"Coincidence would have it that I was unemployed in the first three months in 1990. I used the time to work on my first book. Whenever I got stuck or needed a break, I'd take off to the Brandenburg Gate, to Potsdamer Platz and other inner city hot spots. I wanted to marvel at the gradual demise of the Wall and to document it with my camera. Standing in front of the eroding bulwark in the company of hundreds of people from all over the world not only helped me shake my writer's bloc, but also provoked a rush of joy similar to the one I'd felt in the first hours. And that's why each time I visited the places where the Wall had stood, I experienced the collective kick that pilgrims feel when on a pilgrimage."
Gottfried Schenk