"Looking back, I struggle to remember whether they staged a big event by the Reichstag building on the day of German Reunification on 3 October 1990. Or whether people – who came to Berlin's historic centre by the thousands – had simply rerouted their afternoon stroll to the Unter den Linden promenade. Basking in Mediterranean-like late summer temperatures, they came wanting to pay homage to initial and tender patriotic feelings; or to tentatively check out their fellow countrymen with whom they now shared the same and united homeland. Spurred by the historical significance of the day, I made my way from the S-Bahn station at Unter den Linden in the late morning. I had my handy Canon A1 in my bag which had already served me well in the days around the fall of the Wall. Armed with a snap-ready camera, I marched amongst the masses as far as the opera, under the autumnal hues of the overlying lime canopy. I had no choice but to let my lens record the flashes of colour coming from all the black-red-gold flags. Finally, the platform of the Palast der Republik, with its west-facing facade now freed of its creator's portrait, offered an unrivalled panoramic view of the festive goings-on. The view stretched from the Palace Bridge with the white, iridescent Schinkel figures, across to the Zeughaus (old arsenal), Neue Wache (New Guard House) and Friedrich the Great's statue, and over to the Brandenburg Gate on the other side of the river. At the time it still stood in relative isolation with few neighbouring buildings. A string of history-charged monuments; a jarring black shape in the form of an over-sized Pepsi Cola bottle cheekily piercing their grandeur. Cleverly calculated state business acumen, in wisely premonition of future reunification costs? Or a deliberate attempt at impeding nationalistic ardour – was a bottle of American lemonade a symbol of an ideology-free era?"
Gottfried Schenk
