Berlin Wall commentary (western side).
Previously: My Beers in the GDR, Part One: A working lunch in East Berlin, August 1989.
East Berlin world clock at Alexanderplatz, showing places that East German citizens were allowed to go only with great difficulty.
East Berlin: August, 1989.
Each Friday afternoon for three weeks my temporary employment with the East Berlin Parks Department was rewarded with a crisp 100 Ost Mark note bearing a dour visage of Karl Marx, apparently standard laborer’s wages, as processed by a harried clerk at the pay window who always made damn sure I signed for it.
For whatever reason, the GDR decided to pay “volunteers” like me. Consequently I’ve always included this work experience on job applications back home.
It’s a real eyebrow lifter.
The 1989 trip kicked off in late May when I flew into West Berlin. Three days later came a first glimpse of East Germany with a transit visa, which required immediate forward progress by train straight through East Berlin to Prague in Czechoslovakia for most of June, and then Moscow much of July.
East Bloc adventures paused for a week at the end of July. Having returned to West Berlin from the USSR by rail via Poland, I met my cousin...
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