From the S&S archives:
Americans join East Germans in jubilation

BERLIN — Americans such as Tech. Sgt. Tony Johnson gathered at Checkpoint Charlie on Friday to see the famed roadway between West Berlin and East Berlin turn into a freeway.

"The East German government has given an early Christmas present to the world," the supply specialist at Tempelhof Central Airport said.

The government, with its decision to open the country's borders Thursday, also gave the city reason to throw the world's largest family reunion, and the celebration filled the city with cheers, tears and champagne.

"Last night, the German people were the happiest people in the world," a headline in an extra edition of the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper proclaimed.

As thousands of jubilant West Berliners thronged to the city's sector crossing points to shout and clap their approval, East Germans driving boxy, smoke-spewing Trabant and Wartburg cars flowed across the border and brought traffic to a s top for miles in several directions.

At Checkpoint Charlie, many Americans found themselves caught up in the celebrating.

Cathy Brady, whose husband is a soldier in Berlin, described the opening of the border as great. "The next step is the wall, and I hope it happens while we're here," Brady said.

Thirteen-year-old James Winn, son of 1st Sgt. Larry Winn of Berlin, also was joyous over the changes.

"I'm glad I was here to be part of it," the younger Winn said. "It means the world is finally coming together."

In West Berlin, people climbed scaffolds, signposts and window ledges to take photographs and see the long line of cars backed up on the east side of the checkpoint. East Germans coming into the city toward the end of the day said officials were letting them through without passports or visas.

The tide of westbound Easterners matched an undertow of Westerners who flocked to the Brandenburg gate, where thousands of people climbed the Berlin Wall and stood on top of it, celebrating throughout Thursday night and all day Friday.

East German security officials flanked the wall from the east side to prevent Westerners from coming East. Those who did jump into East Berlin were helped up by guards, who resembled American police protecting a baseball field in the last inning of the World Series.

Most pedestrians seemed to be east Berliners dumbfounded by their first sortie to the West. In some cases, it was even a second trip.

"We tested it last night," said a woman in a subway car, riding with her husband and two children to visit relatives in Wedding. "They're going to be surprised to see us standing at their door."

Gizela Laudahn, 45, said she planned to return home Friday night, then come back Saturday with her 14-year-old daughter.

Her husband, Gunther Laudahn, 46, said the visit was his first since Aug. 13, 1961 — the day construction of the wall started. He and several friends went back to the east that day even though soldiers and workers had strung the barbed wire that the wall eventually replaced.

"We all figured it wouldn't stay up long," Laudahn said. "But it's lasted years."

Eastbound east German cars also turned the checkpoints to choke points, as short-term visitors headed home.

"Why don't you stay?" a woman asked a driver headed to East Berlin. He shrugged and answered, "No more money."