The Berlin Wall WEST BERLIN--  I took these pictures when the city of Berlin was still split in two... a free democratic nation to the west, and a communist nation to the east. The top picture is of the Brandenburg gate taken from the west side. My goal was to get shots taken from both the west and the east (see bottom pic). The graffiti in the middle picture says, "A nation without God may never find peace. Tear down your wall against God and humanity, because it cannot protect you from justice!" If you look closely at the third picture, you can see me trying to scale the wall to get a peek at the east. Almost got caught by soldiers rolling up... at least they were American and not East German!
  CHECKPOINT CHARLIE--  This checkpoint is on the west side of the border. It was controlled by the Allies-- the United States, Great Britain, and France. I told the American soldiers there that I had a one-day visa to go to East Berlin. They wanted my family's contact information so they could notify them if I didn't return. They said there wasn't much they could do if I didn't return, because they couldn't go into a communist country to rescue me. Yikes!       WEST BERLIN CONT'-- The windows in the left picture (above the faces) have steel bars welded around them in order to prevent East Berliners from easily escaping over this section of the wall. In the right picture, you can see one of the many East Berlin watchtowers peering over the wall. The machinegun in this tower was pointed east... toward its own people!     EAST BERLIN--These are some of the pictures I took in East Berlin. In the first picture, you can see tons of bullet holes in the two stone columns surrounding the soldier. I took the second picture, because I was surprised to see Germans still goose-stepping. Scary stuff. The third picture is the one I wanted the most. It's a view of the Brandenburg gate, looking west toward FREEDOM! One day when I have more time, I'll tell you the crazy story of how I got out of East Berlin.
 
    AKI'S WORLD!
 

This page was last updated on January 21, 2002.