1. Three Pairs of Shoes
Travel writing piece by Sabrina Michael
Three pairs of American shoes standing in a row; Adida’s, Nike’s, and Converse.
Shoes which only twenty-five years ago would have caused the feet filling them to be
incarcerated for rebellion against the Communist regime. Even the presentation the
Wille’s family had for our group, the one I am about to disclose, would have caused them
to be arrested.
Twenty years after World War II a seemingly united Germany was divided
abruptly on August 13, 1961 as a wall was erected overnight in Berlin dividing families,
friends, and lovers. 7.7 yards apart stood two concrete walls, on one side East Berlin on
the other West Berlin, yet between those barriers lay what was called the “death strip”; a
barren wasteland filled with chicken wire, car blockades, mine fields, and smoothed sand.
This sand was smoothed daily so that if someone tried to cross the strip and bypassed all
the other alarms the guards in the roaming security cars could see their footprints. Guard
towers were erected every few miles and men with armed machine guns were prepared to
shoot down any East Berliner who dared escape. One hundred and sixty people lost their
lives this way. The fortunate few who did escape ingeniously found obscure ways; some
would dig underground while others would jump from the windows of buildings that
were divided by Berlin Wall.
Why take the risk?
In the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) everyone was told to believe
the same thing and to do what the government ordered them to do. You went outside of
those lines and you were punished by any means possible including mental torture,
physical abuse, threats towards your family, threats to your children’s education, etc.
Everything you said and did was monitored. Family members would be told to spy on
other family members and report any suspicious behavior or seditious talk against the
government. Parents were even monitored through their children. Both East and West
Germany had a television show called “The Sandman” however in West Germany the
sandman left by a cloud and in East Germany he left by a bike. When the child would
come to school in the east the teacher might ask them how the sandman had left and if the
child responded by saying “a cloud” the government would be informed the family was
watching West T.V. and whatever punishment they deemed necessary would follow.
How was a young child of five supposed to know how to keep their mouth shut? How did
they know that with one answer they could sentence their family to prison?
At eighteen years of age each citizen of East Germany was required to join the
Communist Party and the only “acceptable” reason to deny was for religious purposes.
When that decision was made (to not join the party) any chance they had to receive a
higher education became increasingly more difficult. The government had that much
control.
Traveling inside of East Germany required permits. If your family lived on the
East side of the border, remotely close to the wall, the likely hood of being able to visit
them was slim to none. However people began to not want to visit family. There were no
zones of safety or comfort because the government always had ways of keeping tabs,

2. mostly through family members. When the wall came down the files the government had
on each individual were released. Many familial relationships were destroyed after
reading things like “Jane Grey’s mother reported on the third of October that her daughter
wished for the independence that was in the West”. Everything was monitored.
While walking around the city the buildings from that era echoed the rigidity of the GDR,
the desire for uniformity and equality, the blandness of life. Just being in the midst of the
canyon of the towering edifices oppressively weighed on my heart and this place has
been vastly improved since the wall was torn down. If I was feeling trapped imagine what
it must have been like for those living during that time. Imagine it, waking up one
morning to see a wall in the middle of your beloved city, a wall only a few feet taller than
you separating the family that yesterday you could visit by simply walking across the
street, a wall symbolizing the freedom you do not have.
This presentation was one of the very first experiences I had on my tour of
Germany and it was a tragically beautiful way to help me fall into the history that had so
recently passed here. I was able to understand the fear that must have been in the hearts
of the East Germans but also relish in the beauty of a Berlin reconstructed from ruin. The
art and culture, the need for individuality, the solidarity between people, and the
appreciation every person had for the former things mentioned would not be thriving if it
weren’t for the effects of the Berlin Wall. I even appreciate the freedom we have in
America much more after hearing these eyewitnesses and seeing the archaeology. The
cliché statement “you do not know someone until you walk a mile in their shoes”
becomes more and more poignant as I continue this semester abroad. In three hours I
walked twenty-five years in the shoes of the Wille’s. That night helped me, in the
subsequent days, to understand the footsteps of those who walked the same streets I was
going to walk. Knowing the history of the place radically changes the way you view it
and the world. Take advantage of the past lying in the hearts and eyes of the people
around you.