The time is the 1950s, the place is Berlin
Voices Under Berlin
 
I Still Have a Suitcase in Berlin

I still have a suitcase in Berlin

President Reagan's "Suitcase in Berlin"

When President Reagan made his "Tear Down this Wall" speech in 1987, he used a line from a classic German song from the 1950s with music by Ralph Maria Siegel and lyrics by Aldo von Pinelli, perhaps best remembered in the version sung by Marlene Dietrich. Reagan said: "Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin" (I still have a suitcase in Berlin). Reagan was trying to create a memorable tag line that would compete with Kennedy's "Ich Bin ein Berliner" (I am a Berliner), but it didn't make an impression on most Americans, because they don't know the song.

The song "Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin" (I still have a suitcase in Berlin) is to Berlin what Tony Bennett's "I Left my Heart in San Francisco" is to San Francisco.

According to the song, the suitcase is full of the joys of days gone by in Berlin, which is why the singer has to go back to Berlin to look at those memories.

Move your mouse over the suitcase above to see what many veterans of the Army Security Agency (USASA) Field Station Berlin keep in their suitcases in Berlin.

USASA Field Station Berlin veteran T.H.E. Hill has committed some of his memories to writting. His three Berlin novels record a unique sense of Berlin as seen by American soldiers serving in the Outpost of Freedom during the Cold War.

Voices Under Berlin: The Tale of a Monterey Mary -- Cover  The Day Before the Berlin Wall -- Cover  Reunification: A Monterey Mary Returns to Berlin -- Cover

while you are here, please take some time to learn more about both these unique "Berlin" novels.

Each of these novels has a non-fiction companion that describes life in the American Community in Berlin during the time period covered by the novel:

Berlin in early Cold War Booklets  Berlin in Early Berlin-Wall Era CIA, State Department, and Army Booklets  Berlin in early Cold War Army Booklets

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