Alan Cook's Blog - Posts Tagged "east-berlin"
James Bond and Me (and a few others)
Pop quiz. Name the only two Americans who have written James Bond novels. No, not Ian Fleming. He invented 007 but he’s British and has been dead since a previous millennium.
Give up? They are Jeffery Deaver and Raymond Benson. Raymond and Jeff have written lots of other bestsellers too, as you may know. And now they’ve teamed up as editors of an anthology of Cold War stories called "Ice Cold" (appropriate, right?), under the direction of Mystery Writers of America.
They asked some of their best-selling buddies to contribute stories for the book, including Sara Paretsky, J. A. Jance, T. Jefferson Parker, John Lescroart and Gayle Lynds. Oh, and they also picked ten stories from the hoard of starving but competent writers in the universe. The good news is that I’m one of them.
My story, "Checkpoint Charlie," will be in the book, to be published April 2014. Call it serendipity, but the timing for this book was perfect for me. I found out about it when I returned home from a trip to Germany, including a visit to Checkpoint Charlie and the museum there.
When the Berlin Wall was up (from 1961 to 1989) the only legal way you could get from West Berlin to East Berlin, and vice versa, was through Checkpoint Charlie. Many people tried to cross the border illegally, mostly from East to West. Some of them made it; some of them died in the attempt.
The museum commemorates those attempts. It’s a poignant trip back to the days of the Cold War. People tried to go over and under and through the wall. Many of the conveyances they used are in the museum. The collection includes newspaper articles by the score. There’s a movie about the demolition of the Wall. It’s difficult to understand how valuable your freedom is until you’ve lost it. A trip to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum will highlight that in bold letters.
My wife and I first visited Checkpoint Charlie in 1993, not long after the Wall came down. A piece of the Wall was still there, and small pieces of it are on display today, there and elsewhere. In its prime it was covered with graffiti—the graffiti of frustration. If you ever get to Berlin, be sure to visit Checkpoint Charlie and go through the museum.
And be sure to purchase a copy of "Ice Cold." We don’t ever want to forget those days.
I wrote a poem about the Berlin Wall after our first trip there. At one time it was on display in the Checkpoint Charlie Museum.
Over and under and through the Wall they came,
parched with a thirst they couldn't quench.
Tunneling, flying, leaping, crawling, hidden
in car seats and carts, determined to wrench
themselves free from tyranny's stench.
Oppressed, tortured, imprisoned, shot—
still the thirsty would not could not be denied.
The spring of freedom beckoned, so close, so far;
yards, feet, nay inches away they died—
and friends and loved ones cried.
Some made it! a baby hidden in a bag in a cart;
desperate men who leapt on a moving train;
a hollow car seat, tunnels, boats,
a makeshift glider, balloon and plane;
putting an end to the thirst and pain.
And then one day, one wonderful day,
they hammered and shattered and tore down the Wall!
Thirsting, singing, shouting, laughing, hugging,
chunk by chunk they watched it fall—
and the terrible thirst was quenched for all.
Give up? They are Jeffery Deaver and Raymond Benson. Raymond and Jeff have written lots of other bestsellers too, as you may know. And now they’ve teamed up as editors of an anthology of Cold War stories called "Ice Cold" (appropriate, right?), under the direction of Mystery Writers of America.
They asked some of their best-selling buddies to contribute stories for the book, including Sara Paretsky, J. A. Jance, T. Jefferson Parker, John Lescroart and Gayle Lynds. Oh, and they also picked ten stories from the hoard of starving but competent writers in the universe. The good news is that I’m one of them.
My story, "Checkpoint Charlie," will be in the book, to be published April 2014. Call it serendipity, but the timing for this book was perfect for me. I found out about it when I returned home from a trip to Germany, including a visit to Checkpoint Charlie and the museum there.
When the Berlin Wall was up (from 1961 to 1989) the only legal way you could get from West Berlin to East Berlin, and vice versa, was through Checkpoint Charlie. Many people tried to cross the border illegally, mostly from East to West. Some of them made it; some of them died in the attempt.
The museum commemorates those attempts. It’s a poignant trip back to the days of the Cold War. People tried to go over and under and through the wall. Many of the conveyances they used are in the museum. The collection includes newspaper articles by the score. There’s a movie about the demolition of the Wall. It’s difficult to understand how valuable your freedom is until you’ve lost it. A trip to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum will highlight that in bold letters.
My wife and I first visited Checkpoint Charlie in 1993, not long after the Wall came down. A piece of the Wall was still there, and small pieces of it are on display today, there and elsewhere. In its prime it was covered with graffiti—the graffiti of frustration. If you ever get to Berlin, be sure to visit Checkpoint Charlie and go through the museum.
And be sure to purchase a copy of "Ice Cold." We don’t ever want to forget those days.
I wrote a poem about the Berlin Wall after our first trip there. At one time it was on display in the Checkpoint Charlie Museum.
Over and under and through the Wall they came,
parched with a thirst they couldn't quench.
Tunneling, flying, leaping, crawling, hidden
in car seats and carts, determined to wrench
themselves free from tyranny's stench.
Oppressed, tortured, imprisoned, shot—
still the thirsty would not could not be denied.
The spring of freedom beckoned, so close, so far;
yards, feet, nay inches away they died—
and friends and loved ones cried.
Some made it! a baby hidden in a bag in a cart;
desperate men who leapt on a moving train;
a hollow car seat, tunnels, boats,
a makeshift glider, balloon and plane;
putting an end to the thirst and pain.
And then one day, one wonderful day,
they hammered and shattered and tore down the Wall!
Thirsting, singing, shouting, laughing, hugging,
chunk by chunk they watched it fall—
and the terrible thirst was quenched for all.
Berlin Wall Escapes Were Difficult
The Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 to separate East Berlin from West Berlin, and didn’t come down until 1989. The German Democratic Republic (GDR), which is what East Germany called itself, put up the Wall to keep out the fascists in West Berlin. Or so they said. The reality is different.
After World War II ended in 1945, Germany was divided into four sectors, governed by the United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom and France. The Russian sector became the GDR and was governed as a Socialist state. From 1945 until 1961, millions of the brightest and best inhabitants left the GDR and went to live in West Germany, which included the other three sectors.
So the Wall was actually erected to keep the East Germans in, not to keep the West Germans out. It succeeded all too well. Some East Germans were able to escape, using various methods that took them over, under or through the Wall. Others were shot in the attempt by the sentries at the border. The area known as the Berlin Wall grew wider over the years and contained barbed wire, ferocious dogs, armed sentries and tripwires, as well as powerful searchlights at night.
Speaking of sentries, some of them escaped to the West, since they had the shortest distance to go. There is a famous picture of one of the sentries racing to freedom. Not all the guards were loyal to the GDR.
Many escape attempts are documented at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Checkpoint Charlie was the most famous entry point between East and West Berlin. The escapes utilized gliders, planes, hot-air balloons, zip lines, boats, and tunnels. Some men were able to jump onto a moving train. Cars had hidden compartments. A mother wheeled her baby through the checkpoint hidden in a bag in a baby carriage.
One ingenious escape involved a man who rented an Austin Healey convertible, and having found out the height of the metal bar the guards raised to allow cars to pass through to West Berlin, stripped everything off the car above that height and let some air out of the tires. As he approached the customs shed after showing his passport at the checkpoint, instead of stopping he gunned the engine and raced under the bar to safety, along with his fiancée and her mother. Vertical bars were attached to the horizontal bar at the checkpoint after that incident, preventing more escapes.
My book, East of the Wall, takes place in June 1963. It’s part historical fiction and part action/adventure. Charlie and Liz (the protagonists in Trust Me if You Dare), are recruited by the CIA, who haven’t had much luck in the GDR, to go into East Germany and attempt to find information about a secret project from World War II that may have been to develop a weapon of mass destruction.
Their main problems are the Stasi, the East German secret police, who have set up perhaps the best surveillance system the world has ever known. It’s almost impossible to do anything of importance in the GDR without them getting wind of it through their huge group of informers. If the Stasi find out what they are attempting to do, it may be very difficult, if not impossible, for them to return to West.
After World War II ended in 1945, Germany was divided into four sectors, governed by the United States, Soviet Union, United Kingdom and France. The Russian sector became the GDR and was governed as a Socialist state. From 1945 until 1961, millions of the brightest and best inhabitants left the GDR and went to live in West Germany, which included the other three sectors.
So the Wall was actually erected to keep the East Germans in, not to keep the West Germans out. It succeeded all too well. Some East Germans were able to escape, using various methods that took them over, under or through the Wall. Others were shot in the attempt by the sentries at the border. The area known as the Berlin Wall grew wider over the years and contained barbed wire, ferocious dogs, armed sentries and tripwires, as well as powerful searchlights at night.
Speaking of sentries, some of them escaped to the West, since they had the shortest distance to go. There is a famous picture of one of the sentries racing to freedom. Not all the guards were loyal to the GDR.
Many escape attempts are documented at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. Checkpoint Charlie was the most famous entry point between East and West Berlin. The escapes utilized gliders, planes, hot-air balloons, zip lines, boats, and tunnels. Some men were able to jump onto a moving train. Cars had hidden compartments. A mother wheeled her baby through the checkpoint hidden in a bag in a baby carriage.
One ingenious escape involved a man who rented an Austin Healey convertible, and having found out the height of the metal bar the guards raised to allow cars to pass through to West Berlin, stripped everything off the car above that height and let some air out of the tires. As he approached the customs shed after showing his passport at the checkpoint, instead of stopping he gunned the engine and raced under the bar to safety, along with his fiancée and her mother. Vertical bars were attached to the horizontal bar at the checkpoint after that incident, preventing more escapes.
My book, East of the Wall, takes place in June 1963. It’s part historical fiction and part action/adventure. Charlie and Liz (the protagonists in Trust Me if You Dare), are recruited by the CIA, who haven’t had much luck in the GDR, to go into East Germany and attempt to find information about a secret project from World War II that may have been to develop a weapon of mass destruction.
Their main problems are the Stasi, the East German secret police, who have set up perhaps the best surveillance system the world has ever known. It’s almost impossible to do anything of importance in the GDR without them getting wind of it through their huge group of informers. If the Stasi find out what they are attempting to do, it may be very difficult, if not impossible, for them to return to West.
Berlin Wall Speeches by Presidents Kennedy and Reagan
"Ich bin ein Berliner." President Kennedy said those words on June 26, 1963 in West Berlin to an estimated audience of as many as 450,000 people. Although the Berlin Wall wouldn’t come down until over 26 years later, the words, “I am a Berliner,” had a positive reaction with his audience, who were obviously hoping that East and West Berlin would be united into one city again. This event, which took place at the same time as my history/suspense novel, East of the Wall, showed that the United States backed the fight for freedom and reunification in Germany.
President Reagan was closer to the demise of the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987 when he said in a speech in Berlin, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” In 2019, a bronze statue of Reagan was unveiled near the site of his speech.
The end of the Berlin Wall actually came on November 9, 1989 when the East German border guards stopped keeping residents of East Berlin from crossing the Wall into West Berlin and thousands of them streamed through it.East of the Wall
President Reagan was closer to the demise of the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987 when he said in a speech in Berlin, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” In 2019, a bronze statue of Reagan was unveiled near the site of his speech.
The end of the Berlin Wall actually came on November 9, 1989 when the East German border guards stopped keeping residents of East Berlin from crossing the Wall into West Berlin and thousands of them streamed through it.East of the Wall
