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[Friedrich-Berthold]

I just barely missed an opportunity to take this course(FU-BEST) on Berlin at the Freie Universität because I couldn't figure out how to pay for it via student loans, and my home university didn't participate, though the director was very kind and understanding.
A great disappointment really.

Very sorry. Looks likes a nice course.

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Thank you for your kind words.

Do you know that, on reading your always informative commentary, I realized that I had translated this item without noticing that I myself lived in this area of Berlin for six years under something of the same circumstances you describe?
Essentially, you had to inform me of the history of the area before I recalled that, in fact, I am part of that history.

This tells me, at a minimum, that it has been far too long since I have paid visit to that Great City.

Berlin is worth a visit, surely. Those of us who are of a certain age are also part of history, to be sure.

[HPL2008]

Berlin is worth a visit, surely. Those of us who are of a certain age are also part of history, to be sure.

I really should go there more often.. Although visits with longer periods of time between them can be particularly interesting experiences. I have to admit that I have only visited our capital twice, and that was in my last year of school back in 1987 - which was, of course, before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the German Re-Unification - and then on a holiday in 2006. Needless to say, that was quite a contrast in many ways, especially when visiting locales like the Potsdamer Platz or the Brandenburger Tor.

[tempelhof]

i lived in Berlin for 6 years as an American intelligence operative. i've lived all over the world. i think of all those cities and Berlin was the best. this is pre-Re-Unification. it has changed and is still a great city to be sure. but really there was something about the atmosphere and attitude of the people when The Wall was up. i think there was a sort of underlying psychology to the city of showing the east "how it's done". living there, you could feel that.

it was a very young city. because younger Germans could escape compulsory military service by living in Berlin, many did and the average age in that city in those days was about the youngest for any city in the world. no one got any sleep. it felt like you were "supposed" to live an active, fun and multi-faceted sort of life. you knew it. and you did.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

i lived in Berlin for 6 years as an American intelligence operative. i've lived all over the world. i think of all those cities and Berlin was the best. this is pre-Re-Unification. it has changed and is still a great city to be sure. but really there was something about the atmosphere and attitude of the people when The Wall was up. i think there was a sort of underlying psychology to the city of showing the east "how it's done". living there, you could feel that.

it was a very young city. because younger Germans could escape compulsory military service by living in Berlin, many did and the average age in that city in those days was about the youngest for any city in the world. no one got any sleep. it felt like you were "supposed" to live an active, fun and multi-faceted sort of life. you knew it. and you did.

Sound analysis. Berlin still has much to recommend it, to be sure. The place is much changed from the cold war experience, which is hard to locate to the untrained eye.