Today I'm doing a "how to use the library" session for a group of students who are learning about the history of Berlin. Since it happens to be nearly exactly 30 years since I was in that great metropolis, I dug out some of the photographs from that trip to remind myself of my visit. It was a long weekend visit during a longer exchange visit I made to Germany that summer. My host family had aunt/cousins in West Berlin, so off we went.
I can only imagine how different it is today, and I look forward to seeing it again at some point. These are a few of the shots that I thought would be most representative of showing what Berlin was like in 1983 from a young man's point of view.
Mostly I remember a vague feeling of being scared. We drove to the city through East Germany, and the border crossings were tense- for me at least.
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| Yours truly, taking a photo of the Berlin Wall and Brandenburg Gate, from the western side. The Reichstag is directly behind me. |
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| And for a meta-moment, here is the photo I was taking when the one above was taken by my host mother. |
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| Another memory of that day- and the importance of paying attention in history class- my host Aunt spent a good hour quizzing me on the history of the American Civil War. Which I had to explain. In German. |
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| The Brandenburg Gate from the East Berlin side, Unter den Linden. Me looking nervous. |
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| At the bus stop, my host brother and me, yet again sporting a CWRU sweatshirt. |
