I travelled in East Berlin in 1986, when no one thought the Wall would ever come down. It was depressing beyond belief. People looked depleted and walked like they had given up on life — no spring in their step. Their eyes were dead.
People drove hideous automobiles called Trabants that had no get up and go and crawled down the street so slow they could just as well have been powered by lawn mower engines. Besides being tiny and ugly, they belched smoke like a power plant and stank.
Police were everywhere and where keeping their eyes on everything. It was nerve racking to constantly see such a heavy police presence.
Every buildilng was drab and dirty inside and out — with the neglect of decades weighing on every wall and floor and ceiling and window.
People dressed drably. Everyone was afraid to speak their minds. People were paranoid and seemed to think someone was following them everywhere they went.
People spent as little time as possible on the street, always rushing to get inside somewhere.
After I left and thought about what I had witnessed, I was horrified that civilized human beings could treat one another so harshly. I had been to Hungary just before this, and it was nowhere near as depressing as East Berlin.
I went back to East Berlin in 1995, years after the wall came down, and the place was lively and people were smiling. There were ocassional early signs of progress.
For example, I took walks down some of the grand streets with the grand old apartment buildings that were about eight or ten stories high and which housed massive luxury apartments in the old days.
Before the wall came down, every building, even on a formerly grand street, was drab and run down and visibily in need of repairs.
In 1995, however you would see one, maybe two beautifully restored to their pristine condition on each side of the street, complete with all the gold embellishments from a bygone era of wealth.
And by the way, you only saw a policeman once in a while. People strolled casually along the streets.
It was an inspiration to see the beginnings of a recovery and signs of freedom.
Thank you for sharing your experiences and describing them so vividly. Don’t you wish the avowed Communists in this country (and other countries as well) could see this and realize Communism doesn’t work!
“It was an inspiration to see the beginnings of a recovery and signs of freedom.”
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A nice story——you were very lucky to have seen the “before and after” of the city.
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