BERLIN — The East Germans prepared for President Carter’s visit to the divided city by painting both sides of the Berlin Wall about 2:30 a.m. Saturday.

During the night, Maoist signs and dissident slogans along a 300-yard section of the Wall were covered with whitewash.

This part of the Wall, near the Potsdamer Platz, divides the British sector of West Berlin from the East and would appear in photos of the president.

Carter arrived at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport about 2 p.m. Saturday and walked along a red carpet lined by a 21-person honor guard. Air Force men and women were selected from three Tempelhof units to stand in the honor guards.

Rosalynn Carter was given a spray of mixed flowers before the presidential party moved on to the Luftbrücken Memorial.

After a wreath-laying ceremony in honor of those who died in the 1948 Berlin Airlift, Carter chatted with two American pilots and two British navigators. The crowd of about 9,000 people included many soldiers and families who had been invited to the event.

Amy Carter’s hand was clasped by an old German woman in a motorized wheelchair. While Mrs. Carter watched, Amy was presented with a large honey-colored teddy bear by the woman.

Brisk winds and threatening skies prompted the president to say, in an undertone, "Let’s get out of here before it rains."

A few chuckles followed because the microphones had picked up his comment.

The motorcade route to the Wall was heavily guarded by German motorcycle police, affectionately dubbed "the white mice" (because of their white uniforms and enormous numbers).

At Potsdamer Platz, about a dozen policemen patrolled on horseback while a helicopter hovered overhead.

A special viewing stand had been constructed for the president near a long curve in the Wall. Two sets of binoculars were placed for Carter’s convenience, and an illustrated map of East Berlin was used to brief him.

Carter later revealed his thoughts to Berliners at a town meeting.

"I stood there, looking silently at the wall," the president said, "and ... it reflects a wasteland of the human spirit."

He also said the Wall emphasizes "the distances between those who believe in individual human rights and those who do not."

As Carter stood on the newly built platform at the Wall, extra East German guards and photographers were visible in a nearby guard tower and in several windows. Other buildings were empty shells, with only a red or brown facade facing the West. Obstacle courses and a dog run were directly over the Wall and stretching toward the Brandenburg Gate.

Carter arrived at the Wall in an open car, and a cheer went up from people gathered along the sidewalk waving flags.

Many pointed questions about the Wall were asked of Carter at the town meeting. Most dealt with what could be done to get it down, or if the U.S. would get involved in leading reunification of the two Germanies. Carter pledged that, "whatever happens, Berlin will remain free."

An elderly pensioner from East Germany who was in the audience asked Carter: "When do you come and visit us? Many of my friends will heartily welcome you there."

Carter had some easy questions that brought laughter. A little girl asked if Amy Carter studied German. The president said that she had learned a few words, and that it would be her next language, "after English and Spanish."

Amy was often the subject. A student asked, "How much spending money per week does your daughter get?"

The president deadpanned, "Zero," but later added, "That gives me an idea that I might bring up with Congress."

As the president stood before a stage backdrop of an enlarged photograph of downtown Berlin, people rose from the audience to voice their questions. All were asked in German, but a simultaneous translation system of intercoms provided German and English feedback.