Hello, could you please check this short excerpt from my essay? Thank you in advance.

 For example, even though I had never been to Germany before, during my wandering through Berlin I came across / encountered many places in the city which were startlingly / strikingly familiar to me. But it was not, however, cases / instances of Deja vu / Deja Vu that caused this strange feeling of familiarity, it was, instead, a sudden and intense recollection of the scenes I had seen before in films. Those movies had usually depicted the stories / lives of ordinary people who had lived in the communist German Democratic Republik, and it was through these movies that I had learned how historical events there unfolded. Therefore, for me, in spite of it having been my first visit to Berlin, there was already a story behind the buildings and memorials that I was passing by, as well as the vivid memories of the movie characters which had traveled down the same boulevards as I was then doing. It felt as if I was walking along well-known roads as I had done numerous times before with old friends who, unfortunately, were just not around then to accompany me.

Good job! I reworded / rewrote a few of your passages to make them sound more descriptive and natural to my "native" ears, but overall, no major mistakes. Pay more attention to your sentence construction and choice of words, but I enjoyed the "contrast" of what you had seen in the movies with what you have felt when actually there.. I left the "k" on Republik since that is how it is spelled in the German language, but in English speaking countries we would use a "c." As Jonny mentioned, I, too, had a bit of trouble since I had no context in which to develop your ideas and/or sentences on, but it was nothing which could not be overcome. I hope this helps you. J. 

Hello, could you please check this short excerpt from my essay? Thank you in advance.