Word: checkpoints
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...country's borders, including the crossing points through the Wall in Berlin, without special permission, for a few hours, a day or forever. Word spread rapidly through both parts of the divided city, to the 2 million people in the West and the 1.3 million in the East. At Checkpoint Charlie, in West Berlin's American sector, a crowd gathered well before midnight. Many had piled out of nearby bars, carrying bottles of champagne and beer to celebrate. As the hour drew near, they taunted East German border guards with cries of "Tor Auf!" (Open the gate...
...West Berliners embraced them, offered them champagne and even handed them deutsche mark notes to finance a celebration (the East German mark, a nonconvertible currency, is almost worthless outside the country). "I just can't believe it!" exclaimed Angelika Wache, 34, the first visitor to cross at Checkpoint Charlie. "I don't feel like I'm in prison anymore!" shouted one young man. Torsten Ryl, 24, was one of many who came over just to see what the West was like. "Finally, we can really visit other states instead of just seeing them on television or hearing about them...
Later in the day, two young workers from an East Berlin electronics factory who drove through Checkpoint Charlie in a battered blue 1967 Skoda provided a hint that Krenz may in fact have scored a masterstroke by relieving some of the pressure to emigrate. Uwe Grebasch, 28, the driver, said he and his companion, Frank Vogel, 28, had considered leaving East Germany for good but decided against it. "We can take it over there as long as we can leave once in a while," said Grebasch. "Our work is O.K., but they must now let us travel where we want...
...Checkpoint Charlie he asked that family members and other guests not climb up to the viewing stand. Mouth set, Kennedy studied the strange, gray emptiness before him. Then, in far windows in East Berlin apartments, three women appeared waving handkerchiefs. "Isn't that kind of dangerous?" wondered Kennedy. Yes, he was told. Kennedy stood several seconds in tribute to those tiny figures...
...parliamentary debate tournament. In order to be admitted to the tightly-sealed Penn Quadrangle, where I was to sleep, I had to show an official Penn housing pass, a driver's licence and be escorted by a card-carrying Penn student. The dormitory entrance resembled nothing so much as Checkpoint Charlie. It's enough to make you appreciate a campus where a cry of "Hold the door, please!" is sufficient to gain entry to a residence...