EAST BERLIN -- MARCH 1990

From actively tearing down The Wall to passively listening to the turn of events, our trade mission first met with the U.S. Mission in West Berlin (The US Embassy was on the East side of The Wall) for a briefing with the economic attaché on the changing economy of Germany, and what the impacts might be to the global economy if Germany were to re-unite.
• Would there be a WWIII (because every time Germany was united in the past, a world war broke out, i.e. WWI & WWII)?
• Would Germany’s economy surpass that of the United States with a re-unification? The Deutschmark was rapidly gaining on the U.S, Dollar.
There was a lot to ponder in my jet-lag stupor.

We then boarded a bus to cross through The Wall where it was still in tact with the guns, cameras, bars, razor-wire, and armed, humorless guards: Check-point Charlie . After being carefully processed by a member of the East German all-male woman’s’ swim team, we drove through this very depressed portion of the city to meet with the U.S. Embassy’s Economic Attaché.

East Berlin was the “showcase” of the communist world as the most successful economy on the planet. But after I got past the huge telephone tower (that looked like a Las Vegas Casino ride), I stared out of the window with my mouth open as we watched armed policemen stopping as many pedestrians as they could (they were almost all pedestrians), on every corner, to check their paper work. I had my passport with me, and I’ve nearly always had a current passport since I was 16, along with a driver’s license – but I have never been stopped by a policeman who just wanted to “check” my papers. I marveled at what an intrusion this seemed to be.

The buildings were indistinguishable one from the other. I could not tell if I was looking at office, apartment, government or commercial buildings. They all looked alike. The cars were the same: Trabans were perfectly symmetrical block-like cars that looked the same coming and going. They ran on lawn-mower fuel, so were highly polluting, and people were on 13-year waiting lists for these beauties. After the fall of the Wall however, every other car in abundance on the planet rendered them obsolete.

I admit I fell asleep half way through the economic presentation – but I had not had any sleep for over 24 hours. I woke up when everyone was leaving. I had managed to stay awake long enough, however to understand that West Germany had to face re-unification with it’s sibling (East Germany)who was now retarded and deprived of 50 years worth of economic, technological and sociological advancements.

Later that night, we all went out to a dinner-meeting with the U.S. Mission’s Charge’ d’Affairs and the European Market representatives. This is where I first learned of the Euro, and that the West Germans regarded the East Germans as their “Indians,” (what’s that supposed to mean?). I could tell a reunification would be as rough on the Germans as it might be on the rest of the world.

I was served “swine-jungen” – or baby pig. From my experience of living in Zurich, I was not terribly fond of German cuisine – but this was the best food I had ever eaten! We all made “pigs” of ourselves that night while we settled in to hear how the political climate weighed in on the economic future of this burgeoning nation and its impact on the rest of the Common Market.

As the various Common Market representatives gave their presentations, I was astonished the I honestly enjoyed the briefings and was eager to soak up anything they had to say. I may have forgotten most of it now, but that’s only because almost all of it became irrelevant within weeks of having met with them. But the overall impact was to open my mind up to how business might be done at this opportune moment in time.

All the while this was going on, Studibert sat back, and patted himself on the back for this great and auspicious meeting. Frank skulked silently in the corner of the room, keeping an eye on everyone. At the time, I thought Studibert was being a naturally self-effacing man, and that Frank was genuinely tired. Later, I found I had misjudged these two.