by Debby Pattiz

A clue from an earlier me! Why do I have photos of soldiers marching in East Berlin? I think I snapped these because my twenty-year-old self was ridiculously enamored by East German military trench coats. But now I’m curious about the parade…was it on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day? I just can’t remember.

The photos are on old-fashioned film, so no timestamp. I checked in with Torsten on Radio GDR, who explained that the “Grosser Wachaufzug” (changing of the guard ceremony for the East Berlin memorial honoring “victims of fascism and militarism”— see Wikipedia) took place weekly, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. But January 1, 1990 was a Monday—so not a New Year’s Day parade. Then why was I in East Berlin?

Torsten also noted that the soldier in the far right corner of the second photograph has a scruffy moustache. An important clue! East German soldiers were not permitted to grow facial hair until after January 1, 1990. So, I must’ve taken the photo on Saturday, January 6, 1990 when I returned to Berlin to catch the train back to Portugal. Amazing, the details we can learn about the past when we piece together clues our previous selves left behind…