My first time traveling in Germany after reunification

When I visited Berlin in 1994, the city felt like one big construction site. When I spotted a Trabi — East Germany's iconic car — in front of the Wall, it was the perfect photo op! It was also exciting to walk around the New Synagogue on Oranienburger Strasse in the former East. There was a very lively new cultural scene here that used the vacant lots for art exhibitions and pop-up cafes. (Susan)

One of my first trips to the West took me to Munich in 1991. It just happened to be Oktoberfest, and my now-husband and I managed to get seats in a coveted revellers’ tent. The mood overwhelmed me: complete strangers danced on the tables, lay in each other's arms and sang schlager pop songs all evening! And by the end of the evening I had managed to down two massive tankards of beer! (Kerstin)

In February 1990 my neighbor and I left Berlin city limits for the first time. We drove his vintage Mercedes — slowly of course — about 75 km (47 miles) to the town of Rheinsberg in neighboring Brandenburg, over cobblestones through villages to the castle of Prussian King Frederick the Great. The castle was closed, and it was quite cold, but the sun shone. It was a fascinating new world. (Andreas)

My first trip to West Germany was as an 11-year-old, with my father, to Helmstedt in Lower Saxony. We walked through the old town with its lovely old half-timbered houses. But I soon found what interested me more than all the sights: a magazine shop! Here my father bought me a copy of "Bravo," at the time THE popular music and youth magazine in West Germany. (Christina)

In the summer of 1993, I visited a tiny village near the Müritz, Germany’s second-largest lake. I had never known in West Germany such remoteness or such vast expanses. Unending fields of wheat spotted red with poppies, and so many lakes! The local supermarket was a truck that came by with bread rolls and the basics. I fell in love right away — and that feeling has never gone away. (Anne)

My first trip after the border opened took me to Schkopau near Leipzig in May 1990 — the seat of the Buna-Werke, a chemicals company producing, as its well-known ads said, "Plastics and Elastics." The streets near the factory were covered with a silver surface. I had heard of the environmental damage caused by the GDR chemical industry, but I never thought that it would be so visible. (Christian)

The spring after reunification, my parents wanted to see the East firsthand. So we drove to Schwerin in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. I still remember how my mother said "Ossis," people from the East, were much nicer than "Wessis," those from the West. Not much else from my memories of that time has stuck. But I like to think back to that moment. (Sertan)

In 2006 I went to Weimar for the first time. The city center was spruced up beautifully; it was chic and sparkling clean, like in an advertising brochure. Farther out, however, it was gray and dreary, the houses in need of renovation. One vivid but unpleasant memory is seeing young neo-Nazis walking around with a naturalness air about them — something I hadn’t ever observed in Cologne. (Kristina)

At the beginning of 1993 I visited a friend who had fallen in love with a girl from East Berlin during a vacation we took and followed her to the capital. I can't remember the details of the trip, but I do recall the very special atmosphere. I met people who spoke my language, but came from another German country. Two months later I came back — to stay. (Jens)