While I was a student at the University of Bamberg, in West Germany in 1989-1990, I had been to East Berlin before the Wall fell, and had also been in Berlin to celebrate when the Wall fell on November 9, 1989 (see my iReport at http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-348546 ).

But in the Spring of 1990, I wanted to see what was happening in Berlin and witness for myself the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, which I assumed was no easy task.  In many places there were actually two walls, one on the outer perimeter, and then another interior perimeter wall separated by a "no-man's land" about the width of a football field.  All this had to be taken down and I wanted to check on their progress.

In April, 1990, the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) still existed and there were still border posts throughout Berlin, although the rules had become fairly lax.  For example, I had entered East Germany that April at the border crossing just north of Coburg in northern Bavaria.  I used my University of Bamberg student id to get a 2-week multiple-entry tourist visa to visit East Germany.  If I had said I was American (which I am), I would have not been allowed to enter.  But West Germans had no problem entering.  So I lied, of course and said I was West German, and that I was born in Bamberg.  By putting on my best Bamberg accent I convinced the guard that this was true, paid a few Marks and they let me in.  This was risky but worth it.  After travelling through Leipzig, Dresden and other cities normally closed off to western tourists, I ended up in East Berlin.  Much had changed since my last visit.

The Wall at the Brandenburg Gate consisted of 8 feet of solid rebar-reinforced concrete.  Huge jackhammer machines worked day and night for months to chip it all away.  By the time I arrived in mid-April, they had chipped away about half of the Wall there,and the Gate itself was covered in scaffolding to undo 30 years of neglect.  I came back again late at night around 2am, and the jackhammers were pounding away loudly , with what was left of the Wall bathed in bright working lights.  Nearby there was a payphone, and I called my father in America.  I could barely hear him over the din of the jackhammers, and I had to yell into the phone.  I could barely hear my father ask "What in the world is all that racket?!?", and I yelled back "It's the Wall LITERALLY coming down!!"

Not far away was Potsdamer Platz, historically one of the most important parts of Berlin and once a vibrant economic zone before WWII.  Before the Wall fell it was a no-man's land covered with barbed-wire, mines and automatic machine guns.  A few months before on November 12, I had witnessed the re-opening of the main road going through Potsdamer Platz and had seen the first East Berliners streaming across, met by the mayor of Berlin and thousands of welcoming West Berliners.  Now it was a fast-moving thoroughfare and border-crossing, although still quite bleak and desolate, as the reconstruction would not be under way for some time.

All along the Wall between Brandenburg Gate and Potsdamer Platz, the Wall was perforated with holes, with kids climbing up the exposed rebar to sit on the top, and everywhere entrepreneurs were chipping large colorful pieces of the Wall off to sell to tourists.

Around Checkpoint Charlie, much of the Wall had already been demolished, with nothing but vacant lots and piles of yet-to-be-removed concrete Wall rubble.

Despite the bleak, crumbling pieces of Wall and lonely fields of weeds filled with piles of rubble strewn in a wide swathe throughout the city of Berlin, there was a new feeling of lightness to the city and its residents, which I had not felt during my previous visits.  Even with the euphoria of November 9th, there was still an underlying disbelief and fear that perhaps there might still be violence, or that the order to open the borders might be suddenly rescinded.  Five months later, however, the feeling of euphoria was gone, replaced by a sense of peace, and a mutual determination to rebuild their city as a unified Berlin.

-Mark Cain