I suppose I need to write about this, if only because I experienced a tiny bit of the German Democratic Republic in 1980, and visited Berlin in 1991, after reunification. When I studied in Marburg in 1979 and 1980, one of the stark realities I immediately confronted was the Cold War. I remember walking in the countryside not far from the border with East Germany and having “tank traps” pointed out to me by my hosts. I remember conversations with a dorm-mate who was an officer in the Bundeswehr reserve. His unit’s mission was to hold the line for twenty minutes in case of Soviet invasion, to give the Amis ample time to shoot off their nuclear missiles. I remember living through NATO exercises, the daylong drone of tanks driving on the autobahn through Marburg.

Most memorable of all was the week-long visit to East Germany. We toured Dresden, Leipzig, and some of the countryside. It was gray, depressing, and lifeless. Everyone we talked to spouted regime propaganda, and we had two tourguides whose job was to make sure they each stayed in line.

I followed events in 1989 with great interest and was excited about the prospect of experiencing the final events of reunification in 1990. We took the train from southern Germany to Berlin in February of 1990 and were fascinated by what we saw. Reunification meant people purchased cars and satellite dishes, but buildings remained in disrepair. It reminded us a great deal of travelling through the South where one might see a satellite and brand-new car outside of a derelict house trailer.

One of my lasting memories is pulling into a train station in the East–it might have been Jena, but I don’t remember. On the platform opposite were lots of people standing waiting for another train. They had piles of stuff; luggage, trashbags full of personal items, furniture. I even saw a toilet commode. As Corrie and I watched a train pulled in. It was marked with the insignia of the Soviet Army. Apparently, it was families of Soviet soldiers waiting for the train that would return them home. As we later learned, Soviet soldiers and their families stripped their bases of everything that was moveable.

When we got to Berlin, the changes were obvious. There were only a few places where the wall still stood. Checkpoint Charlie, which I remember passing through in 1980 was no longer used. It was as if history was being erased in front of our eyes.

For a few months in 1989 and early 1990, there was a sense that something new might emerge from the wreckage of the Soviet Bloc. That was true in Czechoslavakia as well as in East Germany. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. At the time, many referred to reunification as “Anschluss” the term Hitler used to refer to the integration of Austria into the Third Reich.