West Berlin: The City in the Middle
by Edward Murray

The events of radical change in Eastern Europe have created an increasingly unique situation for the divided city of Berlin. It lies within the boundaries of the eastern state undergoing the most profound change of any of its former Warsaw Pact colleagues. East Germany within the span of one year will have progressed from the Stalinist dictatorship of Eric Honnecker through its first democratic elections, culminating in its dissolution as a sovereign state this summer. This won’t even allow time for the complete dismantling of the Cold War’s most stark symbol: the Berlin Wall.

Berlin, once one of the world’s premier cities, ravaged by World War II, an occupied zone since the end of the war, divided by a wall since 1961 is about to become a unified city once again. The reunification of Germany with the powerful economy of West Germany backing the merger will have a profound impact on Berlin. For East Berlin, former capital of East Germany, it is a welcome m means to an improved standard of living and a freedom to develop quickly into the mainstream of capitalism. For West Berlin, still officially an occupied zone of France, Great Britain, and the U.S., the impact is less clear and by many thought to be a situation fraught with anxiety and not entirely welcome.

West Berlin, since its shattering at the end of W.W.II, developed into an island of capitalism in the sea of authoritarian communism that was East Germany, Its existence was guaranteed by the western allied powers and subsidized by special treatment from West Germany. it was a special place in the power struggles of the cold war and became a special place for those who lived there. It fostered a certain resignedness, but also a great pride in it’s tenacity. Berlin’s are understandably a cynical people full of caustic humor and as you can imagine quite a unique outlook on the world.

As a walled city, it developed a Berlin all of its own. For many years, West Berlin was on the fast moving path of western capitalism while its poor cousin, East Berlin, remained locked in the austere grayness of communism. West Berlin became a city of culture and art and of music and night life. As a place for the convergence of cultures, it became in international oasis of thought and ideas.

The city overflows with art and culture. Everywhere there are tributes to philosophers and activists. Everywhere there are galleries and museums. Its universities became Mecca’s for students of the 60s & 70s who wanted to experience the intensity of those political times in an environment that was on the edge of politics and the dynamics of history. An underground culture flourished with an eclecticism that couldn’t be claimed elsewhere with the possible exception of New York City.

However, West Berlin with its wall was like a "New York City without locks." It was virtually impossible to escape undetected if the alarm was sounded, but it was also possible to live a carefree unintruded-upon lifestyle within its confines albeit very underground. It was a very liberal city where the authorities allowed hashish in certain bars and clubs and where the inhabitants had learned to accept as their style "do your own thing". Leftist politics came to live side by side with the hucksterism that comes with any tourist center. It was also a very controlled and in some senses authoritarian environment afraid of any slight aberrations that could become an international confrontation.

Its bars and clubs open all night cater to a variety of tastes. The jazz clubs are quite popular and the neighborhood bars are the neighborhood living rooms. If there isn’t a bar, club or restaurant to your liking you must be on your way to live in a monastery. A summary of the city and its cultures would always contain the words intense and vital. Much of West Berlin’s unique qualities have developed with the help of its most famous structure: the Wall.

The wall has defined the bounds of the city as well as the psyche of its inhabitants. They never really went near it. Sure, they would take visitors to see it, but never for themselves. The Wall is what defined West Berlin and the "East" was not respected much so the West Berliners dealt with the harshness of the Wall by ignoring it. Only recently did artists use the wall as a large, absurd, canvas. The artists’ interest in the Wall evolved into another uniquely West Berlin accomplishment. The wall became a canvas for not only artists and graffiti specialists, but also for everyone who ventured near its specter. It became a constantly changing live piece of everyone’s art. It expressed the politics of the cold war and made fun of the absurdity of its being. It was an unnatural something that was thought to have its days numbered. There were always discussions of whether the West wanted the wall more than the East; whether the wall would fall within five years or ten. What would happen when it came down? How to deal with the inequality between East and West? Would they keep the wall until West Berlin became less liberal and East Berlin more liberal, minimizing their disparities? Then suddenly: the fall of the wall in November of 1989.

The joy of the event was shared by the whole world and the Berliners from East and West had one big party to celebrate their mutual new found release from entrapment.

The party seems to have been quite successful, with the imminent reunification of the two Germany’s. However, for West Berlin, the reveling is over and the hangover begins. The little island is now being connected to the main land.

The East Germans and Poles came to buy their VCRs, creating brigades of people with cardboard boxes. They have their long awaited opportunity to shop in stores that are stocked with the items of their dreams. The East Berlin’s are not as sophisticated as their western cousins. They haven’t been exposed to the cultural or social benefits that the international style of West Berlin provided. They opted for quick reunification and reaped dissolution of their oppressive experiment in Communism. The opening of the wall revealed an East Berlin more from 1959 than from 1989. The modernization and development of a united Berlin is being left to the capitalists of the West.

The Wessies (West Germans) have set West Berlin as their base-camp. They seem to be everywhere and have added to the already tight housing market. They bring with them their funny accents on the same language, and West Berliners aren’t’ too happy. They seem to be well off, but still lack the understanding that a Berlin holds. They are too busy with business to be sensitive, and there is plenty of business to be done. Just empty land that was part of the wall’s security system would make any developer salivate. Daimler Berry has already leased a parcel at Potsdamer Platz (the old downtown center of Berlin) in anticipation of this area again becoming the center of Berlin. so between the poor cousins from the East and the Carpetbaggers from the west, Berlin is already becoming a crossroads. Not a crossroads of spies and intrigue, but of commerce and development.