My father and the family were stationed in Germanyicon from 1959 to 1964. I still remember large sections of Mannheim was still bombed out. We visited Berlin after the wall went up and looking into East Berlin on the horizon in the East large sways of areas were still bombed out. A large number of the bombed out buildings close to the West Berlin side of the Wall had false fronts to make them looked rebuilt. The best contrast between West and East Berlin was at night. The West Berlin radio tower you can look out and make out the West side with its neon, flashing multicolored lights and the East with its monotone reddish street lights.

--fjruple