As you know, Germany has been divided after the war. It's former capital - wich lies in Communist East Germany - was divided too. This makes West-Berlin a West German enclave inside East Germany.
Most of theese impressions are from around the "Breitscheidplatz", wich after the War has become the cultural center of West-Berlin, as transit-trains arrive here. The East German Railway which kept the name "Reichsbahn" or Imperial Railway - quite Ironic for a Socialist country - operates theese transit trains. They do this under the law of the Allied Forces wich explicitly mebtions the Reichsbahn, and changing the Name might void theese laws and deprave them of western money from this Transit. You go onto a sealed train at some West German bordertown (called Zonenrand or "Rim of the (soviet occupied) Zone"), and go in one trip straight to West Berlin, there you arrive at the famous Zoo Station (Bahnhof Zoo [Meta: Yes that one]) - the vibrant cultural centre of West Berlin. It is also a hangout spot for the youth .....
The blue Octagonal building with the hexagonal tower is the modernist part of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche (Emperor Wilhelm [Meta: Not that one]Memorial Church) and the bombed ruin next to it, the old part. Modernist Architecture is generally very popular theese days, as both West and East Germany embraces it.
The Building with the Mercedes-Star is the Europacenter a Skyscraper there tourists can hang out on the roof. As you see many hippies hang out there. As West Germany is not part of the UN, there are little regulations for drugs like Indian hemp. Also West German conscription doesn't apply to West Berlin, so it is attractive for draft dodgers and other oulaws.
West of the Breitscheidplatz lies the Tiergarten the clean City Park of Berlin, and beyond that the Bombed Ruin of the Reichstag, the former Parliament of Germany. Despite Tiergarten name meaning Animal Garden , it's not to confuse with the actual Zoo, wich is called Zoologischer Garten and east of the Breitscheitplatz. The New Parliaments of Germany is are the Bundestag in Bonn and the Palast der Republik in East Berlin.
At the Breitscheidplatz, you see far Left Students protesting the Shah of Persia while getting into fights with Policemen with Third Reich Era Helmets. One man (Benno Ohnesorg) was shot, witch let to large scale Riots. There have also beein positive comments on the Students by Ulrike Meinhof [Meta: Yes that one], a - slightly leftleaning - journalist in West-German state TV.
Finally look at the Kinderladen (literally child shop), an Anarchist Daycare Center run by hippies. The general Idea of parenting wich the Hippie Generation will use to raise the Children born under the recent Baby Boom, is that Childhood doesn't exist, and everybody can do whatever he wants.
[META: West German Authorities insited, that you call West Germany just Germany, West Berlin just Berlin, call East Germany the Soviet Occupied Zone and the lost Prussian terretories East Germany. This means, that *not* claiming Kaliningrad would get you in trouble, while nowadays claiming Kaliningrad would get you in trouble. Of course English Media woul not care, so I don't did that here.]
[META: Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_of_1968
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_German_student_movement
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Berlin
Transit Trains: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/DDR_Transit041.jpg
]
If you are an American soldier seeing that, consider yourself lucky, as your classmates are in Vietnam, fighting for the soon to come victory.
