European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 20, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The Brandenburg Cate in Berlin is the symbolic meeting tace of East and West. Auberlin by Colin Bessonette Cox news service on a wintry Day when the wind pushes yellowed leaves into soft piles and the sunlight slants oddly through a Bone White sky a Small group of people stand in silence behind Berlin s massive Reich Stag. The hulking building Likely Home of Germany s parliament when the capital is moved from Bonn. Makes everything else seem insignificant. Everything that is except this Little plot of ground around which people Are walking slowly peering intently Forward then brushing away a tear with a gloved hand. A the object of their attention is a mesh Fence on which several Small White crosses Are mounted some marked with simple sprays of Flowers others with Handwritten notes now faded. The crosses Are symbolic representing Only a few of those who lost their lives trying to escape from an oppressive communist East to a Rich free West across the Berlin Wall which until a year ago snaked ominously around this spot. A people come Here on foot in twos and threes speaking in such hushed tones that sparrows scrabbling for food make More noise but the place has been discovered so even tour buses creep past their passengers taking pictures through the windows. Not far away across the narrow River spree a Section of the once feared Wall still stands though it gradually is disappearing under the hammers and chisels of the Mauer Shechte. They Are the Quot Wall woodpeckers Quot Chipping slowly but tenaciously at the ugly Structure that once divided their City. The Graffiti covered lower layers of the Wall Are Long gone stripped away by souvenir Hunters. The few people who still arrive stand on ladders to reach the Spray painted remains some bearing curiously outdated slogans Quot make love not War quo some More contemporary Quot hip hop quo some undecipherable some obscene. As the late afternoon Sun Breaks through a Moody purplish sky turn ing the Wall into a strip of Gold one of the Quot Wall woodpeckers Quot stops his work to talk with an american visitor. In halting English he says his Mother is German and his father lebanese but he never has been to Lebanon Quot or anywhere else away from my . Over and Over while he hammers away at the Wall he mutters Quot Ronald Reagan Good George Bush bad Quot he does t make his meaning Clear but it s obvious he does t like the situation in the persian cuff. A a then he smiles leans Down from his Perch and reaches out to the visitor. He s offering something special a few broken pieces of Dull heavy Concrete brightened by splashes of the Wall s colourful Graffiti. And he does t want any Money in return. Quot America Good Quot he says. Quot Pray for peace Quot Hen he goes Back to work a year after the fall of the Wall Berlin remains an Enigma. A City once divided physically it remains separated today though now the Barrier is mostly invisible. The City s two halves Are As different As Black and White night and Day Winter arid summer. For the next several years a some people say it will take at least two generations a it will remain so but now while sections of the infamous Wall still can be seen and touched and hammered is an. Especially poignant time logo. See related stories on pages 10 and 11. December 20, 1990 str is Magazine