I have spoken to a few folks about the Wall's old guards over the past couple weeks. Their familiarity with Berlin ranged from living in the city for 20-some-odd years to visiting for a week--but they all seemed to know their stuff. I mentioned to all of them that my goal was to sniff out at least one ex-guard (the more, the merrier!) and find out what his experience was immediately after the Wall came down. They liked the idea, but warned that execution would be difficult. Each of the three people stressed that Berlin was rife with tension over its past misdeeds. Coming as an outsider and trying to openly discuss autarkic fascism and communism and the Wall would be a mistake; Berliners are still in the midst of new beginnings. I got the sense that a lot of older Germans deal with crises of the conscience and have had to develop a sort of societal amnesia. "An old guard might feel like a pariah... they don't list themselves with 800-numbers in the phone book," said Sharon, who went through elementary school in West Berlin and Regensburg while her dad worked for the US military.
I got to thinking about ditching the 'what did the guards do afterwards?' idea. There is a solid chance I could go to Berlin and only find tight-lipped folks. Doing something on education or fashion would certainly be easier. But, alas, I'm stubborn.
So here is what I'm going to do: the Mauer Museum in Berlin dedicated to US Military Checkpoint Charlie from the Wall. In the museum's description is a little blurb about how escaped guards came to work for the museum in the '60s. I will find the Mauer Museum, talk to the curator/director/person-in-charge, and track down one of the escaped guards. I figure there has to be at least a list of phone numbers for former employees. Basically, I want to pull my best bounty hunter impression and chat with a few of the old guards.
Here's the museum's website, if you were curious: http://www.mauermuseum.de/english/frame-index-mauer.html
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