Cricketer8for9
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- Joined
- 11 Jan 2015
- Messages
- 686
It was quite possible. My father worked for the British Military Government and day trips were allowed (my parents went to the Opera at least once and we had a general trip together once). There were also organised group trips. No compulsory money changing as, at least for the diplomats and the military this was travel to one of the other occupied sectors of Berlin as opposed to travel to East Germany.This recalls to me -- a bit "tangentially" -- a chap with whom I worked 25 -- 30 years ago. He had, previously, been in the British Army, and had spent time in the Berlin garrison: if I have things rightly, he was talking about the early / mid-1980s. He had a mild interest in railways; knowing my enthusiasm for them, he mentioned that at that time, it was possible for British armed forces personnel to take an -- officially arranged and approved, and strictly supervised -- "quasi-tourist" day trip into East Berlin. He told of his taking the opportunity to do this, and of being interested to observe active DR steam at, I think, Berlin Ostbahnhof.
This bod was a bit inclined to tell not-very-likely-sounding tales of alleged past doings and experiences of his. Pretty well everything I had heard about the way things were in divided Berlin, caused me then to suspect that the above was an instance of this. However; I do get an inkling that over the decades, everyday doings re the "oppositional" sectors of the city became a bit more relaxed, in some ways -- feel that just possibly, this thing about "British Army day-trips" might be true, however improbable-seeming. Would be interested in thoughts from folk knowledgeable about such matters.
I think the worries were less about the East Germans and Russians letting your mate in, more about being certain he wasn’t about to defect to the Eastern Bloc. Of course getting back would be more difficult. Travel was always, to my knowledge, through Checkpoint Charlie and so by car, or possibly by foot. We were firmly told not to use the U Bahn which went through East Berlin (one line without stopping, one line stopping at Friedrichstrasse).
The inconvenience level was high, so I don’t recall it being done much, but an inveterate steam fan might have done more that I or my parents did (they preferred the Deutsches Oper) about 15 mins by car from home.