Berlin Then and Now

I have had the pleasure of visiting Berlin twice.The first visit was in the early 1980s, when Berlin was still divided by the Wall. The second was in 2018, nearly three decades after German reunification.The contrast was extraordinary.In the early 1980s, I stayed in West Berlin near the Kurfürstendamm, then the heart of the city. During my visit, I took a bus tour into East Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie. East German border guards carefully searched the bus before allowing us to enter.The difference between the two sides of the city was striking. West Berlin felt vibrant and prosperous. East Berlin felt gray and constrained. Buildings still bore the scars of war. Our East German guide seemed dispirited, as though he were reciting a script he had been instructed to deliver. When the tour ended, I was relieved to return to the West.When I returned in 2018, Checkpoint Charlie had become a tourist attraction. Actors dressed as Cold War guards posed for photographs. The place that had…