Triangle of Death

 As I mentioned in the last post, my lip bothered me during our day in East Berlin. As we woke up to take the long train ride back to Mainz, my upper lip had become swollen on the left side. 

I don't recall much of anything about our train ride back. If I'm not mistaken, it took seven or eight hours to get back. Did we change trains? I don't recall that either. 

Way more vivid in my mind is waking up early the next morning to a disturbing sight. The left side of my face was inflamed to the point that my left eye was mostly swollen shut. I recall knocking on my host parents' bedroom door to show them what had happened. They were understandably startled. That morning we went to a clinic.

They numbed my lip and the Dr. made an incision to drain the swelling. Realize, I didn't really understand a lot of what was being said. I'm not sure anyone explained things to me. Perhaps they did, but it's fuzzy now. Anyway, at some point they phoned Bergren, our teacher and, in turn, he phoned my parents. 

I was made to understand that for the next few days, I required bed rest. Imagine how pleased you would be as a sixteen year old having the time of his life, but suddenly you're told you have to stay home while everyone else gets to hang out and do fun things in Germany. 

What I didn't know at the time is that the doctor suggested admitting me to the hospital. Infections in that area of the face, popularly known as the triangle of death, are occasionally very dangerous, since the blood flow in that area of the face is direct to the brain.

In the above photo, if you look closely you can see a bandage on my face, following a follow-up visit to the Dr.'s clinic.

So I was mostly in bed for the next few days. I think I missed the tour of the Gutenberg museum, but I'm not sure what else. Mostly as a love-sick teen, I missed seeing more of Funda, although she did visit me one afternoon. What I also didn't realize at the time was that Rudiger's mom had promised to change my bandages and keep me on bed rest, rather than have me admitted, so I am very grateful for her care. 

Naturally my parents were concerned....about the cost of treatment. 😅During that same follow-up visit, I asked the Dr. (wish I had his name written down - I did in my original scrapbook that was not acid-free) how we would figure out payment. He said the treatment was a gift to further German-American friendship and understanding. Turns out my pimple served a higher purpose. Below is that Dr. and a nurse at the clinic:

Thanks, Doc and Nurse!

More on Berlin: Berlin Part IV

 It's not easy to recall all of our activities in Berlin in 1982. From the previously posted photos I see that we visited the Wall, we drove around to see some of the Cold War reminders, and we strolled along the Kufurstendamm, which was a the main drag in West Berlin's heyday. I don't remember the details of any meals or whether we ate at restaurants. I do recall taking the U-bahn. At some point we were near Checkpoint Charlie, and I posted a photo of that site in an earlier post. Did we visit any museums in West Berlin? I don't recall any.

The most memorable day during our visit to Berlin was the long day we spent in East Berlin, the area that had been designated by the East German (communist) government as being the capital city of the DDR, the East German government. At the war's end, Berlin, like Germany as a whole, had been split into four occupation zones, one each for the U.S., Great Britain, France (really!?), and the Soviet Union. Berlin was in the center of the Soviet occupation zone, and approximately a third of Berlin, that eastern third, was the Soviet zone of the capital. 

By the early 1960s, the outward flow of migrants from East to West Berlin prompted East Germany, with the green light from the Soviet Union, to erect the Berlin Wall and, in effect, to completely control its population. When we visited, the Wall was only about twenty years old, but to us, sixteen and seventeen year old kids, it seemed like it had existed and would continue forever. 

Checkpoint Charlie was then in the popular imagination as they way in which visitors from the west could visit East Berlin. Instead, we took the U-Bahn, the subway. Until we were getting on it, I had no idea the subway still ran between the two cities. In the first creepy moment of our day, we watched out the subway windows as we traveled through abandoned subway stops. They were abandoned, save for guards armed with long guns and companion police dogs. We had to submit paperwork to visit and exchange money. East Germany required both West Germans and other visitors to exchange Marks, the German currency at the time, 1-1, meaning you would give a West German mark and get the East German version in exchange. This was so, despite the fact that a West German mark was far more valuable than and East German one, which had essentially zero worth in world currency exchanges. If I am not mistaken, Dennis, our teacher, received permission to permit us to exchange less money than was typical. I might be wrong about that. We were required to spend whatever we exchanged, but it was difficult to find much of anything to buy there.

Here are my visas from that day:

Actually, one of these might be from our travel between East Germany and West Germany, but you get the idea.

Among the things we did that day was a visit to "Museum Island". The world-famous Pergamon Museum was located in East Berlin and has treasures from antiquity, including the Pergamon Alter from ancient Greece. I had very little idea of what I was looking at, and in fact I paid more attention to the girls in the other school groups that were visiting. I recall meeting and exchanging contact info with one East German school girl, but I lost her address before leaving Berlin. It might have been better for her, in retrospect, not to have received mail from the US, give the repressive nature of East German life. 

We were taken around Berlin in a comfortable tour bus and we had East German minders/guides. At lunch time we were taken to some sort of a municipal building. I recall they gave us turtle soup, or at least what they claimed was turtle soup. 

We had some free time in the large pedestrian area near the television tower, the Fernsehturm, which is still the tallest structure in Germany. We didn't visit the top, but we did have a look at their department store. 

Labeled 'Centrum' in the photo, this was East Germany's multilevel department store near Alexanderplatz.

Our jaws dropped when we saw the shop that visitors from other Eastern European countries flocked to when visiting. There was very little there, plus it all looked very dated and unappealing. Consumer goods were certainly not the priority in East Germany. We 80s mall rats were aghast that people should live with such meager shopping options. 

All during the day, I was bothered by both the cool weather and an inflamed upper right lip where I had a small acne mark. As the day went on I felt more tired and more bothered by the cool temps. Add to that the stark contrast of having spent a couple of days in "glamorous" West Berlin, compared to the drab surrounding on East Berlin meant I was somewhat overwhelmed at day's end.

In the evening, someone arranged for us to go to a pub that apparently served as a night club. In West Berlin we had visited the Ku Dorf, a bar and dance space (I hesitate to call it a club) and wore ourselves out with beer and dancing, probably to the amusement of our teachers. Pete Reinhardt especially "left it all on the dancefloor" that evening. I recall him drenched in sweat before we went back to our hostel to sleep. Anyway, the place in East Berlin was hardly that. I remember ordering what they considered cola and being sorely disappointed. There were very few other people there. It was depressing as hell. 

At the end of a very long day we trudged back to the subway that would take us back to West Berlin to sleep before we took the train back to Mainz. It had been very hassle free to get into East Berlin, but the border agents showed their true selves as we tried to exit. They gave Peter and especially had time, for whatever reason. Farewell to a very shitty country. Here are a few more from East Berlin:

Traffic cop, East Berlin

Sitting at the fountain outside the Centrum store. From left in gray jacket and sucker (seated) Dave D., John Fredrickson, Liz ?, Mike Niemann, Barb Washa, Stacy Solderholm, Diana Fleming, Pete Reinhardt. Standing at left, Clint Miller.

Statue at Treptow park, an enormous Soviet War Memorial in East Berlin

Long view of Treptow.

  

Flash forward or back - Mainz thoughts today

 So I felt really old today trying to dial Germany, first from a landline that wouldn't seem to ring a hotel in Mainz. Frustrated, I decided to try my cell. I didn't know before today that cell phones could dial a +. That is what the hotel showed as the prefix to dialing it's number, so I tried that, but got the message that my cell service had to authorize international calling.

After a chat with my cell provider, in which the person told me to dial 001, I tried again. That person was wrong. The + worked and I got through and made a three night reservation for Mainz.

Rick Steves says there's nothing worth seeing in Mainz. Hell, he doesn't even mention the Chagall Windows in the St. Stephens church. We're talking Marc Fricken Chagall. They're beautiful. There are Roman ruins in Mainz, an amazing Romanesque cathedral, but yes, compared to some German destinations, it's not a tourist "must-see" location. Ok, Gutenberg did develop the printing press of movable type here. No doubt the draw for me is the sentimental connection, even if I won't get the chance to see many of those folks. Rudiger's parents died a few years back. I just sent word to him through his brother Jurgen that I'm coming to Mainz. I'm doubtful I will hear back. I will be happy to see Kersten, Claudia and perhaps Georg and Thorsten. That would be pretty remarkable to meet up with people after forty years. 

Gutenberg in his workshop.

One note is that, after traveling for years to Europe either solo or with Lisa, things get more complicated and expensive when you are a group of four. Many hotels in Germany don't have the standard, two double bed configuration. In Berlin, we found a place that has a queen bed and a sofa bed for our three nights there. My plan is to tire out the teens so that they can sleep soundly on anything. In Mainz, I tried to book an Air BnB, despite my general distaste for 'the sharing economy'. I created an account and made a reservation, but they turned us down. Lisa would greatly prefer a place in walking distance of the Altstadt, so I found a relatively reasonable place with a pool. Hopefully the pool will be open and available. 

One thing I had forgotten is just how close Mainz is to the Frankfurt Flughafen. We have made reservations for all of our stops, Berlin, Dresden, Wurzburg (also a base to visit Rothenburg), but we haven't talked about where we will stay the night before our early flight back. It probably makes sense to stay near the airport, but it might be more fun to stay near Frankfurt's old town, which I have never visited. 

Next post, back to Berlin.

Mainz city hall along the Rhine, taken from a special tour we had of the Mainz cathedral. 

Plans are coming together

 This week we purchased our tickets to fly to Berlin and fly out of Frankfurt in June. Because of COVID and more recently the war in Ukraine, we weren't sure we should go. Fortunately, Lisa recognized just how important this anniversary is to me, and Anna has grown more excited about the trip as the months have passed.

In preparation I have made a list of things I hope to do in Berlin:

• Visit the Reichstag. This has become very popular with the renovation and the change that has reverted Berlin to the national capital.
• Templehof tour. As mentioned in the last post, Templehof is no longer a working airport. It's now a park and it has an interesting sounding tour. The new Berlin international airport's opening has been delayed for several years.
• Brandenburg Gate: Couldn't get near it in 1982.
• Siegesaule: The Victory Tower that is among the most powerful symbols of Berlin. It wasn't something we could visit on my last trip. Since then, the 1987 film Wings of Desire made that famous in cinema. 
• The East Side Gallery: Another very popular spot, the is an outdoor installation that uses a section of the Berlin Wall as a canvas.
• Berlin by Boat. Lisa got really excited about this one. She like boats a lot, I guess.
• Checkpoint Charlie Museum. The younger among us should like this especially.
• The Holocaust Memorial

Many of these weren't a thing 40 years ago. What remains the same about Berlin is that it is always changing. It's seems metamorphosis is part of its identity.

I do hope I can convey some of the history to Anna, Ava, and Lisa with minimum eye rolling. I know even from my time as a 16 year old visitor: when we have more context for what we experience as a tourist makes it far more interesting and substantially more meaningful. I certainly don't want to bore them, but I do want them to have some appreciation for where they are and why we are taking the trouble to go there.

This is where visitors who wished to travel between the Allied Sectors of Berlin and East Berlin stopped for document checks in 1982.

 Anyway, let's hope it can open their eyes to what travel can teach us. 

Review and Forward, Berlin Part 2

 So I finally read through all the previous posts to see how often I repeated myself. A little too often. You wanted proof I'm much closer to 60 than 50? There you go. No doubt the few people that look at the whole Blog will mind too terribly much. I am half hoping Lisa and Anna will read through before we finish our trip, so they will have a better understanding of why we're going to Germany. False hope?

So I mentioned a few things about the Wall (prob should capitalize it) already and orientation to the city. I should say we didn't get very close up to some of the World War II sites like the Soviet War Memorial in West Berlin, the Reichstag or the Brandenburg Gate. I looked at some of those photos and they're blurry, mostly because I took them out the window of our moving bus. At the time, I wanted to get closer to the Soviet Memorial in the Tiergarten. I remember thinking, I guess we are not permitted to get close to these sites. Apparently it wasn't on our itinerary to get closer. I had seen photos (pre-internet...you couldn't just find photos instantly) of the Soviet Memorial and I wanted to examine it up close. Sorry, not that trip.

Sign in front of the Brandenburg Gate, which sat just inside the Soviet Sector of the Berlin, and later in East Berlin. The sign in front says, "Attention, you're leaving West Berlin", although you couldn't legally travel through the gate in either direction.

I'll spare you the high school level history lecture on the history of Berlin. At some point we also motored by the Hungergabel at Templehof Airport, now decommissioned and a popular park. The 'hunger fork' is in reference to the Berlin Airlift. A week or so ago, the original "Candy Bomber" died, Gail Halvorson. A shining U.S./British moment in a very dark period.

One sobering place we did stop, perhaps during that same whirlwind look at the city, was the Plötzensee Memorial, dedicated to those who were executed on the site, some 3,000, at the hands of the Nazis. This is one of the early Berlin memorials to the human costs of the Hitler dictatorship. My guess is that it has been overshadowed by the newer Holocaust Memorial completed in 2005. It's easy to quickly be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the Nazi misery, suffering and murder.

Here is a photo from Plötzensee:

It would be wrong if I said I'm "looking forward" to seeing Berlin's Holocaust Memorial. It forever astounds me how far so many in Germany have come toward "truth and reconciliation" in a relatively short period. Compare that with the U.S. and lynching, and all the monuments to the Confederacy that are only now beginning to come down. I've visited Atlanta a couple of times, and it's remarkable how commonplace it is to visit Stone Mountain's memorial. I would never go there, but five MILLION people trek there each year. Chilling. Meanwhile, there are all of those Americans who are moving backwards and not towards an honest reckoning with the Nation's ugly past. Anyway, I've never been close to Auschwitz, and I passed up my opportunity to go to Dachau years ago. The last time I was in D.C. it was only for a few hours with Lisa on our way to the Baltimore airport. When I was there for more time than that, the Holocaust Museum hadn't been completed. So this is my chance to see the memorial dedicated to the family connections I will never have the chance to know. Less personally, of course, I have read, seen and felt so much about the topic that visiting will be chance to physically inhabit the collective grief that haunts humanity.

Seated from left: Me, Barb Washa, Ann Buller, Diana Fleming Mackie, Brenda Lansing Alexander, Stacy Soderholm Davidsaver, tour guide (not sure why he's here). Second row, standing, Lindy Kaye Anderson, Kathy Grzenia Pierce, John Fredrickson, Dave Dedie, Brian Hischke, Tami ?, Curt Herwig, East Teacher Marie Nelson. Third row, Karen Hegge, Ann Conklin, Kathy Brockman Lewis, Clint Miller, Lisa Page, ?, Chris Bradle, Mike Niemann, Peter Reinhardt, Liz ?, Dennis Bergren

The above photo is way out of order, but I thought I ought to include it somewhere. Good photo of everyone!

Berlin, Part 1 of ?

 Our biggest and most memorable trip within our trip was our visit to Berlin. Technically, it was our visit to West and East Berlin, for at the time, the city was still divided. There are so many reasons why those few days have stuck with me.

I'm sort of embarrassed to say, but I think the fact that we were more on our own, away from both our families and our host families, made Berlin more fun for most of us. For me, that was a first at age 16. Granted, we had our teachers' supervision, but we could certainly relax more. It was a little unnerving for the first couple of weeks in Germany to be on our best behavior in someone else's home, while being unsure of pretty much everything. Dare I ask for another ice cube? Is it ok to have a 2nd Brötchen? In the case of my host family, the boys ate like (no exaggeration) ravenous animals. Clearly they were growing, but WTF? I remember one of them grabbing the serving dish and rapidly shoving the remains into his mouth. I was dumbstruck. In Berlin we could act like the sixteen and seventeen year old's we were. I recall taking full advantage.

Peter, me, Dave, and John in the 1936 Olympic Stadium. I won the gold for the worst looking sweatshirt imaginable. Check Peter's jeans and note his rock and roll buttons - yes, the 80s, nor should you overlook John's Member's Only Jacket.

The other reason it was a highlight is because the history and politics of Berlin were fascinating. West Berlin, the part still connected to Western Europe, was an island surrounded by East Germany. The Berlin Wall, for example, surrounded West Berlin, to keep others out, namely East German citizens. 

Trains were not quite so speedy in those days. I remember it was a long ride, and we were nervous about the "passing through East Germany" part. The teachers had prepared us to try not to act like idiots in a way that could get us into trouble. I can't imagine a trip like this would even be possible with some of today's teens, since many of them figure they can get away with (and often do) anything. Along the way through East Germany we made a few stops, which I think were border and security checks, and I guess I couldn't resist pointing my camera out the window.

DDR flag, Deutsche Demokratische Republic, taken out the train window in 1982.

I'm not sure my next move was the smartest, even in my sixteen year old brain, but when the East German border police came on the train to ask who had taken photos, I pretended I hadn't. Hopefully I wasn't in any real danger of being pulled off the train. Perhaps they would have taken my film. I'm glad neither of those happened, but it's probably also a good thing that I didn't try that ten or twenty years prior. It might have had a different ending.

I don't remember much else from the train ride, but when we arrived in Berlin we checked into a youth hostel, although I have no idea where in the city we stayed. By no means is Berlin any sort of a grid city, and we mostly traveled around by subway, which doesn't really lend itself to getting your bearings. At that time, the heart of the city was the Kurfürstendamm, the busy boulevard in the west. With the end of the wall, the heart has moved to the historical center, Mitte and Alexanderplatz. I'm looking forward to seeing that change. In the K-damm area, I recall visiting the memorial church and it's more modern replacement, and perhaps we went to Ka De We? Pretty sure that was a big tourist hit in its day. Here's a photo from the Ku-Damm:

The "U" is for underground (subway) and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church is in the background next to the modern bell tower. 

I remember seeing what appeared to be hardcore punk rockers in the city, which we didn't really see in Madison in the early 80s. Seems as though the city had a sizable population of drug addicts then, and perhaps we'll see both when we return this summer. Thanks to U2, I now know that Zoo Station is a hangout for those who are addicted. Actually, I read a bit online and see that now the subway stations are frequented by addicts, especially along the U8 line.

Also troubling is that I see the U.S. State Department has a "Do Not Travel" to Germany and all other European nations. Looks like COVID is still the primary reason. We'll see if that is updated to a caution in the coming weeks.

What we remember

I tend to remember the parts of this trip that, obviously, I have thought about at different times over the past 39+ years. For some of it, I have no photos. I remember a few moments of our night to the local winery, owned by a host family. I remember drinking, for my age, quite a bit of wine and laughing a lot with Peter Reinhardt. Sadly, my camera must have been back at the house. 

I received a message back yesterday from one of the German exchange students. I had asked her if she had any connections to her classmates from so long ago and she said she didn't. She doesn't even recall many of their names. I sent a photo (shown earlier in the blog) of all of the German students on the last night in the States, because it has all their names. She said that she remembered very little of a few of her classmates. 

I've got to say, even though I haven't seen some of the American students over the years, I remember quite a bit about them, except for a few that came along from East High. But for one of the East students, I haven't seen them since our trip. Certainly a few of my classmates I'd love to see more often, particularly one of the kindest fellows I know, Chris Bradle. He's out in Pittsburgh. Here's a photo of him from our travels:

Here's Chris with his (probably) 60s era viewfinder camera. I believe this is from our afternoon in Heidelberg.

With Chris I have the advantage of having known him since middle school, or perhaps even grade school. For a few years in high school, he was my ride to LaFollette each day. After college, however, I don't think I saw him until I had a German Exchange reunion in 2012 and he came over to the house for a couple of hours. So do I really know him much anymore?

When I look at the faces and names from the group of Germans in our exchange, I'm not sure I even had an extended conversation with much more than half of them. With those I did spend more time with, I feel like I had some understanding of who they are, or at least who they were. I'm of the belief that people don't fundamentally change much once they're that old. I run into people I haven't seen for decades and their personalities are pretty much the same. Perhaps they have calmed down a bit, or they're a little more introspective. That's just age, though. 

Here are Mike, Lindy (aka Linda), Chris, and Brian from September of 2012.

Nevertheless, it would be a joy to see any and all of them again. I had the pleasure of spending an evening with Claudia when she visited Kathy Grzenia Pierce a few years ago. I spent a little time with Funda when I stayed with Rudiger in 1987. I have seen some of Thorsten on Facebook. The others, however, who knows where they are or even if they're all still living? Unfortunately we have lost many classmates since graduation. To my knowledge, none of those from the exchange have passed, but we also don't know where everyone is.

Some people aren't fond of reunions and sometimes it's because of haunting memories from high school. No doubt, if things had been awful for me, I would have likely stayed away. For most of us, however, I think you should try a reunion before you dismiss the idea altogether. Our recollections can not only connect us with one another, they can also help us make sense of ourselves. I have a strong suspicion that some of my exchange mates can't believe I haven't 'moved on' from this time. Believe me, I have moved "on", or at least moved beyond it. I also know that time informed some of my beliefs, and some of my attitudes. It can be a powerful thing to, once you have view of your own culture in the context of another, question why we live the way we do. So, yes, I really enjoyed that brief time in Germany, but I also value it for how it opened me up to new possibilities and different points of view.

Dinner with Claudia and her husband at Kathy's house, 2018.