rs waited up to ten years to getcrowded Berlin streets. These cars were made of fibers, when the masses left after the wall collapsed the streets were flooded with abandoned Trabis. The governmentbegan to burn these. Or sell them cheaply. When I was stationed in Germany Ibought one of these for fifty dollars. It had a two stroke engine in which I had tomix my gas with oil, like a chain-saw. The car ran good, and was a parking dream. It could only reach seventy-five Kilometers an hour, which was slow on theAutobahn, but it got me around without having to rely on the public transportationsystem, that I had trouble understanding. THE U-BAHN AND GERMAN SOCIETY SINCE THE FALLWhen I took a ride on the Berlin U-Bahn I was shocked when I entered theEastern side and saw that there stations were not like the streets. These stationswere decorated lavishly, they made the stations in the Western side look bad. In theMohrenstrasse station I observed lavish red marble pillars and walls. I found myselfwondering how a devastated economy could afford such extravagances. Thesewere the most lavish sub-way stations I had ever seen. Where did these elaboratedecorations come from?they didnt pay for the marble they looted it from Hitlers demolishedchancellery, just across the road. Everything else of expense in East Berlin in these first few years was from Hitler,(7).These stations were newly opened, even in 1990 on the walls they had posters fromthe late 1950s. The posters I observed were of Berlin decadence, they were of theBerlin city opera, and cultural events that during the wall era people in East Berlinnever had a chance to experience. The entire generation never knew of the citiesonce greatness. Berlin when the wall was built did have an underground railway system. therailway system was begun to be built in 1896, These lines before the wall. did goto East and West Berlin freely. After the wall they only had to split one line an...
