Deutsche Demokratische Republik or DDR

The communist state of the  Deutsche Demokratische Republikafter (DDR) was “dis-established” in 1990 when East Germany was re-unified with West Germany.  Nearly 20 years later the differences between the East and West are in evidence everywhere. This past weekend I traveled to Deutschland. I brought Kira over to be bred and one of Kira’s B-Litter daughters (sired by Markus vom Status Quo) to leave in Germany for her schutzhund training. I have traveled in and out of Germany many times with dogs. I always have traveled through Frankfurt, they are very professional and experts at handling the dogs. This time I decided to fly into Berlin since Kira’s beau resides near Berlin.

I discovered the old communist attitudes and bureaucracy still prevail in the previous Eastern-Block German state.  After 18 hours of travel I was treated to the “hospitality” of 8 Berlin-Tegel Airport officials for another 6 hours. Two Polizi, 3 customs officers, the official DVM and two other people whose official role was never made clear to me. It was quite the welcoming committee, but a real bummer that someone forgot to bring refreshments. I planned on sharing the whole ordeal with you but I find myself sitting here unable and unwilling to rehash the events of those 6 hours. It was a nightmare. The bottom line is they let me take Kira but would not let me take her daughter, she was put into quarantine until I left Germany. At which time she was escorted from quarantine onto the plane.

Oh and I forgot to mention that they also lost my luggage.

Leaving the Berlin-Tegel Airport with dogs was also a challenge. They had me running between customs, and three different counters. First they wanted measurements of the dog crates, I said it should already be there on the reservation. Yes it was, but it was in inches. “you must tell us the size in centimeters.” This was repeated with the weights of the crates and the dogs, again it was on the reservation record. But, no problem, I knew precisely the weight of the crates and each dog. “You must tell us in kilos. ” Oh yes, my mistake, at least pounds to Kilos is a no-brainer conversion, so I gave them the weight in Kilos. They decided I was lying about the weight. “The box must weight more then 10 kilos.” They made me dis-assemble one of the crates so it would fit on the suitcase scale to be weighed. They weighed each part and added up the weight. Guess how much it weighed? It weighed 10 kilos. How about that.

Then the airline agent inspected the health certificates. She gave them back to me and told me ” you must attach these to the boxes.” Oh, OK I will do that. The airline agents normally do this, but not a big deal. I ask for some tape. “You do not have tape?” Well, no, not on me. Big sigh…”You must bring tape. How will you attach the documents without tape?” Uhhh…I don’t know…maybe you have some tape I can use? “I will have to contact the supervisor.” The supervisor brought some tape and gave me a stern warning “…you must return the tape.” No problem, and here have a couple Euros go buy some more tape and leave it at the counter.

In 3 hours time I barely made it on the plane. I left my rental car in the lot unable to return it rental agency or I would miss my flight and the dogs would be unloaded. I checked my credit card online and Europcar charged me just shy of $200 to move my car from the airport lot to their facilities located right there at the airport. I wonder what they would have charged me if I was not a Europcar “Privilege” member?

An extremely expensive lesson…. never fly into Berlin with dogs, and for me, I will never fly into Berlin again, ever.

Kira had two perfect breedings to a very handsome German boy. I attended a large show, I saw many beautiful dogs, meet many wonderful people. It was a great trip excluding the nightmare that is the Berlin-Tegel International airport and their left over DDR officials…crazy!