Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-07-26
BY JAY CARMODY
Drama Editor of The STAR


Drama Editor Of The STAR
Passing through the Bran
denburg Gate from West
Berlin to the east, or Rus
sian, sector Of the city re-
mains a vivid experience.
The gate, a series of tall
stone columns from which
the marks Of time and war
are now being effaced by
agreement among the occu-
plying powers, is a kind of
needle's-eye crossing from
one world into another. These
worlds, political in shape,
touch all the way around the
globe. But it is at this pin
point passage that one feels
their differences most in
tensely.
Yet there is no barrier to
passage through this eerie
symbol of a divided world.
This correspondent went
through it in a State Depart
ment car, license plate 1l3.
with a uniformed German
driver, with no more than
casual glances from the
Russian officers and soldiers
on routine duty there. There
was no intimation of the
need for passport or any
other identification. Nor was
there the slightest interest in
the two cameras that were
made quite visible should the
Russians care to raise a
question about them.
This attitude of the Rus
slams suggests neither hospi-
tally nor hostility, merely
indifference - an impression
perhaps existing more in the
mind of the beholder than
in the manner of Russia's
guardians of the Brandenburg
Gate.
What lies beyond the gate,
all visitors are assured. is
"indescribable." This is an
extravagant word and a dis
printing one to a writer. Usu-
ally and fortunately. how
ever. it is untrue.
East Berlin inevitably re-
sembles other and familiar
things. The first of these to
come to this visitors mind.
not illogically. is the sectors
resemblance to a movie set
that has been left to time,
the weather and the worms
long, long after the movie
has been made.
To Western eyes, it's DESC
lation is not that of war. The
deSolation of war is, more
conspicuously, on the other
side of the gate. in West
Berlin. East Berlin's is the
desolation of the spirit.
This correspondents unin-
hibited drive through the
area began in the network of
streets that leads past the
PotSdam station, the famed
Adlon hotel, the Hohenzollern
palaces and stables. the en-
bassies, and the opera. Pots
dam station was Berlin's
prime target area. 1t is still
pretty much of a ruin and the
skeletal buildings. including
the somber, eyeleSs remnants
of the Adlon, are reputedly
used as storage space.
The United States Mission
driver, a native Berliner.
knows his city thoroughly. He
traverses a route through its
eastern sector that he realizes
can speak eloquently for it
self. There is no need for
him to point out the obvious.
first emphasized in the al
most total absence of motor
traffic as compared to the
western sector. Missing here
are not merely cars and
trucks but also the inevitable
bicycle and motor bike which
swarm on the other side of
the gate.
East Berliners use mass
transportation-the buses. the
wan and worn trolley cars.
the old underground and the
new one. the latter two i'm
piled in the stations marked
with a capital ~"
The sectors streets are
dramatic for more reasons
than the absence of moving
vehicles, There is little pedes-
TRAN Movements shopper
here. a child there. This