A Short History of the Cold War

There was a rumor. If you climb the wrong wall, you will die. They will shoot you. Which wall, where it is, who they are - all things we did not know. All we knew was that wall climbing could be a dangerous business. We stared with new respect at walls...is it this one or maybe that one? 

“No”, some older kids laughed, “it's the one in the big city".

Life went on.  More stories, more dangers which let you forget the old ones: spiders that bite you and leave their eggs under your skin, needles forgotten on a couch that find their way into your body and travel all the way to the heart, and, last but not least, rusty old metal in the woods that might be a bomb from the last war that will kill you, or at least blow your hands off.  Never mind hornets, poisonous mushrooms, and foxes with rabies. Life was so exciting that one more strange thing got easily forgotten. 

Then one day we were in the big city, visiting my father’s friends. There was a supermarket close by, and my father decided to go shopping.  Meanwhile, we were allowed to play outside. "But”, my father said, "Do not climb the wall.  That is forbidden!"  My jaw dropped. Could it possibly be right in front of me… THE WALL?   I forgot to play and observed the wall instead.  It was not very high, but high enough for me not to see anything beyond. 

My mind added all the things we had whispered about: guards with giant dogs, 100-meter height, barbed wire, and dragons, even though all I could see was a little wiener dog.  Also, nobody is trying to climb over the wall.  I stare and stare.  I am dumbfounded, so much so that I totally forget to ask my older siblings what they think of this. 

This picture of the (supermarket) wall (with my add-ons) burned itself into my 5-year-old brain.  Many years later I still wondered why the Berlin Wall, which was supposed to divide worlds, would run through the middle of East Berlin.