Some Old Pics from Berlin

Palmer at Berlin Wall 2

I have been working with colleagues on some videos and other work on the Fall of the Berlin Wall (to be celebrated November 9 at the Atlas Freedom Dinner), and I remembered I had some old photos, which I rummaged around and found and then scanned. I was in West and East Berlin a few times (and was just in both recently, with a conference on Adam Smith’s moral theory on the east side of where Die Antifaschistische Schutzmauer once stood). So here are a few old shots from my trips in the 1980s:

(You can click them for more legible versions. In order: me [above] expressing my view of communism — from the western side; one of my transit visas from a train trip from Bavaria to West Berlin across the DDR; cross commemorating the murder of Heinz Sokolowski, 48 year old East Berliner killed November 11, 1965, after 7 years of imprisonment, shot when fleeing; me in the early 1980s before the Brandenburger Tor; a shot of a “normal” section of the wall near the Brandenburger Tor; my lunch bill from the Palast der Republik, on Marx-Engels Platz — I had a bottle of something and a trout)

Transit visa

Heinz Sokolowski erschossen

Palmer Berlin Wall 85 or 84 - 2

Berlin Wall near Brandenburger Tor 2

Palast der Republik

And two shots I just found in another box: one from the winter of 1989 in Central/Eastern Europe (not sure where, but I had bought the coat, which I still have, in Vienna) and one from Prague during the Revolution:

E Europe winter 1989

Prague 1989

Tags: , , , , , ,



5 Responses to “Some Old Pics from Berlin”

  1. I am so happy that the Berlin Wall came down. More walls that divide people need to topple. I know that the WAM (Wall Against Mexicans) is designed to keep people out, and not in, I feel that it is almost as heartless and unjust as the Berlin Wall.

Leave a Reply

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>