Post-World War II international agreements enabled Americans — servicemembers and civilians — to visit East Berlin without visas. Still, crossing the Berlin Wall was an intimidating experience.
Post-World War II international agreements enabled Americans — servicemembers and civilians — to visit East Berlin without visas. Still, crossing the Berlin Wall was an intimidating experience.
As a young GI in Germany in the mid-1970s, I was among many soldiers who took the overnight “duty train” from Frankfurt to Berlin to experience the Cold War firsthand, to see the Berlin Wall and learn what being in the U.S. military was all about during that period in history.
On the night of Nov. 9, 1989, thousands of Germans swarmed along both sides of the Berlin Wall — opened under massive public pressure by an East German leadership that realized its days were numbered. Within a year, the East German communists were gone. Germany was a reunited country again.
