THE BERLIN WALL, HUSHAN AND PORNO FILMS

Summer 1972

Once upon a time an innocent Mexican girl arrived in Europe, which she thought she knew well as she had travel quite extensively with her mom under the protection of a group first and another time, only with her mom.  However, a holiday and exploration trip have nothing in common with a trip to live in an unknown city, little known country and with a language that for me definitely does not rank among the easiest, even now, although it is less difficult but still… Berlin at the time was not an open city as it is now, there was a wall that could only be crossed in a limited number of crossings defined by the two German governments, where there was passport control, you needed to show proof of having at least 5 Eastern Marks bought at the border. Officially the rate of exchange was 1-1, although the unofficial exchange rate was of one western mark to around 5 eastern ones.  Having black market eastern marks was illegal but far more interesting if you wanted to buy certain commodities in the east.

When one is a smoker, as I was then, the budget for cigarettes has to be carefully managed, since it was most of the time the most important item of the budget. The wall, as mentioned, could only be crossed at certain designated points. As a matter of fact for foreigners there was only the famous and infamous Checkpoint Charlie.  True but not totally.  The Berlin metro system has one station; I do not remember its name, where western travellers could cross on foot into eastern Berlin and do some shopping at very reasonable prices, well under the western prices. This was particularly true for cigarettes, much cheaper in the east.  I have no doubt that the eastern authorities knew about it and turned a blind eye because it must have left lots of money from the “western foreigners” doing their shopping there. Besides in the never remote case of being caught by the eastern police besides the horrible freight of being sent to a gulag, probably a fine had to be paid, more money into the national coffers. I crossed many times to get my ciguis, never was caught.  I also crossed many times on the surface, the legal crossing, since the cultural life in the east was richer and with black market marks, much cheaper and affordable than in the west. The crossing was on foot, passport control and the payment of the 5 marks for the “visa” which was granted only to the non-Germans. Germans could not go into East Berlin or if they did, it was after innumerable requests and procedures.  The procedure that took me 20 minutes could take them several months. After crossing the Checkpoint Charlie you had to walk about 20 minutes until the theatre area, in full and total security, there were so many policemen and armed forces from the east that nobody could have dreamt of misbehaving in the slightest. After the theatre walking back was also very safe.   I crossed so many times that I almost became friend with the guards on both sides, although the eastern ones were less prone to make jokes or even smile, not that my German was so good as to make jokes but you get my point.

Many know Checkpoint Charlie, whether you crossed it or saw in spy movies, it appeared everywhere.  Today in the reunified Berlin it is difficult to ponder what a political weight it had, the fear it caused at the time. We all had heard of those that had escaped from the east, those that had tried to escape but were stopped by the wire fences, tunnels or even in the metro crossings. However, there was nothing visibly frightening if the only thing you had to hide were some eastern marks bought in the black market.  Control was severe but courteous and as in almost all over the world, “good morning/evening”, “thank you” and “good bye” opened a lot of doors, even between the border officials of the two German states.

Of course if you were German it was a totally different kettle of fish and you had to go through a very heavy burocratic process, justify the need to cross, and the reasons had to be solid and valid – going to the theatre was not one of them, and the eternal fear of not being allowed in or worse still, not being allowed out.  I did not suffer that but know of people that did, had to abandon family, wife or husband, kids and all trying to get freedom and peace. I do not really know if they found peace but I do know they found relative calm that probably was worth it.

Life as a student in Berlin was very interesting for me. Besides being the first time I was I Europe on my own, in a place I did not know, different traditions and also surrounded by foreigners, each one with its idiosyncrasy and styles that required for me to adapt to them, without loosing my own.  I lived in a student’s dorm that belonged to the University and during the summer was rented to foreigners wanting to learn the language of Goethe, although there were some regular students that could not go back to their places during the summer. While I was there, there was a rather big group of Iranian students with whom I became friend, the communication language was German or Farsi, which of course was not and still is not part of my linguistic acumen. Most of them were there with scholarships and studied engineering or related matters and one had his wife with him but the others were young, single and most were super gorgeous!  There were two of them that were particularly nice and pleasant to me, somehow taking me under their wings. Whenever they cooked some special Iranian goodies I was invited to partake and I even learned to cook some of their dishes, delicious and full of spices new to me.  In the outings I was also part of the group. Besides other advantages, as communication was in German, it also helped me to improve my knowledge of that language, maybe not a lot, but some.  With two of these friends, one called Hushan, I had my first experience in porno films, as I have never willingly gone again to see another porno film.

One evening they said, “let’s go to the movies” and there we went. In the cinema I sat between them, I guess their way of protecting me or at least keeping me close by but when the film started I wanted to get not between them but under the seat or disappear or the like. I vaguely remember the content and I believe today it would be considered as soft porno but for me at that time was as hard as they come.  When we left the movie theatre I believe I was deep red but they did not make any comment, we returned home to a delicious Iranian meal. They continued being my friends for several years, until there was a strong regime change in their country, strong xenophobia developed and almost everything foreign was considered to have been touched by the devil. I decided to cut communication, as it might be bad for them, one never knows. Fortunately before this political upheaval in their country I had the great opportunity of visiting the land of Alexander the Great and of Hushan the gorgeous (to me at least), but I guess that can be other chapter.

Back to Berlin, I crossed from West to East and return but never really saw the wall with modern graffiti, people close by, unless armed to their teeth and with very aggressive dogs in tow. I was never scared but it was never an invitation to get closer.  One had to keep a distance from a regime that had without any second thought separated a country, caused so many losses, sorrow and sadness. Now that the separation has disappeared and Berlin is a single entity, life there must be very different, visually also is so, although I have been there only once after the fall of the wall, but my reference points are lost in memory lane and in the reconstruction.

A very interesting experience was leaving Berlin by train, after my stay of three months. All trains for western Germany left in the evening and once they started rolling they were locked and sealed, no way to get on or off, of course they did not stop in the eastern territory and at night it was difficult to see the countryside of that eastern part that could not be visited without a very valid reason, which I never had. After reunification I had the chance of visiting Dresden, Potsdam and other cities and drive through the countryside, see the old and the renovated, but for that you can see all the tourist brochures on Germany.  My Berlin is filed in my memory, mostly pleasant memories, of friends that helped me to grow and other that crossed paths without any specific reason, but it was a great learning experience.