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Berlin Brats
"We spent our entire childhoods in the service of our country, and no one even knew we were there." - Pat Conroy
31 July 2006
BERLINer Zeitung - Anne Vorbringer

Homecoming of the BERLIN Brats
300 former pupils of the BERLIN American High School come to reunion

There's happy commotion around the Airlift memorial on the square in front of the Allied Museum - as is frequently the case when former classmates meet up again after many years. But the reunion of 300 former BAHS students is anything but commonplace. It is the first get-together in BERLIN since school days. For many it means returning to a city they haven't seen for over 30 years - the city that was home for a few years when their fathers in the U.S. military were stationed here as allies in the American Sector.

They used to call themselves 'BERLIN Brats'. Their teenage days are long gone, many have adult children themselves. But meeting old classmates has brought back their own childhoods. The stories they tell are permeated by images of BERLIN and the Germans. Everyone has personal memories of those days.

Bill Planz, 53, recalls the girl he danced with at the Prom, his wife for the past 31 years. Bill, who now lives near Frankfurt and speaks perfect German, twice attended BAHS: in the mid 60's and again at the beginning of the 70's. '"My parents often visited East BERLIN, but I wasn't into that scene"'. He preferred to ride the West BERLIN S-Bahn. '"That was actually forbidden, because we could have travelled to the East"'. The offspring of U.S. Army soldiers were 'under observation', Planz remembers. '"When I came home at night, my father could often tell me where I had been"'.

Patricia Maryland has not been in BERLIN for 35 years. She now finds it exciting that BERLINers live without the wall. What she remembers best from her years in BERLIN (1968-1971) is the open-mindedness in the divided city. '"There was a border. But I never encountered racism or discrimination because of my skin color"', said the 53-year old. They had wonderful neighbors in Steglitz, who were supportive of her parents and their eight children. Today, Maryland is president of a hospital in Indianapolis. She studied at elite American universities, but '"in BERLIN I received a good, solid educational basis"'.

The self-proclaimed and still today acknowledge 'class clown' is Lee Angel. Just recently he tried German beer, whereas he discovered his liking for BERLIN 'currywurst' early on when his British father brought him to BERLIN (1955-1964). His dad wasn't with the military; instead he worked for an export company dealing with printing machinery. That is why 61-year old Angel was better acquainted with BERLIN than most of the military kids at BAHS, who shopped in the P.X. and visited the American cinema. '"Every Wednesday I shopped in a German grocery store near our home in Fohlenweg"' Angel relates, who like his dad before him, sells printing equipment. He still has lots of BERLIN friends with whom he maintains contact from California. He has really missed 'currywurst', since his last visit to BERLIN was in 1978. But he is catching up - '"In the last four days, I have eaten three Currywurst"' said Angel.

American Curriculum
Since 1946, children of American soldiers were taught at the BERLIN American High School (BAHS). Thousands of pupils passed through BAHS until the Allies departed in summer 1994. Around 3000 American students graduated from BAHS.

BAHS was as normal a high school as in Chicago or New Orleans, except that it was in divided BERLIN. The American curriculum ensured consistent teaching when parents were transferred to other bases, wherever.

To mark the reunion, the Allied Museum is showing a special exhibition of memorabilia from students and teachers. Photos, clothes and documents afford a view of life in the 'Outposts of Freedom'. The exhibit is designed like a class room, with paraphernalia on the walls and on desks.

Translation - Laura (Newby) Siklossy '67