Now,  thanks to the Internet, we can put our stories and illustrations out for the convenience of all.  For my time reasons, this site is simply a scrapbook, constantly under revision.  For your time reasons, I have tried not to use fancy, time-consuming graphics.  If you find a dead-end/sackgasse link to one of my own pages, it is because it is not there.  If you find a dead-end link to someone else's site, please let me know.  If you find errors, please let me know.

This website is designed to offer a perspective on many aspects of the situation in Berlin during the time that I was stationed there in the United States Army's Berlin Brigade.  As you read these pages, consider what the alternatives might have been from 1969 had the agreements not been developed. In the section titled "Troubled Times" you will find information that discusses the beginning of terrorist activities that have threatened us from my time in Berlin to the present. Almost from their origins, there has been a link between the German story and the Middle East, as you can read in the following pages.

As it is intended for use by students, including those for whom English is a second language, the writing sometimes avoids (or explains) the use of military terms.  Veterans from Britain, France, Canada, Germany and the United States have written to let me know that they enjoyed visiting it, too.

Feel welcome to write.  If you write in German or French, please specify which language you wish for your reply.  There will be a time delay in those replies, unless you do not mind Moliere and Goethe rolling over in their graves.

                 - rwr -

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  I studied Russian at U.S. Grant High School and at Lewis & Clark College, both in Portland, graduating from college with a degree in History in 1968, intending to be a journalist.

Rather than waiting to be drafted during the Vietnam War, I followed family tradition and enlisted in the U.S. Army in September 1968.  (The family tradition:  one term in wartime, then back to civilian life.)  As a consequence of the Nixon administration's downsizing of ground forces in Vietnam, my class from the Personnel Management School was sent to Germany instead, the first such group in years, where my educational background resulted in me being diverted from personnel work and assigned to Berlin.  After leaving the Army in 1971, I mainly have worked in Transportation Planning positions, taking advantage of the learning opportunities experienced while in Europe.  At present, I work for the Regional Transportation District in Denver, Colorado. I am a member of the Berlin U.S. Military Veterans Association and of the International Intelligence History Association, and I encourage readers who are eligible for these organizations to join them.

SPECIAL THANKS: Many people outside of the U.S. Army contributed to the success of my time in Europe.  Among those who gave the most time in relation to their other responsibilities and whose names I know are (not listed in any order):  BVG operators and station personnel in Berlin (the transit system), KVG office staff in Kassel (the transit system), the staff of the British Military Train, the Delahaye family of Paris, the Otto Family of Ockenhausen,  Michèle M.-V. for a deeper understanding of the French, the feisty and friendly people of the Col du Somport -- on both sides of the frontier, brave students of the Free University in West Berlin who were willing to resist radical Leftist pressures and meet with me to talk politics and culture, the civilian staff of the U.S. Army's Rail Transportation Office, and all the English and European railroaders who answered my questions, even if I was ruining their languages in the process.

We now know from documents being unearthed that one of the fears of the Warsaw Pact leaders was of people like these -- willing to go against the pressures of time or politics -- to share their time and knowledge with an obscure American soldier on a human level. It may be difficult to imagine today, but information on this sort of openness was being gathered by East Bloc intelligence agencies in preparation for the round-up of civilians when they would "liberate" Berlin.

AND TO MY FAMILY:  This site is dedicated to my family, then and also later in my life.  They supported my decision to take leaves in the great places that were available to me in my Army assignments, rather than in making the lengthy trip to and from Oregon.  (I think that it was my father who coined the idea that being sent to Berlin was the Masters Degree that I would not be getting due to the draft.  I was away from home from January 1969 till September 1971 and missed many things.  At the most difficult moments, I always found myself thinking of the people back home first, and prayed not to disappoint them.
 

Index:

 Berlin stories / Geschichte

 Berlin photographs / Aufnahmen

 Berlin 1969 related web links

 Troubled Times / Unruhige Zeiten

And now the business part:  All contents of this website are copyrighted 2008 by Robert W. Rynerson, Denver, Colorado, except those items identified as having been provided by another person.  In print, contents may be quoted and photographs may be reproduced in unaltered form without direct permission for scholarly or review purposes, provided that credit is given.  This material may not be reproduced in other websites without written permission of the copyright holder.  If you wish to link your website to this one, please let me know, and I will consider adding a return link.  Enjoy this site, and I will add you to the list of people with whom I hope someday to share ein' kaennchen kaffee.  Misuse this work, and you'll be sentenced to wait for something to happen at the Glienicke' Bruecke at 0300 hours on a January night.