my visit to the Berlin Wall

I was fortunate to visit the Berlin Wall in the summer of 1988-- on the first of my two trips during grad school to Western Europe.

I was surprised to learn that there were really two walls, between which was a dead zone. This prevented many more people from trying to escape, since one would have to climb two walls and run a gauntlet of land mines and bullets from guard towers.

Along with that, consider that the construction of the wall-- along the entire length of the middle/heart of Berlin-- tore down blocks of productive activity. Can you imagine tearing down two city blocks through the heart of our largest cities-- simply to imprison its people?

I was traveling with a friend of mine-- a nice guy, but one who hadn't thought much about political economy. As we walked around East Berlin, he said "this isn't that bad". My reply: "All you need to know is that they've built a wall to keep people in."

In fact, it wasn't that great. The things I remember: one flavor of semi-solid ice cream, cardboard-like toilet paper, uniformity, and dreariness. In my photo album, I have pictures of West Berlin-- and then you turn the page to see East Berlin. Almost without fail, people ask "what happened?" The contrast is staggering: the gray buildings and rows of the same tiny cars.