25 years ago I painted my name on the Berlin Wall (Germany) with the brightest orange-yellow paint I could buy. (Yes, I was a vandal!)
I went on the last night I was scheduled to be in Berlin at the end of several weeks in Germany. I concluded that if I got caught, the worst thing they would do would be to "kick me out of the country" - and in that case, I'd be going home anyway.
I went alone, so that I would not get anyone else from the High-School group in trouble.
I purchased the paint at the Kaufhaus Des Westens.
When I painted it - I had to jump a small barrier (on the West Side - not East!) between patrols of Jeeps - and paint quickly.
Of course, it wasn't high level security - based on the fact that the wall was well painted! Still, though, I had to do it between jeep patrols, not knowing if I'd be in trouble as an American teenager at the time! This was done nearly directly behind the Reichstag building - an important historic building that I chose intentionally so I would remember where I did this.
When I was done, I realized I had forgotten my camera! So, "my mark" on this historic wall - that would be torn down the next year - was lost to to me except in my mind.
Unbeknown to me - another Marty took a picture with my name before East
Germany opened up and the wall was dismantled, that same summer.In the curious connectedness of the internet, in 2009, a friend of that other Marty googled my name . . . and sent me this picture - that the other Marty took in 1988!
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