"Berlin memories in 1993" a Berlin Travel Page by dabidc

Relax, my VT friends, I do not plan to get very involved in the history of Berlin though the ages, more the recent times that somehow has impacted my years on this earth.

You see I was born in 1934 in England at about the same time a leader in Germany rose to power. The Second World War did have an effect on my childhood, not that I personally suffered from the air raids or the fighting.

No it was those emerging years where I was searching for knowledge, reading the newspapers and occasionally seeing a Pathe news at the local cinema. In fact taking an interest in what was happening around me.

I guess it was those maps in the papers and the names of places all over Europe that started me with a fascination for maps and maybe even travel.

In 1958 my wife and I travelled to Engelberg in Switzerland with a group and while there met a German who passed an interest in photography to me. That guy was Herbert Neubauer, working for the local photographer, he took a group photo and somehow even though I knew no German , we corresponded for the next 8 years. Contact was lost when I moved to Calgary.

In the eight years after he left Switzerland, Herbert moved to Duisburg then to Berlin, the district of Wedding and later to Frankfurt on Main. He was in Berlin in 1961 and was able to take and send photos of the initial events that led to the Berlin Wall.

The photo shows and area just south of Wedding and the stringing of the barbed wire is taking place under the contol of the East German soldiers.

I have several photos of the installation of barbed wire to stop the citizens of East Berlin and possibly East Germany from leaving to go to the West.

This is part of the history of that city and culminated in a wall of concrete blocks being built to maintain the isolation of the East from the West.

The destruction came in November 1989 when the regime in East Berlin changed and the wall was opened up by the citizens from both sides seeking to have one Berlin and one Germany.

Shortly after 1961 my friend left for Frankfurt and lived and worked in that city. In 1964 he married Beate and later they had a son Thomas. After that we lost touch.

Elsewhere on this Berlin page I give details of my visit to Berlin in 1993. It does not show the changes that have taken place since the removal of the Wall. I am sure that is another reason to visit Berlin again.