Walls.
Fashion statement along the Berlin Wall, 1971.
I've been to Berlin only once, and that was in 1971 after a stint in Perugia. I spent a few days in both West and East Berlin seeing everything I could see. Tourists were permitted entry. The wall was meant to keep East Germans from leaving, not most outsiders from visiting.
It was, of course, a tangible symbol of the Cold War, built in 1961, ultimately dismantled in 1989 in the move to a re-unified Germany. Conceived by the East Germans, it was a 28-mile fortified barrier erected with the blessing of Russians to seal off Communist East Berlin (incorporated into the German Democratic Republic) from the free enclave of West Berlin, and to prevent the increasing droves of refugees defecting to the West from the communist system.
It was a revolting scar across the face of a divided nation and the site of many deaths as East Germans attempted to escape to the West. I visited a museum near Checkpoint Charlie in the western sector. There one could view images of the the whole ugly saga. The wide ribbon between two parallel walls had barbed wire, mines, tank traps, patrol roads, watchtowers, dogs, East German guards trained to shoot on sight. In a mendacious perversion of language, our East German tour guide referred to the wall as the "anti-fascist protective barrier." Yeah, right.
It would be reassuring to think that this story was of one time and one place, and that humankind has advanced since then, but we know from any day's news that it's not the way things are.
Click to read the history of the wall and see more images.