Our West Berlin! The beloved urban island where bars and pubs were open all night so the locals
could plot the revolution! Where beer was cheap and sausage on a roll was considered dinner.
Where the tenements still bore bullet holes from World War II and the draft did not exist.
Where the city government regularly stumbled over some real estate scandal and where the
Communist-controlled S-Bahn train did not run (mostly). Where old-timers Turkish immigrants
and students from West Germany lived side by side without much talking to each other where
winter smelled like coal and summer smelled like weed. This book is devoted to this half-city
surrounded by the Wall which ceased to exist in 1989. Two dozen authors who are or were
living in Berlin have contributed stories from JFK touring Checkpoint Charlie to squatters at
the Wall. It is a book for those who remember and for those who wish they did.
