I certainly spent a lot of time on a train crossing the border at night in summer 1988. Exit checks by US military as well as checks entering east Germany. Not sure we were late tho. Don’t recall any kind of bag searches however.
My only experience (February 1989) was perfectly on time on the way into Berlin. Tge return a week later was 78 late leaving Zoo (announced as awaiting connections from Warsaw), of which it had clawed back all but 15 on arrival in Frankfurt (Main of course). A bit of attention from the border guards en route - they were a bit suspicious because the main lights in our compartment weren’t working and assumed the group of 6 twenty-somethings were responsible (we weren’t!)
I had a similar experience arriving at Warnemunde off the train ferry from Gedser. Just two coaches on the ferry and just me and an elderly couple entering the DDR. In my compartment they unscrewed the ceiling panels and checked inside with torches, not sure if they were looking for contraband or stowaways (not sure why anyone would want to enter the DDR illicitly) but in fairness they did put it all back together again.
Apart from the change to the 'West Berlin' S-bahn line, Friedrichstrasse was a recognised crossing point between East and West. The U-Bahn station also had a duty-free shop on the platform - part of the DDR's quest for hard currency!
Berlin Zoo was an interesting station - if I remember correctly the main line part of the station was DR, but the station buffet was DSG (the West German railway catering company, not the East German Mitropa). By the time I got there, the West Berlin part of the S-Bahn had been taken over by BVG (it had been DR), who ran that half of Berlin Zoo.
). It also shows customs officials boarding the train, checking in the ceiling etc, but some of the checks seem to be done with the train moving? Was this often the case or does the film show a more efficient version of events than reality?
I recall discussing ticket matters at Zoo with English speaking DB staff at a ticket office Am I totally mid remembering that? It’s possible that I am.
I never visited Berlin during The Wall era, but I'm always intrigued by descriptions of the Kafkaesque arrangements around the Checkpoints and associated railway stations and train services.
Look in spy novels of the period. Len Deightons Samson trilogies have some good stuff. Faith, Hope and Charity, Game Set and Match, Hook Line and Sinker. Good stories too.
Yes it was indeed a recognised crossing point but what I couldn't understand was why so many people were leaving the train at around 8-8.30pm - it was surely too late for a day visit and no way could it have been East Berliners returning home so unless it was very late day visitors from the West I presume it was people changing from the U- to the S-Bahn.
I visited West Berlin some 40 years ago with my wife who is German and we crossed into East Germany at Potsdam for a family christening as the East German members could not travel to the West.
More likely Checkpoint Bravo at Dreilinden. The old Allied Control Building is now a DB Schenker office.
I visited the DDR twice, in 1973 and 1985. I nearly got arrested in 1985 for taking this photo of 2-10-0 50.3626 at Altengrabow near Magdeburg. It seemed to be in the middle of a Soviet base as you can see by the officer and his family next to the loco.I "collected" all the frontier crossings between the 1960s and 1980s, including the very rare (by the 1980s) Drewitz crossing into Berlin. Remember there were two different régimes, the Berlin corridor trains and the inter-zonal trains. The former had quite brief stops and formalities were carried out in the trains, the latter stopped at the DDR frontier station for some 45-60 minutes for the really thorough examinations. Loco working was balanced, with DR working over some of the frontiers and DB over some (with DR, for example, working into Lübeck Hbf). The formalities on the frontiers with the west weren't actually much longer than those with the "friendly" neighbours, if I recall correctly.
The DB-DR merger wouldn't occur until 1994.
As @StephenHunter said the DB-DR merger wouldn't occur until 1994 but DR did still have standard gauge steam locos in capital stock at the beginning of 1990. Some of them were 'Museumsloks' but there was also still many of the 200 post-war rebuilt class 52s known as 'Rekolok BR 52.80' in existence although unlikely to be in normal service. When the DR loco fleet was renumbered on 1/1/1992 to fit in with the DB system I recall reading at the time in the magazine 'Lok Report' that the surviving 52.80s were given the numbers 052.xxx but it was expected to be only a 'paper exercise' and it was unlikely that they would receive new metal number plates. However I've just done a search and I discovered that at least one loco, 52.8134, did actually receive new plates as 052.134-4 and there's a rare photo at the following link:
We did a Railway Study Association trip to Berlin in 1990 , and had some priviliged access to places and staff. Went to Schonefeld Airport one aftrnoon and we me the Station Manager (DR) who via a translator told us of his role in managing the very many specials that ran immediately after the wall was opened , not just on the S-Bahn but coming through from elsewhere. (they thought it might have been a "one off"), which it was not. He of course was on duty for some very long hours , taking little rest. Only way he could get his wife and children up to West Berlin was to arrange for them to have a cab ride , easily arranged for someone of his rank. In passing he in DDR days had two reporting lines - one to the DR , and one to the Russian Officer in charge of the airport.
A quirk of Cold War era Berlin was that the Western (UK, US and French) Allied Occupation forces had rights into the Soviet Zone (East Berlin): any issues required a Soviet officer to resolve - DDR officials had no authority in this situation.
There were a whole range of quirks like this, it was what allowed UK/US/FR citizens to enter just by applying at the crossing point in Friedrichstrasse station, to go round East Berlin, though strictly not beyond, As the suburbs, and the S-Bahn, had spilled over the completely unmarked border you had to be alert to this. There were completely separate and much more restrictive arrangements for West German Citizens. Soviet military were also allowed reciprocal access into West Berlin, though of course few were permitted by their own authorities, and any that came had A Purpose ...
