40 Years in Beer, Part Seventeen: Uncle V’s beery introduction to Bohemia (June 1989)

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40 Years in Beer, Part Seventeen: Uncle V’s beery introduction to Bohemia (June 1989)

 

West Berlin, 1989.

Previously: 40 Years in Beer, Part Sixteen: In 1988, I had a slightly better year than Michael Dukakis.

In May 1989 I gave notice at UMI-Data Courier, or whatever it was being called at that point, and packed my bags for Euro Journey III.

Incidentally, at present the Super Bowl still maintains a comfortable two touchdown margin against me, LVII to XLII.

It would be the beeriest trip to date, and more importantly, the last to be calibrated on Warsaw Pact time, hence my arrival in West Berlin with a stated intention of remaining in Europe for at least seven months, beginning with an extended stay behind the Iron Curtain.

In 2023 Berlin is the dynamic capital of unified Germany, but in 1989 there were two Germanys and two Berlins, and they led decidedly separate lives. Bonn, a small city in the Rhineland, was the capital of the Federal Republic, known to us as West Germany. West Berlin as an entity was entirely surrounded by the territory of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), or communist East Germany, of which East Berlin was the capital.

Strictly speaking, Berlin in 1989 was still divided into zones of occupation as administered by the triumphant Allies after World War II, which ended 44 years prior to my arrival. Berlin’s western districts included American, British and French zones, and officials from the three countries still met at regular intervals to discuss their theoretical stewardship of the city, which in practice had long since been ceded to local authorities.

An empty seat was maintained for the Soviet emissary, who had ceased attending some years before. The two Berlins were prioritized as ideological showplaces by their respective overlords, with East Berlin enjoying perhaps the highest standard of living in the entire Soviet zone, which began at the walled-off Brandenburg Gate at Unter den Linden and extended eastward all the way to Vladivostok.

The Berlin Wall was the line of demarcation between the Allied zones and the sovereign territory of the GDR. It boasted colorful graffiti on one side and gray emplacements equipped with searchlights and machine guns on the other. During David Bowie’s “Berlin Trilogy” period during the 1970s, he could see the Wall just across the street from Hansa Studio, where the album “Heroes” was recorded. The title song came to mind often that summer.

In short, Berlin in 1989 was...Read more