Berlin is a Fortress - President Bush Visit to Germany
"Berlin is a Fortress" Stepping out the door of my hotel places you less than 100 yards away from where the Berlin Wall once stood. In fact, my hotel would have been in Communist East Berlin, but times have changed here in the new captial of Germany, and the Cold War along with the Berlin Wall are a distant memory... almost. You can't help but get an eerie feeling as you continue down Fredrichstrasse, the road that leads away from my hotel. There are no cars in sight. Stores are closed, restaurant patios usually filled and bustling with late-night diners now mysteriously silent. The Polizei (German Police) are everywhere. There are roughly 10,000 of them patrolling the streets of Berlin. Some German newspapers specualte that there have never been more police in this city at one time. They say that "Berlin is a Fortress".. almost a police state. Add another six hundred American security people, more than one thousand members of the press, and what you'v...
