During my travels in Europe in June of 1990, I visited friends living in West
Berlin. At this time, politically, there was a larger free West Germany and
a smaller communist East Germany. The old capital of Berlin (located within
East Germany) was likewise split into free West Berlin and communist East
Berlin. However, the Berlin Wall was coming down, and as I arrived to see
it, I was greeted by East Germans who were renting hammers and chisels for
tourists to chip away for a souvenir piece of concrete.
While in the area, I traveled across the border between the two Berlins a few
times at places such as the famous Checkpoint Charlie. American visitors had
to pay a small fee for a visa which was good for 24 hours. On June 21, my
last day in Berlin, I returned from the East to find nobody at the border to
collect my visa! They had pulled the guards! Not only did I get to keep my
visa (a historic souvenir), but now ANYbody could walk across to the West!
I had witnessed history in the making as the Berlin Wall, built in 196x, was
now being torn down!
That evening I met a West German man from whom I was to get a ride to Sweden.
As we left West Berlin again there were no guards at the border, so I could
not purchase my visa. After driving through East Germany most of the night,
we arrived at the Baltic Sea to catch a ferry across to Sweden. We showed
our passports at the northern border, but since I was an American the guard
asked me for my visa. We explained that there was no one at the border to
give me the visa, and he called to see what he should do with me. After a
short conversation he shrugged his shoulders and held up his hands in shock
and confusion, saying "OK". He probably realized that he was out of a job.