Berlin Wall beginnings

Dr. Jean Godsall-Myers, one of the directors of the ELCA Wittenberg Center, recounts how suddenly the Berlin Wall appeared in 1961 -- cutting off people from their work and separating families for 28 years.

She is standing in front of the longest remaining stretch of the wall, called the East Side Gallery. We stopped there during a short bus tour of Berlin after the opening session.

A few people in the group commented on how effectively the city has erased most traces of the wall. In 17 years, two completely separate cities -- with separate bus & train lines, separate infrastructures and separate architectural identities -- have become integrated.

The physical barrier have been removed from the city, but divides remain. According to our guide Christian Eggert, 59 percent of West Germans have never visited the former East -- not once. And of all the weddings in Germany, only 1 percent are East-West marriages.