Berlin Wall, Johnny Walker, Levi Straus and Rock and Roll

The fall of the Berlin Wall was caused more by western culture than political rhetoric

In the summer of 1970, I was working for a construction company in Munich, West Germany. The Summer Olympics were being held there in 1972, and, the city and the country was eager to put on a show for the rest of the world. TV and satellite technology was making it possible for the whole planet to watch the games live. New buildings were going up and old buildings were being dressed up, if you didn’t mind getting your hands dirty, there was plenty of work.

Munich’s Olympic Stadium

I was washing brick dust out of my mouth with German beer in my favorite bar. I found myself sharing a table with two English guys. They were full time travelers and as the evening progressed, I found out they were smugglers too.

Gaz and Nines (the English do pick weird nicknames for each other) had forged papers saying they were students of Architectural Engineering at Cambridge University, they had fancy architectural cameras and would go countries in the Eastern Bloc taking pictures of old buildings, get talking to the locals, who were fascinated to meet them and wanted an opportunity to practice their English. Often they would be invited back to peoples homes to eat. Then the question would be asked “would anyone be interested in buying a bit of western culture.”

They traveled in a VW Beetle, their personal belongings were in a Tote bag but two large suitcases contained the riches of the West. Levi 501s, LPs by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and the Doors and half bottles of Scotch Whisky as well as Packs of American cigarettes. The liked payment in western currency, Deutchmarks, Swiss or French Francs, British Pounds or US Dollars, they would take local currency if they had to, but then charged more, because it was pretty useless outside of the country of origin.

Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and Poland was their chosen markets. They knew people who had made the “Moscow Run” and made good money, but it was dangerous. The Czechs, Hungarians and Poles generally did not care for their Soviet overlords and were more likely to defy the authorities when it came to buying black market goods. “It’s our ambition,” Gaz said “to see every young Czech and Pole wearing jeans, humming a Bob Dylan tune, and toasting the downfall of the Soviets with Johnny Walker Black Label.” They thought what they were doing wasn’t criminal, but “doing their bit” for the freedom of eastern Europeans. I think they were right. They couldn’t possibly have gotten rich smuggling, it just paid their travel expenses. After that one boozy evening, I never saw them again.

John F. Kennedy went to Berlin in the early 60s and proclaimed “I am a Berliner” and when the Wall did fall, western politicians, mainly their biographers, were standing in line to take credit. Margaret Thatcher and particularly Ronald Reagan were being portrayed the great destroyers of the Soviet Empire. You had to know a little about history to realize this wasn’t true, Imre Nagy and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Alexander Dubček and the Prague Spring attempt at liberalization in 1968 and the most famous electrician in the world Lech Wałęsa and his Polish Solidarity Movement, deserve 100 times the credit for standing up to and defying the Soviet machine. Then, the heavy hitter, Mikhail Gorbachev, who took on the hardliners on from within, with the introduction of Perestroika and Glasnost.

Not forgetting the courage of the ordinary citizens of the Eastern Bloc who stood up to authority, wearing their smuggled Levis and singing “Blowing In The Wind.”

The Berlin Wall

By the same author THE WHITE CLIFFS OF DOVER HERE

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