Berlin Part IV

Brandenburger Tor

I was in Berlin for twelve days—-But it wasn’t all parties, family, and fun.  I also had wanted to visit East Berlin to see the Gate of Ishtar in the Pergamon Museum. Reinhart drove me to Checkpoint Charlie. It was the only gate in Berlin where Americans could enter East Berlin. Driving through the Checkpoint would have been a zig-zag maze, but I walked through.  Reinhard wasn’t allowed to go through since he was a West Berliner and did not go to East Berlin at all.  I’m not sure if he didn’t go becauses the guards thought he was a security risk or if he chose not to go for fear of reperucussions like physical and verbal harassment by the border guards. 

After World War II, the Alllies (Americans, British, French and Russians) decided to divide Germany into 4 parts with each country ruling over a section or zone. As the recovery from the war happened, the Americans, British and French turned over their sectors to be ruled by the West German govenment, but the Soviets didn’t turn their section over to the West German governement.   Instead, to further their Communist “cause”, they created a communist Germany called the DDR (East Germany)  The borders were controlled by the Soviets and the Communist East Germans.

The American guards didn’t check my passport that I recall, but I was ushered into  a small building where the East German/ Soviet guards were.  They checked my purse and pockets for contraband. I had to exchange all of my money.  The biggest contraband of all was American or West German currency because they were both stable and more desirable than Russian or East German currency.  Bringing western money would have been a crime.  After checking my passport, the guards asked a few questions about why I was crossing into East Berlin and how long I planned on staying.

Checkpoint Charlie

Once in East Berlin, I walked around and felt like I’d walked into a war movie.  East Berlin was drab gray with ruins all around, as opposed to the modern flash of West Berlin. The store windows were almost empty and there were propaganda signs everywhere. “The DDR is the hope of all good Germans”  “Our Shared Responsibility: How was a war allowed to break out on German soil again” 

Propaganda in East Berlin

 I went to a hotel for a tour bus which took me to the museum——the Gate of Ishtar was in a huge room with skylights. I have no photos—-maybe they weren’t permitted or maybe I was just too stunned to get my camera out.  But, I have an awesome picture in my head.   The gates were in a very large room with skylights several stories above us, spot lights were focused on the Gate of Ishtar which shined like jewels.

By User:Hahaha - Own work, CC SA 1.0,
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=699655

Afterward, the tour bus took us to a war memorial and then back to the hotel ‘Unter den Linden” where we had coffee or tea. The Soviets and East Germans were putting on a “show” only showing us areas of East Berlin they wanted us to see. They didn’t show us all of the bombed out ruins that I had seen earlier.

 I walked back to Checkpoint Charlie where Reinhard met me. I changed my money back to western currency before I left the guard shack. It was not my only time in East Germany. We still needed to return to Memmingen, West Germany where we lived. To get home in West Germany, we needed to return to East Germany known as Deutsche Demokratische Republic—-it was not German but a Soviet satellite and it was not a democracy nor a republic but a dictatorship which didn’t tolerate Western ideas like our Bill of Rights.

fortgesetzt werden.. . . .

The Final Reunion

L-R: David, Nick,Jaclyn, LynDee

A class of 320, down to 48

including spouses.

Some classmates wanted to come 

but couldn’t at the last minute

Some couldn’t due to their health

Some couldn’t due to their spouses

Some were travelling 

and some had died.  . . .

A war-worn group gathered for

A last reunion.

We were the survivors

We had all had battles but 

were climbing out of the 

foxholes of life:

the death of a spouse

the ravages of cancer

caring for someone with dementia.

.

We laughed, we cried, we shared

Sometimes picking up conversations

that were started years ago.

Some wanted music but it 

drowned out

those important discussions about life

and survival.

the music was shouted off.

Too many memories in the music 

of being young with our futures ahead.

With no more partners, 

there were no more last dances.

We gathered in our diminishing circle

of friends we’d created years ago.

Tables of friends who were so happy

gathering around that circle 

like Scouts at a campfire,

few tried to circulate.

And then, the last hour of the last night of the last reunion

A few moved cautiously to another table 

to re-ignite friendships: 

To blow on the embers

of possiblities that might have been.

But as the clock struck 10, we scattered the ashes,

let the fire go out ,

and left

the Firefighters Hall 

to go home.

But like Phoenix from the ashes

We went home to our new circle of friends

To live with those warm memories of the past, 

Awaiting

The Final Reunion.

L-R: Carol, Pat, Ingrid, David, Nick, Jaclyn, LynDee

L-R:Carol, Joan, Ed, Pat, Ingrid

Terry, Vito, Ed

Clockwise: Pat, Gerri, Judy, Terry, Ed

Ed and Ruth

Berlin Part 3

After driving around Berlin, Reinhard and I went to his mother’s apartment where we “celebrated” Christmas. His mother was a small woman with dark hair and a welcoming smile but the smiles never made it to her eyes which were dark and piercing. I later learned she was not happy with our relationship.  But at the time, I thought she was “nice”. For Christmas I had knitted Reinhard a “scarf”, my first and last.  It was very large—-more like a lap throw than a scarf. He laughed because he had needed a scarf, so his mother had knitted one for him (probably more standard sized) He gave me a lovely evening bag which I still use.  We had a wine concoction made within a glass flask and heat.  It might have been  Glühwein: basically mulled wine with a dash of rum or amoretto.  It is a German Christmas tradition as, egg nog is for us. (I’m not a fan of either beverage)

We visited the museum that had Queen Nefertiti’s bust which was on my Berlin bucket list.   She was as beautiful in person as I had believed she would be:  that long proud neck holding her head high and the knowing smile of a ruler who was totally in control with her confidence alone. 

Berlin was a beautiful modern city with wide streets and a lot of “open” space.  I later realized why everything was so new and open: it had been bombed in WWII. They had modern shopping malls with ice skating and theaters.  I even saw Doctor Zhivago in German having read the book and seen the film in English, first.

Reinhard, his mother and I also  visited various family and friends while I was being shown around West Berlin. They all seemed quite formal and reserved.  Although no one was rude to me, no one was friendly either.  It didn’t really bother me because I thought maybe they were uncomfortable around someone who had been their enemy.  They were the age of people who had fought Americans during World War II.  Some of them might have also  been Nazis.  Perhaps I was just accustomed to the joviality of the Bavarians and not accustomed to Prussians. (Those were the two dominate German cultures) One thought I didn’t have was, his mother had told them ahead of time how much she disapproved of me.

 In West Berlin, I  only saw one ruin from WWII: Kaiser Wilhem Gedänkniskirche

which was a memorial to all that was lost in WWII.  Half the church was in ruins with a beautiful cotillion building and worship center next to it.  It is probably my favorite church in Europe—-one I’ve thought of a lot over the years. The juxtaposition of a beautiful Gothic stone church in ruins beside the new, sleek building——that combination pretty much describes the oxymoron of East and West Berlin in the 1960s.

Most photos of the Berlin Wall during that time were of Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg gate)—-once a regal gate to the city but was now a  part of the Wall. It had been the celebrated symbol of Berlin but now was a tragic memorial to the “Cold War”.  In other places  around Berlin “The Wall” consisted of bricked up abandoned buildings, waterways and barbed wire fences with guard towers. This is probably the only time in history, a wall was built to keep the citizens imprisoned and not to keep the enemy out. Although their standard rebuttal was that it kept spies from the West from getting in.

On New Year’s Eve, Reinhard and I went to the symphony for Beethoven’s Ninth (Ode to Joy) followed by a party with his friends and family at the Potsdamer Rudder Club on Wannsee. My journal says we got back to the apartment at  6:30 AM which was probably before dawn, at least. I mostly recall partying and dancing the night away with all of Reinhard’s cousins and friends, but he mostly sat it out and just watched amused. These friends and family were very friendly and welcoming unlike those of their parent’s generation. He loved seeing them so welcoming to me.

Me clowning with Reinhard's pipe.

We are in the back against a wall.

 We went outside for the New Year’s countdown and to view fireworks over the lake. I recall standing beside the dark lake with Reinhard’s jacket over my shoulders and then wrapped by his arms..  I looked up at him, our eyes locked and then we kissed to celebrate the New Year 1967. This “Hallmark” scene is what I remember the most—-thinking of my future with Reinhard,  but  not thinking of our future in a few days when we needed to return to our homes in Memmingen, West Germany.

fortgesetzt werden.. . . .

God Calling

 You know God how you don’t always answer my prayers?

Sometimes I don’t answer your calls either.

No, the line isn’t busy, I just heavily depend on Caller ID.

So, if the ID doesn’t pop up “God”, 

I probably won’t answer.

Otherwise, how do I know whether it is you

or a scam:

Someone pretending to be God.

We have a lot of that going on down here: 

people thinking they are God.

Please, do not do that parting of the waters thing,

The Missouri River parted may flood 

my apartment on the edge of the wetlands.

Again, I’m all in favor of a burning bush

Just not too big of a fire

Oh, and safely burn one away from the building,

Having a fire extinguisher handy just in case. . . .

While you’re at it, do you think it could be a honeysuckle bush

It’s an invasive species anyway

Not part of your "plan".

And when you speak,

speak loudly in case I don’t have my hearing aids in.

Try not to use the tornado warning system to broadcast your message,though.

I don’t want others thinking the message is for them.

But that “still small voice “

clearly enunciated with closed captions would work.

So, a burning honeysuckle bush away from the building, 

followed by maybe a voice with a sexy Scottish brogue.

I know I should trust you more

to know how to burn a bush safely, 

how to get my attention without flooding.

But, I’m old and a former middle school teacher

who thinks about the worst possible scenario, 

deaf from false gods shouting at me,

nervous about flooding rivers

and partial to kilts.

Arriving in Berlin, Part 2

West Berliners at Tempelhof Airport

On December 27, Carol, Monica, Helga and I left Lindau. I took a train to Munich, then got on a plane to visit Reinhard and to meet his mother in Berlin. I flew into Tempelhof Airport the scene of so many iconic spy movies and also where the Berlin Airlift happened.  Shortly after World War II in 1948, the Soviets and East Germans tried to strangle Berlin by cutting off all access with food and supplies. The Berliners who were trying to recover from the war and bombings of World War II now faced starvation and death from the lack of food and medical supplies being allowed to be transported: The Berlin Blockade.

Templehof Airport was the largest pipeline for supplies in 1948. The Allies devised a plan called The Berlin Airlift which saved the Berliners.  Planes would fly in and out on a precise schedule  dropping off supplies at Templehof.  If the plane was delayed, the pilot had to fly back to West Germany and get in line again. It was such an efficient operation that  eventually the blockade was ended with  some supplies allowd to come in using the highway and trains also.  It was an amazing page in history: whenthe winners of a war worked so hard to aid their previous enemy.

My favorite chapter in Berlin Airlift history is one I used to teach my students: “the Candy Bomber”. (YouTube has several videos on this)  Gail Halvorsen attached candy to handkerchiefs to drop to the the children of Berlin 1948-1949 as a sign of peace and to give them hope in their war-torn city now blockaded.

By the time I arrived in 1966, West Berlin was recovering and even flourishing.  I was a little surprised that the airport didn’t seem any bigger than Lambert Field, but Berlin wasn’t exactly a hub for travellers and West Berlin wasn’t that big at that time having been divided.  Reinhard picked me up at the airport and gave me a quick tour of Berlin showing me all of the beautiful new buildings with experimental, innovative designs. Reinhard, who was an architect, said there had been architectural competitions after the war that re-built West Berlin, so the designs of some were very “futuristic”.    

Reinhard seemed a little subdued—-maybe he was weighed down by his city’s history and maybe he was concerned about me meeting his mother and staying with them for two weeks. I know I was a little nervous about meeting his mother, a widow who had been through a lot in her life:  the Depression, World War II, the bombings and blockades of Berlin and the need to relocate from East Berlin. Would she be uncomfortable with an American? or with any woman her only child brought home?  I recently found out, she was adamantly opposed to our relationship even at Christmas. To quote Reinhard “The liaison was viewed somewhat critically by my mother!!”  So, I innnocently was walking into a “mine field” of emotions.

fortgesetzt werden.. . . .

Photos:  By Henry Ries / USAF - Library of Congress, "Berlin "Airlift" of 1948-1949 broke through Soviet blockade of the city by non-stop supply shipments to beleaguered garrisons and 2 1/4 million civilian population of West Berlin", CPH: 3c36389 [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4559179

By U.S. Air Force - U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 2000.043.012; National Museum of the U.S. Air Force photo 050426-F-1234P-008, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3552352

By http://www.af.mil/media/photodb/photos/020903-o-9999b-094.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=280622