My name is Christina. I am originally from East Germany, the former German Democratic Republic.
We have family over there that I visitied regularly, in the city of Dresden.
Of course we invited them as soon as the Berlin Wall fell to visit us on our farm here in West Germany.
For them it was a very exciting experience. For example, when I took them to the local supermarket in our small village
They still tell me about it today. It was the first time for ages that they could get green beans in a can and other goods that they would not get back home.
We also would visit them many times in Dresden, also prior to the unification of Germany.
Indeed, when walking through the street of the city of Neustadt - Dresden one would still witness the destruction from WWII.
One would see the difficult living conditions, especially the hardship to visit one another.
Many could literally not afford to come visit West Germany until their retirement.
For example, my own grandparents -who still lived a long time in East Germany - only managed to move to the West long after they received their pension.
