany had not had any advances in anything since the 1930's so the telephone, roads, trains and so on were still pre-war. Now they have been upgraded and are very good in most cases.

I still have friends and family living there, so try to visit every year or two. It will always be Berlin and really miss it...

So Joe, when we finally have that smack-down in Phoenix, we'll have lots to talk about!

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by Dottore

So Joe, when we finally have that smack-down in Phoenix, we'll have lots to talk about!

I have a case of Czechvar chilling at the moment. Really.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by Dottore

So Joe, when we finally have that smack-down in Phoenix, we'll have lots to talk about!

Hoffentlich... If you survive!

Mark, the inside of my house is covered in Berlin stuff. Signs from the air base that I got when I helped close it down in 1992, things from my stay there and so on. Posters that were printed in mid 1989 warning all the spooks on the base to be careful of "the Bear" and of course Communism ended six months later. Far too much crap and some of it needs to be framed and put up still...


Rick,

I have some in the fridge here at the house and at the hangar. Its good stuff!

Really miss the real "Budvar" from Europe!

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Dottore

BTW I can endorse Rick's earlier film recommendations if you are interested in a glimpse of life in the former east Germany. Particularly The Lives of Others. (More dramtic and accessible for foreigners than Goodbye Lenin IMO)

It even won an Oscar a few years ago.

Not that I'm condoning this or saying that I've done it, but you can download Goodbye Lenin via bit torrent on the web. Apparently, it's in German, and there's another place where you can download the English subtitles.

The Lives of Others is also available, even in a blu-ray format.

[Rick Lee]

Even the Budvar cans in the train and gas stations were better than most other beers.

BTW, for those of you who like E. German beers, Radeberger has been popping up everywhere in the last two years. The local Total Wine sells it by the case. Haven't seen Wernesgruener yet, but I'm watching for it.

[slodave]

Originally Posted by Dottore

Correction.

There was no east/west german border during the war. The border came about after the war as a consequence of the way Germany was partitioned by the allies (including Russia). Everything east of the border was the soviet sector after the war.

Right, but there was a front line and when you crossed this line, you could end up captured by the patrolling Russians, which is what happened to my mom on several occasions. This line around my moms town eventually became the border.

[Redcoat]

Fascinating stuff fellas- thanks for the insight.

[scottmandue]

Question, did they tear all of the wall down? Is there any part of it still up?

[masraum]

I believe there are some sections that remain as memorials.

Yes, there are
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall#Legacy

Little is left of the Wall at its original site, which was destroyed almost everywhere. Three long sections are still standing: an 80-metre (263 ft) piece of the first (westernmost) wall at the Topography of Terror, site of the former Gestapo headquarters, half way between Checkpoint Charlie and Potsdamer Platz; a longer section of the second (easternmost) wall along the Spree River near the Oberbaumbrücke, nicknamed East Side Gallery; and a third section that is partly reconstructed, in the north at Bernauer Straße, which was turned into a memorial in 1999. Some other isolated fragments and a few watchtowers also remain in various parts of the city.

Here is a list of the various pieces of the wall that are around the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Berlin_Wall_segments

There are several pieces in CA.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

Question, did they tear all of the wall down? Is there any part of it still up?

There are still several sections of it up. Or go to the CIA HQ and you can see some of it there!

[slodave]

The piece from the Reagan Library in Simi Valley.

[slodave]

These are scans from our 1983 trip to Czechoslovakia. Please excuse the line, the scanner is on its way out.















I know we took some currency out. I just have to find it.

[slodave]

Please excuse the line.










On to Berlin 1989...

[slodave]

Berlin 1989

Walking to Brandenburg Gate and the Wall.


The Russian war memorial, commemorating the Battle of Berlin.


Random section of the Wall.


This sign originally read "Strasse des 17. Juni", to commemorate the bloody East German uprising in 1956.


Hammer, hammer, hammer.... You couldn't keep me away from the Wall.

[slodave]

The tickets that took us into East Berlin.


Empty East Berlin street scenes.







On to the B&W's from Berlin...