Babaoskar Shoots Back

More photos ‘in the past’ – ‘Berlin wall’

Brandenburger Tor

Vorwerk is an international diversified corporate group with annual revenues of more than 2 billion Euros…

I was about 7 years old when a Vorwerk sales person came to our dwelling (in fact we lived in a newly built garage while my father continued constructing the house) and demonstrated the merits of modern technology. Instead of a vacuum cleaner bag he (or was it a she?) used a spotless white cloth – with appalling effect. Few days later we had one of those green and ugly Vorwerks in the garage.

Today, the vacuum cleaners still exist and are still ugly.

Germany is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the re-unification treaty between West Germany and the GDR (what was the meaning of this acronym?). The final act was the re-unification in 3rd October 1990. What has happened since then? To experience this, take your bike and ride through Germany (check out dynamobile2010).

Sadly, the shortest railway tunnel in Germany is history. For almost 150 years, it has been a landmark on the main railway line between Nuremberg and Regensburg. Our short-sighted society with economic interests as a leading principle was not willing to cover the 25000 Euros annually to maintain the cosy tunnel. 11000 tons of rubble have to be removed from the tracks until Monday to allow trains to use the line again. Commuters will miss the split-second shadow and close their books just before arriving in Regensburg.

It was amazing to be in Berlin that time. In the past, we people from the West could easily cross the borders to the East. Just a passport, the obligatory money change (‘Zwangsumtausch’) and sometimes body searches in separated cabins. The ‘Zwangsumtausch’ was usually invested in a lunch, books and music records.

But this time, all this didn’nt count. This time, people went the other way round. And not just at the official border crossings. The Wall was falling apart, temporary rough roads were opened and border guards posted. Passports were issued on the spot and people could walk to West Berlin – sometimes for the first time.

VP Sondermeldestelle - Berlin, Potsdamer Platz

Berlin, Potsdamer Platz

Both photos illustrate my impressions about East-West relations that time. People in the West were rather ignorant concerning life in the East. Did anybody ever watch the news programme ‘Aktuelle Kamera’? Only few people tried to peep through slots in the Wall. What would they discover?

In turn, people from the East were rather well informed about things which happened in the West (except the ‘Tal der Ahnungslosen’ at Dresden where West TV didn’t reach). But at the end they couldn’t verify because they never got the chance to peep through the wall.

Berlin, Brandenburger Tor

Border Guards at Brandenburger Tor

Today, all news are talking and writing about the fall of the WALL.  I was travelling to Berlin that time and I remembered taking photos. But after my recent move from Brussels to Cologne, I had no clue where they could be. The entire day I spent in the store room and sifted through carton boxes. Finally, I was lucky to trace them, to connect my old and outdated slide scanner and sucked the first photo into my laptop. Here is the beginning of a small series which I will place here in the following days.

Berlin Wall: 14 November 1989