"Are we unable to live without a system of walls?"
November 22, 2014 8:56 PM Subscribe
Racing to Checkpoint Charlie – my memories of the Berlin Wall by Haruki Murakami [The Guardian] The Japanese novelist on why the fall of the Berlin wall has such resonance with his novels.
MissySedai, do you remember what the penalty was for someone who missed the midnight deadline at Checkpoint Charlie?
posted by roger ackroyd at 10:27 PM on November 22, 2014
posted by roger ackroyd at 10:27 PM on November 22, 2014
I have fond memories of hauling ass to Checkpoint Charlie and making it by the skin of my teeth
As do I. I probably went through Checkpoint Charlie a hundred times or more in my time there. The Wall was a concrete presence that left an oppressed feeling as time wore on. The West Berliners had a wonderful term for the depressive feeling that built up: Mauerkrankheit . In my case, I coped by drinking- in one memorable instance I had been on a pub crawl with a Brit pal of mine (Hi, Mick!) and we went stumbling along the wall in the Brit sector and decided to toss brickbats over the wall to see if we could set off a landmine. This made perfect sense to our addled brains at the time. We were saved from our little peccadillo by the timely arrival of a couple of Brit MPs, who sensibly decided that it was time for us to go home and go sleep it off.
posted by pjern at 10:50 PM on November 22, 2014 [5 favorites]
As do I. I probably went through Checkpoint Charlie a hundred times or more in my time there. The Wall was a concrete presence that left an oppressed feeling as time wore on. The West Berliners had a wonderful term for the depressive feeling that built up: Mauerkrankheit . In my case, I coped by drinking- in one memorable instance I had been on a pub crawl with a Brit pal of mine (Hi, Mick!) and we went stumbling along the wall in the Brit sector and decided to toss brickbats over the wall to see if we could set off a landmine. This made perfect sense to our addled brains at the time. We were saved from our little peccadillo by the timely arrival of a couple of Brit MPs, who sensibly decided that it was time for us to go home and go sleep it off.
posted by pjern at 10:50 PM on November 22, 2014 [5 favorites]
MissySedai, do you remember what the penalty was for someone who missed the midnight deadline at Checkpoint Charlie?
IIRC, it was arrest and detention, followed by being banned from traveling into the East.
I can't say for certain, because the Stasi were the least of my worries. Had I wound up missing the curfew, AFS would have SENT ME BACK TO OHIO, instead of back to my host family in Altena, once I was fished out of the hoozegow. That made me pretty mindful of the curfew, I'll tell you what.
posted by MissySedai at 11:11 PM on November 22, 2014 [5 favorites]
IIRC, it was arrest and detention, followed by being banned from traveling into the East.
I can't say for certain, because the Stasi were the least of my worries. Had I wound up missing the curfew, AFS would have SENT ME BACK TO OHIO, instead of back to my host family in Altena, once I was fished out of the hoozegow. That made me pretty mindful of the curfew, I'll tell you what.
posted by MissySedai at 11:11 PM on November 22, 2014 [5 favorites]
For me, walls are a symbol of that which separates people, that which separates one set of values from another. In some cases a wall may protect us. But in order to protect us, it has to exclude others – that’s the logic of walls.
Wow, deep.
posted by Segundus at 12:49 AM on November 23, 2014
Wow, deep.
posted by Segundus at 12:49 AM on November 23, 2014
The Wall was a concrete presence that left an oppressed feeling as time wore on
Wow, this is like a national geographic award winning level of photograph. Like jaw dropping good.
posted by emptythought at 2:48 AM on November 23, 2014
Wow, this is like a national geographic award winning level of photograph. Like jaw dropping good.
posted by emptythought at 2:48 AM on November 23, 2014
I once rushed to one of the checkpoints (can't remember which one) by car at around 11:45pm. To get there, I had to take a left or make a U-turn from the main road, which was, for some inexplicable reason, forbidden according to a roadsign. Since it was late and there was no other car in sight, I did it anyway, only to have the famous Vopo (Volkspolizei) flag me down after 50 m.
They wanted 20 Mark. OK, I had enough East German money left over, so I handed it to them. No, D-Mark (i.e. West German money), they said. That was about 10 times more than east mark, but I was in no position to argue. Felt like a road robbery.
After the incident, my uncle (from Switzerland) told me about a similar situation when the extortionists wrote him a ticket for speeding and asked him for West German money. My uncle made a big scene about how East Germany must be the only country in the World where the state officials don't accept their own money. Apparently, that got him off the hook eventually, but my guess is that being Swiss must have helped and the reaction to an American or West German might have been different.
By the way, East Germany forced you to exchange a certain amount of D-Mark (West) into East Mark per day at a 1:1 exchange rate, even though the black marked rate was something like 1:10 or 1:20. Which was kind of like paying up for visiting the country. So one of the things that might have happened if you didn't make it out in time was that they could have made you pay up for another day.
posted by sour cream at 2:55 AM on November 23, 2014 [4 favorites]
They wanted 20 Mark. OK, I had enough East German money left over, so I handed it to them. No, D-Mark (i.e. West German money), they said. That was about 10 times more than east mark, but I was in no position to argue. Felt like a road robbery.
After the incident, my uncle (from Switzerland) told me about a similar situation when the extortionists wrote him a ticket for speeding and asked him for West German money. My uncle made a big scene about how East Germany must be the only country in the World where the state officials don't accept their own money. Apparently, that got him off the hook eventually, but my guess is that being Swiss must have helped and the reaction to an American or West German might have been different.
By the way, East Germany forced you to exchange a certain amount of D-Mark (West) into East Mark per day at a 1:1 exchange rate, even though the black marked rate was something like 1:10 or 1:20. Which was kind of like paying up for visiting the country. So one of the things that might have happened if you didn't make it out in time was that they could have made you pay up for another day.
posted by sour cream at 2:55 AM on November 23, 2014 [4 favorites]
The Wall was a concrete presence that left an oppressed feeling as time wore on...
I wonder if this legacy has anything to do with these paragraphs, that I found in a concrete technical journal:
Studies in Germany have shown that factory workers standing on concrete for more than one hour develop a condition whereby the communication of information between cells is interrupted in the body of the worker. This appears to cause the information exchange from cell to cell to reduce by 30-50%. Also the “wetness” of the human cells decreases and they become dehydrated. As a result the cells do not function properly leaving the worker feeling fatigued.
As a remedy to this employers in Germany have made cut outs in the concrete floor of assembly lines and replaced them with cork covered clay-treated wood chip over direct earth for workers to stand on. By doing this the workers have been shown to increase their productivity and decrease their absenteeism and medical expenditures. For this reason industrial laws now exist in Germany limiting the amount of time workers can stand on concrete to no more than one hour per day.
posted by StickyCarpet at 5:43 AM on November 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
I wonder if this legacy has anything to do with these paragraphs, that I found in a concrete technical journal:
Studies in Germany have shown that factory workers standing on concrete for more than one hour develop a condition whereby the communication of information between cells is interrupted in the body of the worker. This appears to cause the information exchange from cell to cell to reduce by 30-50%. Also the “wetness” of the human cells decreases and they become dehydrated. As a result the cells do not function properly leaving the worker feeling fatigued.
As a remedy to this employers in Germany have made cut outs in the concrete floor of assembly lines and replaced them with cork covered clay-treated wood chip over direct earth for workers to stand on. By doing this the workers have been shown to increase their productivity and decrease their absenteeism and medical expenditures. For this reason industrial laws now exist in Germany limiting the amount of time workers can stand on concrete to no more than one hour per day.
posted by StickyCarpet at 5:43 AM on November 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
By the way, East Germany forced you to exchange a certain amount of D-Mark (West) into East Mark per day at a 1:1 exchange rate, even though the black marked rate was something like 1:10 or 1:20. Which was kind of like paying up for visiting the country. So one of the things that might have happened if you didn't make it out in time was that they could have made you pay up for another day.
Yup, back in 87 and 88, it was DM25 for DDM25. I snuck a DDM1 piece out in my boot on one visit, I still have it. Little piece of aluminum, so light.
I pulled out my journals this morning to see if I had noted the potential penalties for being stuck im Osten. It was indeed arrest, interrogation, and detention and a ban on traveling im Osten for a defined period of time (longer if you were Ami rather than simply a Wessie). As you surmise, there was a monetary penalty as well, although not officially. You'd apparently get shaken down for DM, and it would be easier to get released if you ponied up.
I was a broke-assed exchange student, and my friends im Osten were similarly broke-assed. That would have been an...interesting...experience. I'm glad I never had it.
posted by MissySedai at 9:15 PM on November 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
Yup, back in 87 and 88, it was DM25 for DDM25. I snuck a DDM1 piece out in my boot on one visit, I still have it. Little piece of aluminum, so light.
I pulled out my journals this morning to see if I had noted the potential penalties for being stuck im Osten. It was indeed arrest, interrogation, and detention and a ban on traveling im Osten for a defined period of time (longer if you were Ami rather than simply a Wessie). As you surmise, there was a monetary penalty as well, although not officially. You'd apparently get shaken down for DM, and it would be easier to get released if you ponied up.
I was a broke-assed exchange student, and my friends im Osten were similarly broke-assed. That would have been an...interesting...experience. I'm glad I never had it.
posted by MissySedai at 9:15 PM on November 23, 2014 [1 favorite]
The Wall was a concrete presence that left an oppressed feeling as time wore on
Wow, this is like a national geographic award winning level of photograph. Like jaw dropping good.
posted by emptythought at 5:48 on November 23 [+] [!]
Wow, thanks for the compliment!
posted by pjern at 6:11 AM on November 28, 2014
Wow, this is like a national geographic award winning level of photograph. Like jaw dropping good.
posted by emptythought at 5:48 on November 23 [+] [!]
Wow, thanks for the compliment!
posted by pjern at 6:11 AM on November 28, 2014
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I miss Berlin.
This was a great essay. Thank you for posting it.
posted by MissySedai at 10:20 PM on November 22, 2014 [3 favorites]