I can still picture the Berlin Wall — it was 20 years ago this month.

At the time, it was one of the world’s most ominous symbols. It ran between the two sides of the city — technically encircling the west side.

There was a second “Berlin Wall” of sorts that formed the border between East Germany and West Germany. That was mostly barbed wire. But it served the same purpose as the more famous concrete one in Berlin itself: to keep people from the Communist east from going over to the free west.

It was not just meant as an obstacle. There were consequences. Over 100 people, perhaps 200, were killed by border police as they attempted to cross over. There were other creative cases — like people sneaking into buildings right next to the wall and jumping through windows to the other side. Over the years, most of those windows were bricked up by authorities.

In the states, you often saw pictures of the sour East German soldiers who patrolled atop the wall.

They were still there when I arrived in November of 1989 as a journalist.

A few days before, the world’s big news was that the authorities had opened the border. They allowed East Germans freedom that had been unthinkable since the wall was built in 1961 — to simply walk through selected openings to the west.

It was showcased on television. Crowds swarmed to the wall and climbed on top of it. People brought sledgehammers and began to pound it, though they didn’t get far. It was sturdily built. Still, it was a celebration. Anchormen broadcast from the wall.

But by the time I got there, the East German government had changed its mind, at least partly.

They took back control. No more sledgehammers. They did allow East Germans to flow west by day at selected spots. Most simply came with wide eyes to see West Berlin like tourists. With the wall cracked open, and things in flux, the Communist government knew their people would return to their homes.

But the authorities were still controlling who came into East Berlin from the west. It was a painstaking process of getting approvals at checkpoints.

So guards were back to patrolling the wide, flat top of the wall when I first saw it. I was at the stretch at the heart of Berlin, near the Brandenburg Gate.

I blended in with the crowd on the west side — it was still a festive event — and got close. I looked up and caught the eye of one of the guards. He gripped a rifle. I waved and smiled. His face remained dour and his eyes flicked away.

The wall itself was a symbol of capitalism’s efficiency that day. I had hoped to grab a piece of it as a souvenir — I’d seen piles of broken wall parts on the news a few days before. But the authorities had mostly stopped the hammering, and all the pieces by now had been grabbed both by passersby and American entrepreneurs who had shipped them home to sell them for profit. I wondered what the Communist leadership thought about the Berlin Wall’s concrete being monetized so efficiently by western investors.

There was a viewing stand set up nearby where you could stare over the wall to see what East Germany looked like. It looked pretty austere to me. West Berlin had the same bustle you felt in big American cities. The pulse on the other side seemed flat-lined. It felt the same when I later went through a checkpoint to walk around over there. Communism sucked the life out of people’s spirits.

And that’s why the wall was there. East Germany was part of a collection of Communist countries run by Russia called the Soviet Union. It was all supposed to be a “worker’s paradise.” In practice, it was a controlled, depressed society that had gotten so bad by 1961 the government had to put up a wall to keep people in. The west called it proof that Communism wasn’t working too well. The Communists claimed the wall was a temporary means to give them time to build their society.

But now, 28 years later, in 1989, it was needed more than ever. West Germany had thrived while the east seemed as if it was still just emerging from World War II.

I’m thinking about this today for a reason other than it being the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s opening. A friend of mine just got back from a brief vacation in that city, and said the former east side seems even more developed now than the west. Two decades have made a huge difference. It’s a reminder that you don’t make a city thrive just on investment — the Communists put plenty of that into their side of Berlin. It’s about freeing the creativity of the people to build an economy from the bottom up rather than the top down.

In a way, it’s too bad the wall is gone. It made you appreciate freedom — especially the economic kind.

It might have helped to have the Berlin Wall for some perspective right now as the recession continues.

It has been a tough few years for capitalism.

It’s still a pretty good system.

mpatinkin@projo.com