When I was about fifteen my parents sent me to Berlin for a month during the summer. My father wanted me to learn more about cameras and photographic equipment and practice more German. My mother thought it would be nice for me to be away and have more freedom and perhaps meet some people my own age.
So they put me on a plane in Stockholm, from Bromma airfield which was the only airport at that time. I arrived a few hours later at Tempelhof airport in West Berlin, where the Spännhoffs met me and took me to their home in Dahlem. Herr and Frau Spännhoff were friends of my parents and owned several photographic equipment stores in Berlin, the main one was located on Kurfürstendamm. They had a lovely large home in Dahlem, one of the city areas in Berlin.
My father wanted me to spend all day every day in the shop, to learn as much as possible. Frau Spännhoff thought that was not what I should do, and arranged shopping trips for me, and outings of all kinds. They had a young man working in the shop, Hans, who was about 18 years old, and they assigned him to me, or the other way around. His job became to babysit me by escorting me around Berlin, for outings to the Zoo, to other places of interest. In the evenings he would take me to places where he met friends; he was a student at Freie Universität Berlin and we would meet his friends in the coffee shop there a few times a week, attend discussions held there as well as music events, like a rock band playing and people dancing. Imagine me dancing to a rock band –my father would have had apoplexy!
One evening Hans and I came home after midnight, we had stayed at a club too long, and my curfew as midnight. The Spännhoffs had gone to bed and we were not able to wake either of the maids, so Hans climbed up somehow to a balcony which led to my room and was able to get me into the house. We decided not to tell anyone, hoping no one would notice. Hans was very kind and we became good friends; at first he was reserved because this was his job and chaperoning and entertaining a 15 year old girl was a little different. I realized also that he did this because he was told to, not because he wanted to. But we made the best of it and he got to spend time with his friends and I got to taste a different world where young people got together to talk about nothing and everything in a way I had never heard before.
I knew Berlin fairly well, I had been there numerous times before, and always liked it. By now it had recovered greatly from the war, and Kurfürstendamm had been rebuilt and the shops now had roofs and more than one floor in them. The pavements were back and they were wide, young trees had been planted and large outdoor cafes everywhere. KaDeWe, a large department store at one end of Kurfürstendamm was now open and had, to me, incredible treasure in dresses, handbags, shoes, and Frau Spännhoff indulged me. I loved walking along Kurfürstendamm and window shop, and even more to people watch. I would see literally people from all over the world, since Berlin was divided into four sectors, American, English, French and Soviet. We never went into the Soviet sector, it was far too dangerous since we might not be allowed to return.
When I took the underground, the U-bahn, the trains would often pass through the Soviet sector but never stop, but we got a glimpse of people standing on the platforms looking at the western trains. The people never seemed to smile, they seemed to all be dressed in the same gray clothes, they all seemed to carry string shopping bags and they were all very thin. When we saw the east German trains in the western U-bahn stations pass by, their windows were always boarded up, so you could not see in or out.
One weekend the Spännhoffs decided that we would take the boat to a restaurant and meet some friends and have lunch. They had a boat on Grosser Wannsee, a lake in the Wannsee area of Berlin. We went onboard a motorboat that seemed quite large to me, and took a tour of the lake to the restaurant where we docked. It was a lovely, sunny day and quite warm with lots of people swimming.
Our table was by the windows overlooking the lake and made for a very pleasant lunch when all of a sudden there was a commotion and I saw soldiers on the shore with machine guns pointing and a mall boat with two more soldiers with guns pulling into the lake fast. The boat headed for a swimmer who was about a hundred meters from the shore. It pulled alongside the swimmer and hauled him aboard, then headed back to shore where they all disappeared. I asked what happened and they explained that the division between the Soviet sector and I think the English (could have been the American or French) sector was right there where the soldiers appeared and went in a line into the water across to the other shore. The swimmer had strayed over the line so the Soviets saw their chance and went and grabbed him. They would accuse him of spying against them, and use him for their propaganda and eventually they might release him, although most people were never returned.
The incident reminded me how the people in Berlin lived in danger of being over-run by the Soviets, each day they never knew if in the evening they would still be free. The threat from the Soviets was every present, and they were surrounded by East Germany, a vassal state to the Soviets at this time. I think that is why I have always had a respect and admiration for the people of Berlin, they learned to live in the present because tomorrow might not come. It gave them a tolerance and an appreciation for life that the rest of Germany, to my mind, never achieved.
When the man was grabbed I was not shocked or even frightened. That this kind of thing happened I already knew and associated with Germany and Berlin. I have come to Berlin by car when we first began to travel there, and I had seen the masses of tanks, anti-aircraft guns, weapons, soldiers’s camps and soldiers along the route from Hamburg to Berlin. My father had explained the war to me, and I saw all the ruins, the endless lines of people shuffling along the roads for many years after the war ended. By this time the Soviet presence in Europe was huge, the persecution of people, the murdering of people went on, the borders were shut, the Iron Curtain had truly come down, and we felt it and were aware of it.
My father and I had travelled by car to Berlin one time and been stopped at a check point. The guards, East German soldiers with Soviets amongst them, had machine guns pointed at our car and told my father to get out of the car, and then came and hauled me out as well. I was about 10 at the time. We were taken inside a huge building, almost like a barn and separated. A woman soldier took me to a room and told me to get undressed. I was scared and there was no one else around. I did take my clothes off and stood there in my underwear, when she yelled at me to take them off too. I did quickly. She then told me to open my mouth and she put her fingers in my mouth and felt around, then proceeded to further prod and examine me for anything hidden within my body. I was so scared, so shocked and just wanted out from there. That stark room with a light hanging from the ceiling painted a pale pale green with a single chair and table in it, and that female soldier with her machine gun shrieking at me “Alles auf!” (all off) I can’t forget, no matter how hard I have tried. They let us go eventually and we always travelled by air from then on.
I did spend some time in the shop and the Spännhoffs were very kind and showed me the various cameras and lenses, enlargers and other exciting pieces of photo equipment and explained them to me. I enjoyed learning about them, and appreciated the elegance and quality of the Leicas and the lenses made by Zeiss for the Leicas. I am sure the Spännhoffs wanted to do business with my parents and that played a part in their dealings with me, but I also think they were kind and since they had no children of their own, they lavished me with their attention and kindness.
One of the last evenings in Berlin that summer we went out to dinner at the Resi. Resi was huge restaurant with several dining rooms, and was a meeting place for everyone who wanted to be seen. Each table had a “station” for Rohrpost (you could write a message, put it into a tube, which you then put into pipes, like the stuff in a dive up bank here) and they were always busy. It was fun because I got several messages asking me out which made me feel good. There was a huge dance floor and as Hans and I were dancing the music changed and the floor began to move, it was sliding apart from the centre. We went back to our table and sat down and then watched water dance. Under the dance floor was a huge pool and when the floor was opened the water was piped and lit and “danced”. Like the Bellagio but not quite that scale. It was magic.
We then went on to a night club and listened to jazz and had drinks. I was allowed to drink wine with dinner, one glass mind you, and to have a small Pernod at the night club. It was an exiting place and I studied the people there. Most were dressed up in beautiful clothes, as were we, and out to enjoy themselves. The music was great and people were listening to it, talking in between songs. There was an entertainer, a sort of comic that commented on the people there and on events that had taken place in Berlin.
I saw a woman dressed in a very tight dress that looked like leopard skin but wasn’t. She was very dark complected and had jet black hair, and her face had very high cheek bones with huge eyes. I thought she was the most beautiful woman I had seen and I remarked on her to Frau Spännhoff who smiled at me and leaned in towards me and said “Sie ist ein Mann” – She is a man. I was not shocked just perplexed, and I still see her face and think she was incredibly beautiful.
I will always remember Berlin with fondness and be grateful to the Spännhoffs for the wonderful time they gave there.
Dear Mum,
This is a wonderful recounting, despite your traumatic experience. Thank you for sharing! I love your descriptions….did you keep in touch with Hans or the Spanhoffs?
Love,
Tedo