From the S&S archives: Cheers for Kennedy spill over Wall

(See photos of JFK's Berlin visit here.)

BERLIN — The jubilant roar of West Berlin crowds welcoming President Kennedy rang over the Communist wall and brought happy smiles to thousands of East Berliners who turned out in defiance of the People's Police — the Vopos.

The Communist regime had taken good care that no one on the ground could actually see the President. A white lattice fence was put up overnight behind the Brandenburg Gate, and gigantic Communist banners were hung between the gate's columns.

At Checkpoint Charlie, East Berliners could not get nearer than 400 yards to the wall, and their view there was obstructed by the wall itself.

But they could see and hear the throngs of West Berliners cheering Mr. Kennedy, and they watched with unconcealed delight as confetti and ticker tape rained down on the President.

A crowd of more than 2,000 gathered near Checkpoint Charlie just before Mr. Kennedy arrived. The Vopos brought up reinforcements with orders to break up the crowd.

The police moved firmly but without brutality, gradually pushing the spectators farther and farther away from the corner of Schuetzenstrasse and Friedrichstrasse, a spot normally open to pedestrians.

When the President arrived, the West Berlin crowd roared "Kenne-dee, Ken-ne-dee."

A teen-age girl turned to a Vopo with an air of mock innocence and asked "What's going on over there?"

All the civilian bystanders broke into laughter, but not a smile crossed the Vopo's face.

"Move along," he shouted. "Is everyone deaf here today?"

The more the West Berlin crowd cheered, the happier were the faces of the crowd in the East.

A courageous few waved when they thought they were not being watched. In buildings overlooking Checkpoint Charlie from a distance, office girls crowded to the windows. Some people came out on balconies or rooftops, others watched prudently from behind drawn curtains.

An American staff car was parked round the corner, observing the crowd. Many East Berliners smiled and winked at the American soldiers.

An elderly couple stood arm-in-arm at the Schuetzenstrasse corner as long as the Vopos would let them. The woman had tears glistening in her eyes but she, too, broke into a smile when the roar of the crowd rang out from the distance.

Two university students stood their ground until a Vopo gently pushed them away from the corner. They raised their heads as if to listen across the wall, then strolled away with their hands in their pockets, whistling a cheerful tune.

A green-uniformed Vopo captain sneered at the crowd's amusement. "They are laughing for your benefit," he said to a Western newsman. "They are only an insignificant fraction. The overwhelming majority of our people are showing what they think of Kennedy's visit by doing their work as on any other day.

"When you go back to the West, don't forget to mention that the mob they hoped would turn up here today just didn't materialize."

An East Berliner who overheard this remark came edging up to the same newsman later and said in a low voice:

"You know where they all are, don't you? They're at home following Kennedy on their radios and television sets."

Another said: "Even if we can't see him, the cheers from over there have warmed our hearts."

At the Brandenburg Gate, the atmosphere was different. Here the West Berlin crowd was inaudible half a mile away, and the screened, barred and fortified gate effectively shut off East Berliners from the celebrations.

A few hundred. stood facing the gate at the time the President arrived on the other side.

One had a transistor radio turned on very low in his briefcase. The roar of the West Berlin crowd came out of the briefcase like a faint whisper,

"He's here, he's here," the man said to a friend, and the word of the President's arrival on the other side of the gate spread like wildfire among the frustrated spectators.

At this moment, the Vopos moved on the small crowd and said "Keep moving please, keep moving please."

At the last moment, East Berlin firemen wheeled up a huge placard which they hung on the western side of the gate for President Kennedy to see. In English and German it demanded recognition for the Communist regime and respect for the Yalta and Potsdam agreements.

At the corner of Unter den Linden, a group of workmen building the new East German Trade Ministry were among the few who actually could see the President. They gathered on the roof of the unfinished building and looked over the top of the gate.

But under the eye of hundreds of Vopos in the street below, none of them dared to wave.

Over toward the Adlon Hotel, some East Berliners discovered a gap in the fence through which they could see a small part of the press stand put up for Mr. Kennedy.

Quickly a group gathered and stared. One man shook his head and said to his neighbor: "That can't be West Berlin. That's not possible; they have the stand painted red."

"Don't be silly," the other replied. "Red is part of the American flag, isn't it?"

Then the Vopos came up and dispersed that little crowd, too.

A Vopo officer said the screening flags between the columns would soon come down. "They were only our reply to the provocative visit of the American President," he said.