Oberbaumbrücke

This guide to the Oberbaumbruecke in Berlin follows a five-year-old boy named Cetin Mert, chasing a new birthday ball along the riverbank on an ordinary afternoon in May 1975, right where the Cold War border between East and West Berlin ran through the middle of the Spree beneath this bridge. It traces what happened when the ball rolled into the water and he waded in after it with a stick, and the rules that governed who was allowed to reach him. Look down at the calm river now, beneath the rebuilt brick towers.