Berliner Mauer

For this week’s Black & White Photo Challenge, I’ve dredged up an old picture: the Berlin Wall as it appeared in 1981, when I was 12.

We visited Berlin a few weeks before we left Germany; my father was a career U.S. Army officer, and we lived in Aschaffenburg for two years and Wurzburg for one. I brought my trusty little Instamatic along, loaded mostly with black and white film cartridges. (What a dandy little camera!)

What I remember most about our visit to East Berlin was how incredibly gray and deserted it seemed, except for the East German flags that were hanging from windows on all the main streets in anticipation of Brezhnev’s visit in a week. The contrast with the over-the-top flash and dazzle of West Berlin was stunning.