European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 12, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The Wall Ryg a scout platoon Leader the patrol. We Don t set any � re real careful on How we ves. We re courteous we Don t in really rough Ever happen ,jf9 on the other Side Stib snoot people a lha Wai the patrol Leader says. Jul Fly. You never  mysterious. Isec Point soldiers climb a ladder to and see out in Tho Middle of one of-4ked Fields Between the Wall and Seton Lowers two Beer bottles and a his a restricted zone also called a where nobody is supposed Toi drink  cans Are out there at a distance be thrown and not a footprint body had three Beers and said h Soldier says. Mers another. Where Iron do on. At the next checkpoint a de Tipsy looking German in overalls j a lopsided Grin on his face and climb into one of the jeeps. Job the Driver As courteously strongly Taga Jve. Nein. No can  -1 who looks Strong enough to pick Jkuta his eyes Lowers his lifted. To giggling in patrol passes several elderly. Ratan on a Corner waving and ads in the affirmative. A ladies wave at  the platoon jul know you re doing something of barricades along Bernauer Strasse by Joe Mapother stall writer neighbors traded numbed stares across Bernauer Strasse 25 years ago As East German Border guards began stringing barbed wire barricades preparatory id building inc Berlin Wall. Ii was a last resort 1o Slem the Stream of refugees More than 2 million or them who had led Easl Germany during the decade preceding the building of the Wall. Along Bernauer Strasse a Lew will remember the tension listed atmosphere As apartment buildings along the Eastern Side of the Street were bricked up and As desperate escapees jumped from succeeding doors As the bricking proceeded irom ground to lop floor. The buildings on the Eastern Side of Bernauer Strasse Are gone. So Are most of the buildings on the Western Side. It is a Berlin study in Urban renewal As practice in the East and in the West. Authorities in the Easl moved people living on their Side of Bernauer Strasse to make Way Lor the cleared Atrip along the sector Border ostensibly erected to serve As a defense against the West. On the West Berlin Side massive relocation of the Bemauer Strasse inhabitants was begun in the years alter the Wall was built the relocation facilitated reconstruction and renovation in an area Long notorious for its substandard housing. The people irom the Eastern Side of the Street have nothing to return to. People moving into the new units on the West Side of the Street were for the most part not those who had been relocated. Although the buildings and most of the people Are gone the crosses marking the Sita of anal escape attempts Dot the Cobblestone Street located in the District of wedding a part of the French sector of weal Berlin. Rudolf urban1 Cross islands eater cornered irom the modern Concrete building that serves As Home for parishioners of the protestant Parish of reconciliation. Urban was the first victim of the Wall. He died of injuries suffered when he fell to the pavement while trying to escape Down a raps irom an upstairs window Lour Days alter the sector Border was closed. The Parish House is a Post Wall construction necessitated because the original Church was on the other Side of the Street. So was the pastor. He remained in the East although most of his parishioners lived in the West said the current pastor Manfred Fischer. In the first two weeks after the sector Border was closed three people died along the live Block Section of the Street that belongs lowest Berlin. Nine fatal escape attempts have been recorded along Bernauer Strasse. A Tola of 74 Wall related fatalities have been recorded Lor All of West Berlin since 1961, according to City government statistics. It All began very quietly according to sister Emma 76, and a resident of the Lajanis  and lutheran nurses Institute. She asked that her task name nol to used out of Coniti Calion for her relatives still living in the East. Sister Emma was at work in the Hospital isl Aid Center about 6 a in that sunday when inc cleaning lady arrived to say inc Street had been closed off. As Tho Day wore on the Hospital was flooded with escapees Many of whom had cuts received when they scrambled Over the cemetery Wall directly across irom the hos Pilat. The cemetery Wail is gone but the gravestones of about 50 Sisters rom the lutheran order can be seen beyond the no Man s land in the East. In the Day immediately alter the Wall construction began Easl German Border guards would watch the buildings on their Side of the Street to cacti people signalling to the West their intent to escape. This practice was slopped by the erection of Large press Board barriers that blocked the View from the cemetery said sister Sophia 62. A resident Al the Hospital. The cemetery Wall on weekends was lined with ladders that West Berlin families climbed up to wave greetings to relatives in the East sister Sophia said. Flares were shot Oil at night and propaganda was blared out Over loudspeakers by both sides during those Early Days she said. It made life Al the Hospital difficult. Every Lime i looked out the window s�5 path Hob Joc Marpol heh Cross in memory of Berlin Wall s first victim. During the first two weeks i was seized by rage. But finally i realised that i had to accept in Sisler Sophia said. Today Bemauer Strasse and the streets immediately behind it Bear All the Marks of what one Berlin development company official described As the largest Urban renewal project in Europe. The crumbling apartment buildings have made Way Lor new or renovated subsidized housing said Dieter Krohn an official with the German society Lor the encouragement of Home construction. The houses Are new but so is the neighbourhood. The past has Alt but disappeared Krohn said. As the Lale afternoon Sun reflected of the freshly whitewashed sides of a Bernauer  wait a Middle aged Man surveyed the quiet scone before him a Rabbit hopped around in the no Man s land and a pair of guards trained binoculars in his direction. It looks As if it will remain  he said may.1962 easlqembnrepairingttiawbllatbemauer$tra33edamagixlbyabcmbtliist. The stars and stripes Page 15