Visit the site of the Berlin Wall

“My first view of the Berlin Wall Memorial occurred on my first day in Berlin as I was taxiing to my Airbnb apartment. I noticed an interesting wall of tall steel posts that stretched along the road. Almost immediately I sensed I was looking at the former wall. This section of the wall is very close to my apartment and so the next day I took a walk. While there are two buildings to visit if you wish (the Visitor Centrum and the Berlin Wall documentation Centre), I found the best way to experience the Memorial is to simply walk the exhibit. It stretches for about 8 blocks. As you walk the wall you see that ‘die Berliner Mauer’ cut right through a living, breathing neighborhood. The installation is a very thoughtful and thorough representation of the wall, its physical, emotional and psychic impact on a divided Berlin.”

“The Window of Remembrance monument presents those who lost their lives in attempting to escape from East Berlin. The black and white photos, the dates of their birth and the date of their deaths at the wall hit hard. While there I found a picture of a young man Werner Kuhl ( the one on the left below), born within a year of my birth, who attempted to escape the year that I visited in 1971. Hard to grasp that the wall took his future.”

“It was a fascinating time walking the East Side Gallery today. Even more so because it was a way to get a glimpse of my own changes from 19 to now, as I’ve traveled and experienced more. And as I feel more connected to the world at large.”