get a sense of what it might have been like is still quite special. by 1989, the berlin wall had forcibly divided the city for 28 years, with the communists controlling the eastern part of the city, while the capitalist west controlled the west of berlin. travel between the two was strictly controlled, and in most cases forbidden. but i'm heading down into the u—bahn, berlin's underground rail network, which i can access with the deutschlandticket. 0k, u8 this way. now, alexanderplatz was in the east, so anybody getting on the u—bahn, three stops in that direction, had to wait on board while they got safely four stops down that way.