We will be visiting Paris and Berlin for the first time in thirty-six years. I pulled out my travel journal from back then to see what has changed.

This is a portion of the entry from 17 März 1990. The next day would be the first (and only) free elections in East Germany. The next election was after reunification.

I’ve preserved the capitalization, clearly my English was German-influenced at the time.

On the east side of the wall, we found a line from Mending Wall by Robert Frost, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall / that wants it down…”

I believe the distant part of this view is now the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The foreground is now the US Embassy.

Then off to Checkpoint Charlie. The U-Bahn stop is one block away. The wall edge is filled with concrete sellers. The going price is DM5 for a 5 cm piece. A short wait at the checkpoint, DM5 for the visa (they didn’t stamp my passport, it is still a virgin) and we’re in. The Linden on Unter den Linden weren’t blooming yet. Oh yes, on the way we passed Democratic House, the home of New Forum. A DDR (Deutsche Post) TV van was set up outside, ready for the election coverage tomorrow.

Unter den Linden has a broad walk down the middle and nice lawn chairs were set out facing the sun. Most of the chairs were used, with people reading Newspapers or resting from walking the dog. I was very aware that this broad street had a dead end at the wall rather than joining the center of Berlin. The avenue on the west side continues through the University, the Opera, …

When we reached Brandenburger Tor, there was a line of people, apparently lined up to tour the wall. We joined the line only to discover it was the line for entry to West Berlin. Oops.

So we wandered to the south side of the Tor and noticed people walking in the former no man’s land between the walls. The entire boulevard between Brandenburger Tor and Potsdamer Platz had been walled off. We went through a gap in the simple temporary fence separating the No Man’s Land from the Plaza. It was a spooky feeling, standing in a place where we would have been machine-gunned six months ago. The wall was chipped through in several places and some of them were large enough for people to pass, so West and Ost Berliners mixed in the No Man’s Land. We crossed (illegally) to the West and back, and walked along the wall for a while. We were both uneasy there, so was walked back through the gap in the fence to Parisier Platz (by the Tor). A couple of Ost Berlin police were standing near the gap in the temporary fence and closed it about thirty seconds after we came through.

That area will have to be turned into a park and a memorial. I could feel the, now passed, threat of death across the place. A few evergreens were growing at one point, all small, maybe a meter tall. I wonder how they got there.