The most interesting story involving East Berlin was the time that I went with my wife-at-the-time Barb, and her friend Cindy, who was visiting us from the US. The three of us visited Berlin for a long weekend, and then I went back to Munich to work while they went on to Prague for a few days. (Prague was also behind the Iron Curtain, and was, and is still, well worth a visit.) The plan was that we would visit West Berlin, visit East Berlin, and then Barb and Cindy would take the train down to Prague, while I went back to West Berlin, and then home to Munich.
There were only a few specific crossings that US citizens could use into East Berlin; we went through the Friedrichstrasse station border crossing. While not as well-known in the US as Checkpoint Charlie (which could be used by vehicles), Friedrichstrasse was a high-volume crossing that put you right downtown. It was actually a train station located in East Berlin that connected by several S-Bahn (subway or commuter-rail) lines to the West; you could in fact change S-Bahn lines in East Berlin without legally going into East Berlin! You could also go through East German border control there, and then visit the East side. The full oddness of the situation is conveyed pretty well by this short article.
In order to enter East Berlin, a US citizen could just show up and buy a day-visa
for 5DM, which was about $2.50 at the time, plus you had
to exchange 25DM into Ost-Marks (almost worthless East German
currency), which could not be converted back into Western currency.
So, you were essentially paying
$15 to visit East Berlin for the day, which was worth it.
This photo
illustrates what it looked like going through the crossing. (I
would've used door number 2 in this photo for a day-visit: "andere Staaten" means
other countries, not German.)
The day-visa looked like this:
So, after a few days in West Berlin, Barb, Cindy, and I crossed into East Berlin, each buying a day-visa, and did the usual things like visit Alexanderplatz and the Pergamon, had lunch, etc. To give a sense of the fabulousness of the Pergamon, you can walk through the actual Ishtar Gate from Babylon, inside the museum! I remember buying an alleged "Cola" at lunch that was pale amber colored, tasted like water, and cost about ten cents. (Perfect metaphor for life in the East, as far as I know: cheap but still not worth it.) I do recall that the pastries were actually tasty, though.
In the afternoon, I saw Barb and Cindy off at a train station in East Berlin, heading for Prague, and I headed back to the West. There were usually long lines going through Friedrichstrasse, and while I was waiting to get through, I was fiddling with my day-pass, when I turned it over and saw the back for the first time:
For those who don't know German, here is what it says on the little map: "With this visa, one must not leave the area of the East German capital city. The S-Bahn can only be used up to the stations shown."
Uh oh. This was before cell phones, so I had no way of contacting Barb and Cindy, who in any case were by now well outside the area of the East German capital city, on the train to Prague. So I just went back to the hotel, and then back to Munich, wondering what sort of "interesting" experience Barb and Cindy might be having.
I think Barb called me when they got to Prague to let me know they
were okay, and she had a good story to tell me later. (One generally assumed
that phone calls in the east block were being listened in on.)
So the rest of the story is obviously second-hand.
Barb and Cindy were happily riding along on the train to Prague in East Germany, and chatting with two Czech guys in their compartment, when the conductor came through to look at their papers. When he looked at Barb's passport, East Berlin day-visa, and Czech visa, he seemed unhappy, and said in German "This is all your papers?". (Barb and I both spoke functionally good German at this point.) When he looked at Cindy's papers, he said something like "Hmm, you too". He then told them to stay put, and left with their passports. (When behind the Iron Curtain, you really wanted to have your passport handy...)
The conductor walked up and down the train, talking to another conductor, and then the first two were joined by a third official, and they walked and talked some more.
The conductor then came back into their compartment, made the two Czech guys go stand in the hallway, and proceeded to search through all of Barb and Cindy's stuff. They asked Barb if Cindy spoke German, and she said no, so Barb had to do all the talking.
There were two high-points of this search that I remember Barb describing. She had a pocket 35mm camera that wasn't obviously a camera. When they pulled that out and asked her what it was, she said "Ein Fotoapparat" (German for camera). The official said "Ach so! Ein Fotoapparat!" (as in, we found spy equipment). I think she rolled her eyes so hard that they dropped that idea.
At another point in the search, they pulled out this little bag that had feminine hygiene products in it. The official looked at the bag unhappily and said "Cosmetics?" Barb said yes, cosmetics, and he was happy to not look in the little bag.
When they were done searching through everything, they finally told Barb what the problem was. "This is not an East German transit visa, this is only a Berlin day-visa. You needed an East German transit visa to take the train to Prague." Barb turned to Cindy and said "Wir haben ein Fehler gemacht!" (We've made a mistake.) For a moment, the official was like "Hey wait a second, I thought you said she couldn't speak German." Fortunately Cindy just gave Barb a bewildered look and said "Huh?", and the official realized that Barb was just confused from speaking so much German to them.
The official said that he could make them go back to Berlin, or he could just put them off the train at the next stop, but he was in a good mood that day, and if they paid for the transit visa now they could go on to Prague. So they did.
After the officials left, the two Czech guys pulled out a bottle of wine, and they had a little celebration in their compartment that the ordeal was over.
