Fall of the Berlin Wall: Strange, I can't remember...

[Kirsten]

... where I was when I heard the news back in 1989. I can't even remember how the news were brought to me, whether it was by tv, or by a family member or friend who told me... Everybody else seems to remember, there's a lot of talk about it these days, especially today on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall.

Of course I remember how exciting those times were. I went back to school those years, and we dicussed the political developments a lot. And I remember the weeks after the Iron Curtain was breached, all the Trabants coming to our towns, and everyone was so cheerful and excited. But I don't remember the actual moment when I learned about the Wall being opened, and I wonder why. After all, this has been the most joyful and exciting moment in my country's recent history...

Kirsten

[RICHARD]

I remember seeing the TV clips of the people with sledgehammers and prybars, People on top pulling friends up and others running around holding chunks of concrete in the air and hoping that no one would get hurt!

Interesting thought?
Could it be, because it was gradual and didn't fall all at once, that there wasn't a real time to put to the wall 'falling'?

I was thinking that, unlike a "breaking news story" or an event that happens in an instant, it took a while to get used to and the changes came about gradually.

I think it would have been fun to have been there.

I like parties.

[Kirsten]

Oh, there was a breaking news story, when former SED-official Günter Schabowski announced that people from East-Germany are allowed to travel... From wikipedia:
"On 9 November 1989, after a misunderstanding, Schabowski famously announced in a live broadcast international press conference that (effectively) all rules for travelling abroad were lifted, in effect "immediately" ("sofort, unverzüglich"). However, the misunderstanding was only with regards to the date; the plan had been to lift the rules, found to be unsustainable after mass defections of East Germans to West Germany via Hungary and Czechoslovakia, the next morning.
Tens of thousands of people immediately went to the Berlin Wall where the vastly outnumbered border guards were forced to open access points and allow them through, which proved to be the end of the Wall regime. "

The same night, thousands of GDR citicens crossed the checkpoints and the Brandenburg gate, but I guess I didn't learn about that until the next day...

Kirsten

[Kirsten]

BTW, forgot to say, the songs that still captures the atmosphere of those days for me (and for many others) is Scorpion's "Wind of Change".

[RICHARD]

BTW, forgot to say, the songs that still captures the atmosphere of those days for me (and for many others) is Scorpion's "Wind of Change".

So, you are a "Rocker Chick"!

Throw me some devil's horns!

[K9karen]

I remember it well. I cried from happiness. I'm glad I was alive to see it.