top of page

What Berlin Meant To Me by Peter Stein, '80

What did living in Berlin mean to me? I wouldn’t know where to begin.

Although I consider myself an articulate person, explaining to my friends what it was like to grow up in Berlin, under the shadow of the Iron Curtain, surrounded by THE WALL, is still very difficult. The fact that Berlin was potentially a political powder keg was lost on us children. We saw it as just another location, another base, American children in a foreign country, living on their own little island.

But Berlin was so much more. Berlin was a beautiful city, with incredible history. Everyone knew of Hitler and WWII, but the city’s origins date back to the 12th Century. Though Bonn was the capital when we lived in Germany, to see Berlin restored as the German capital is even more special. And though it is Germany’s largest city, I don’t think we ever felt crowded.

In the summer of 1975, on home leave from our previous CIA assignment in Hong Kong, I remember being excited to finally be able to remain in the United States, where I had never really lived. We were driving across the US, from California to New England, to see the country that I hadn’t visited, growing up in Frankfurt, Berlin, Taipei, Bangkok and Hong Kong. The last thing I wanted was another overseas assignment for my family. I wanted to go to an American high school, to be able to understand everyone, to have American food and candy! I was crushed when my father told me, on that trip, that we were going to Berlin for a second time, even though I was too young to remember our first assignment there.

We returned on October 2nd, and the next day I was pretty sick. In fact, that second day in Berlin in 8th grade remains the last time I threw up – though not because I didn’t want to live in Germany! I still tell people of my streak, which is now 36 years and counting!

We moved into a house on Thannerpfad, a huge place with a bomb shelter, two living rooms, and a sink in my bedroom. We then changed housing, going to Ripleystrasse, across the street from the Oskar-Helene-Heim U-Bahn. We were a street away from the Duck Pond, where I had many happy memories of camping, playing basketball, and finding my 8-year old sister sampling my mother’s Viceroy cigarettes.

We went to Berlin American High School, grades 6-12, a school that I understood was barely accredited. One principal was arrested for some drug offense. I loved most of my teachers, many of whom had much better pedigrees than I knew. Who knew that Mr. Sullivan had studied at Oxford? Our yearbooks never said anything about the teachers’ education when I was there. Sometimes, they even used the same photo as the previous year!

We had enough sports to keep everyone busy, and although our football wasn’t great, there were good basketball teams, and I think my boys' tennis team beat just about everyone we played during our last three years. We had Model United Nations, where we represented countries smaller than some states, but going to The Hague as a junior and senior was indescribable.

I got conned into joining Boy Scouts in 9th grade by my brother and my good friend Mike Lilnnehan, and it turned out to be the greatest thing my brother ever did for me. I became an Eagle Scout as a senior. And what opportunities we had! Who else saw the Leaning Tower of Pisa while at Boy Scout summer camp in Italy, or went skiing with their scout troop to Garmisch for two weeks, funded largely by our sales of corn on the cob to the Germans during the air show at Templehof? You couldn’t write this stuff!

It was a city with marvelous opportunities. Due to an arrangement the Americans had with the Germans, and because of an agreement that we would turn over our facilities to the Germans if and when the American troops left Berlin, the Germans built the best facilities of any station in Europe.

We had a great gym, pool, tennis bubble, recreation center, fields, and so forth. Berlin was a small contingent of Americans, having only two generals (as compared to 30+ in Heidelberg, for instance), but was known to have the best of everything. Although we were set apart from the rest of West Germany, we didn’t seem to mind the overnight travel on the infamous Duty Train, from Berlin to Frankfurt, and back again, complete with “Coffee, tea, and Marble cake!” Stopping at every little town in East Germany got a little old, but we slept through it. A few of my friends even had show and tell with the Soviet guards!

I’m sure there were children who stayed mostly around the American complex, but my family and I ventured out into the city. Although I think I only made it to East Berlin once or twice (the Agency didn’t really encourage us to be over there), we got to explore a marvelous town. You could still find houses in ruins, never repaired since the war, with unused bullets and other WWII trinkets. There were some buildings in the city with war damage.

There were forests, lakes, and even a nude beach or two! We were able to travel anywhere the subway went, as long as we stayed on the U-Bahn, and didn’t mistakenly take the S-Bahn, which traveled through The East. We had bikes (I was never old enough to drive there), and Berlin has a very well-developed system of bike lanes. Everyone could go anywhere on their bikes. Even though I rode mine to school for 5 years, in rain, snow or shine, I remember having to go to some Colonel’s office and explain that, “No, it wasn’t me whom the bus driver reported as misbehaving, someone must have given my name!”

But between the buses and subway, we could get to any section of W. Berlin, and to almost any street. The public transportation was amazing, and something I have missed tremendously in the years since.

Being in Berlin affected every facet of our lives, in such a positive way. We could drive to Italy, Spain, England, Switzerland, France, and so on. To say that we were afforded tremendous opportunity, in so many areas, wouldn’t begin to explain how lucky we were. We were witnessing history, living in a friendly foreign country, in a time when it was still safe enough to do so. What more could we have wanted?

In my adult life, I don’t have local friends I grew up with, whom I’ve known my entire life. What I do have, though, is a world that I have experienced, in which I feel completely comfortable traveling. I can’t explain what we had, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

And I am so grateful to my family and government, for having given us this marvelous opportunity.

Finally, my friends from Berlin will always be the closest friends I have in my life. We just had something special. We can’t explain it, but it’s there. Ask anyone!

Peter Stein Class of 1980

Monday, May 23, 2011

Peter Stein, Eagle Scout CeremWest Berlin, West Germany, 1980

Featured Review
Tag Cloud
No tags yet.
bottom of page