Famous American Author of Historical and Contemporary romance, Caroline Linden, visited West Germany recently after so many years. She compared her last trip of 1989 to Berlin, West Germany, with her recent 2023 trip and remarked many incredible things from it.
As per the Update, American-based author Historical and Contemporary romance Caroline Linden visited Berlin in 1989 on a study trip to Germany
she also spent a few days in West Berlin and shared the experience of one remarkable day in East Berlin.
While sharing her experience from the 1989 Trip to Germany, she shared that she remembered the East Berlin day much more than anything from West Berlin as it was so entirely UNLIKE everything she knew.
“West Berlin was a big city, modern and busy; it was cool but felt familiar. Not so in the Eastern part of the city. You’ll notice something about the East Berlin photos: there are armed guards in most of them. And those guards were mainly just a few years older than we were.” she continued.
Author Caroline Linden also shared about this year’s trip to Berlin and wondered how much would look recognizable. She added, “We walked past this building on Under Den Linden a few times, and finally, I said I wanted to go in and see. “What is it?” my husband asked; I had no idea, but it was familiar.
The Neue Wache (New Guardhouse) was built for a Prussian king in the early 1800s.”
Further, Author Caroline shared that she went there in 1989. It looks like she saw the changing of the guard and the eternal flame. The East German government called it a memorial to the victims of Fascism. Today it’s a memorial to the victims of war and tyranny, a quiet, reflective room with a replica of Käthe Kollwitz’s Mother with Her Dead Son.
On both my visits, it was moving and sobering.
In 1989, because the armed guards gave us the stone-cold-killer eye (No, really–we thought they were just looking for an excuse to shoot us), She shared that we American teenagers thought it was hypocritical for the East Germans to act pious. In 2023, it felt reclaimed but even sadder because of the suffering that the building embodied.
