A test before shipment
My uncle Albert John Schweickart went to West Berlin in April 1986 to test and approve molding equipment before its shipment to the United States. In his later account, the turning point is a short sentence: “The initial test failed.” He stayed for two weeks while the defects were being corrected.[1]
The equipment explains why he was there. The extended stay gave him time to see the city, and those visits occupy most of the chapter he later wrote. His recollection moves from an engineering assignment to museums, public transport, parks and a journey across the Berlin Wall.[1]
Time in West Berlin
John remembered seeing a panda for the first time at the zoo and attending the opera, which he described as his first and only opera experience. At the historical museum, the bust of Nefertiti stood alone under spotlights in a darkened room. The way it was displayed remained part of his memory of seeing it.[1]
He also used the subway to get around. In the memoir, finding his way through an unfamiliar city with limited German was part of the trip. Visits to parks gave him another view of the city beyond the equipment assignment and museum interiors.[1]
Through Checkpoint Charlie
On a bus tour into East Berlin, John recalled armed guards boarding to inspect passports at Checkpoint Charlie. He remembered being instructed to remain quiet during the inspection. His account then describes the contrast he noticed between the streets and buildings on the two sides of the city.[1]
The Pergamon Museum was the highlight of that excursion for him. He wrote about seeing the Babylonian gateway and the Greek temple display. These are the places and impressions he chose to preserve when he looked back on the journey years later.[1]
A stop in London
On the way home, John stopped in London and visited the British Museum. He recorded seeing the Rosetta Stone there. The brief return-trip passage completes a chapter that begins with a failed equipment test and follows the places he visited during the delay.[2]
This April 1986 episode follows the earlier education, Army and engineering chapters in John’s life stories. It is his recollection of the assignment and journey, written for the family archive.
An assignment with an unplanned second chapter
The failed test gives the journey its structure. John had gone to examine equipment before it crossed the Atlantic; the defects kept him in Berlin longer than expected. His memoir does not provide a technical failure report, and it should not be treated as one. What it preserves is the way an engineering assignment opened into an extended encounter with the city. [1]
That distinction makes the museum passages more interesting. John remembered the arrangement of Nefertiti's display as well as the object itself, and he set the passport inspection beside the places he later visited in East Berlin. These are specific recollections of what drew his attention. They are also a different kind of record from an equipment acceptance document or a contemporary travel diary. The brief London stop continues that pattern: the assignment supplies the route, while the objects and places he chose to describe give the chapter its personal detail. [1][2]
Sources
- A Collection of My Life Stories. Albert John Schweickart, March 30, 2022. “Describe your business trip to West Berlin,” printed pp. 129–130 / PDF pp. 130–131. Private family archive; retrospective memoir.
- A Collection of My Life Stories. Albert John Schweickart. Return via London, printed p. 131 / PDF p. 132; illustration page follows on printed p. 132 / PDF p. 133.
The event date is April 1986. The memoir was compiled later.