The Foreign Service Journal, November 2019

74 NOVEMBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Changes on the Streets Hank Young East Berlin, German Democratic Republic m y wife and I were asleep at our home in East Berlin when the wall came down, but we became aware of the change early the next day when we were privileged to watch events unfold on television broadcasts emanating from West Berlin. As it was a weekend, we needed to shop, and our plan was to cross into West Berlin via Bornholmer Strasse. As we entered this narrow crossing point, we were besieged by gleeful West Berliners essentially stopping our passage with cheers of wel- come. They obviously failed to recognize our diplomatic plates and offered us flowers, cans of cold Coca-Cola and bananas. We declined their kind offerings as gracefully as possible, but there were many others crossing at about the same time who gladly accepted the rare gifts. (By way of background, I recall a previous return from West Berlin, where I had consumed a Coca-Cola. I was carrying the empty can as I left our vehicle, and a young boy of perhaps 12 stopped me to politely ask if he could have the empty can, which I gladly gave him. As I entered our house, I turned to see the Stasi guard assigned to watch our home stop the child to ask what we had talked about. I did my best, struggling in German, to explain that there was nothing sinister transpiring, and the guard let the boy keep the can.) The Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) was so congested with East Berliners that they had to queue outside the entrances— the store was packed not so much with shoppers but gawkers, as those fromEast Berlin didn’t have the proper currency to shop. The evening after the wall came down, I had a memorable discussion with a neighbor who had an apartment directly across the street, but with whom I’d rarely spoken before. I discovered that he was a history teacher who spoke good English because he had been a prisoner of war in England during World War II. A few days later, another neighbor welcomed back family members from Ethiopia after the West German government discontinued the aid program for which he had been engaged. All members of his family spoke English, and their daughter even- tually was selected to continue her education in the United States. After the opening of the Berlin Wall and after East Berliners were provided access to Germanmarks, many began renovating Tourists at the remains of the wall in 1990. SHAWNDORMAN