Construction on the Berlin Wall was started fifty years ago this week. Its purpose was to discourage defection from East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc. I wonder what life must have been like for the people of Berlin. I can’t picture any city I’ve lived in with a guarded concrete barrier running through it. As you might imagine, people who used to visit the market or the cinema on the other side were suddenly unable to do so. Families were separated. I watched on television in 1987 when President Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” I watched again two years later as people dismantled the wall with hammers and chisels. I’ve never actually visited Berlin. I’ve been to Frankfurt, Cologne, Heidelberg and Warnemunde, and found them thoroughly enchanting. If I ever do get the chance to visit, I think I’d like to see the place where the wall once stood.
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