Simple Inspiration (Erinnerungswald)
Just after Christmas in 1979, I moved to Germany to work as a Systems Engineer for an American computer company, in their Frankfurt office. It was West Germany at that time, and border tensions were often palpable enough that I chose not to travel anywhere in Eastern Europe. I didn’t even visit Berlin, despite opportunities for business travel there. Tempered by information I was exposed to while providing software and technical support to US State Department, US Military bases, and NATO, I was aware of the possibility of war with the Soviet Union, and even felt slightly uncomfortable when driving into a well-marked “bezirk zone” (the area immediately surrounding the East-West border during the Cold War). US Air Force jets often flew in formation over West German cities and countryside. US tanks traveled in long formations on the autobahns. After being in Germany for several weeks, I realized that we still actively occupied this country — more than 30 years after the end of World ...