Charging Admission

By car and elevated train and on foot, from babies in prams to oldsters in wheelchairs, the West Berliners flooded through the Wall to visit relatives living in the Eastern zone, now accessible during four holiday seasons each year under the pass agreements negotiated last September. Young and old lugged huge baskets filled with fruits, candies, coffee, tea, sugar and liquors-all in short, or ersatz, supply in Communist East Germany. On the Western side accumulated intended gifts that the surly Vopo guards would not allow through: books, records, TV equipment, film, photographs of any kind-even color slides of family outings.

East German Puppet Boss Walter Ulbricht had devised a new welcome for the Westerners. At green money-changing kiosks erected for the occasion, each visiting Berliner was dunned 75-c- in West German marks as the price of admission to his domain. With some 1,000,000 visitors expected during the two weeks the Wall will be open, Ulbricht stands to net $750,000 in much-needed hard currency.

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