The Berlin Wall – An Anniversary
Today, November 9, 2009, marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
I’ve been thinking a lot about today. I’m not sure what to expect or what to think. All I know is that there are a lot of tourists and a lot of emotions here today.
Perhaps I can explore a little and come back here to share with you everything I experience. Would you like that?
Please take a moment and leave a comment about where you were or what you were doing when The Wall came down. I think it was one of those days for so much of the world that we will never forget. Me? I was sitting in Mrs. Thomas’s class in the United States, and we were all being handed Scholastic News or Scholastic Kids or whatever the little magazine we “read” was called. I could barely read words like “cat” or “dog”. She told us it was an enormous day in history that we should never forget. So I tried my very best to remember.
Berlin seemed so far away.
It seemed like a different world.
What would I have thought if Mrs. Thomas had said, “And one day, one of the people sitting in this very room will live in Berlin. She’ll call it home.”
Would she have pointed at me? Would I have been just as overwhelmed as I am today?
* * * * * * * * *
Where were you when you heard the news?
November 9th, 2009 at 2:19 am
I also live in Berlin and am experiencing similar memories and feelings. I was in history class and watched the events on TV with a dismayed-to-not-be-there German exchange student. I have often thought about that moment and how I never would have imagined that I would live in that city one day…!!
November 9th, 2009 at 3:21 am
i posted on this today too – and already answered your question with my post =) I was 11 and at home. My grandmother’s family fled Communist Russia, so it was an emotional day for my dad’s side of the family for sure! Cool that you are in town and seeing the festivities. I wish I could be!
November 9th, 2009 at 5:55 am
I was sitting in a theater, listening to an opera.
Suddenly a man went on stage, interrupted the music and announced that the wall was open.
We went crazy and hugged each other (strangers), crying openly.
Then the orchestra played the national anthem and we all sang along.
I rushed home to watch TV
November 9th, 2009 at 5:57 am
addition:
In 1989, I was 24 years old.
6 years earlier I had been to Berlin with my school, experiencing THE WALL, feeling very depressed.
November 9th, 2009 at 6:12 am
I’d love to hear about your day in Berlin later, or tomorrow, Katie. 20 years ago I was 15 years old, and in high school when I heard the news.
November 9th, 2009 at 6:57 am
Yes, please do explore a little if you can. I’d love to know more about what’s going on in your neck of the woods. Twenty years ago, I was four. I was probably “helping” my mom send my brothers and sister off to school, but have no recollection of anything. How sad.
November 9th, 2009 at 7:21 am
I was in 3rd grade, and I didn’t really grasp what was happening. I knew it was a big deal to my dad’s family, who had fled Germany post WWI. I think it would be very interesting to have a personal account of what today is like in Germany.
November 9th, 2009 at 7:22 am
Christine, I’m with you — I was six, and clueless. I think I have vague memories of the reunification a year later, but none of the actual event of the wall opening.
Looking forward to hearing about your day today, Katie!
November 9th, 2009 at 7:42 am
I was in 10th grade and we had been watching the news closely for days. I spent a good part of my childhood in Germany. I also got to visit East Germany and see the living and working conditions of East Germans. It was hard to believe that East Berlin was a coveted place to live for those behind the Iron Curtain.
One of our dear German friends had escaped to the West as the wall was being put up. His parents packed lunches and took him and his brother into the woods at lunch, when they knew the guards changed shifts. The parents sent their sons (teenagers) first and told them not to stop running or look back, no matter what they heard. All four of them made it to the West. Such courage.
On this day, 20 years ago, my family made many joyous phone calls to Germany. We watched the wall coming down on live tv with tears streaming down our faces, dancing around the living room with joy. Because of our travel and friendships, the whole world felt a lot closer that day. With a lot more freedom.
Happy Anniversary, Germany. You are beautiful!
November 9th, 2009 at 8:27 am
Wow! has it been 20 years already? I was living in the same house I am in now. My sister, however, was right there in Germany and she collected pieces of the wall. I have two.
When President Reagan said, “Tear down that wall” I was so amazed at his courage. And when it did come down, I felt it was a miracle.
I have grown up not understanding the wall or the “iron curtain” as they put it. I remember trying to picture an iron curtain and not quite fathoming it.
I love Cathryn’s comment on the courage of that family. There are so many stories of courage concerning that war.
I feel sad that war has to ever be a part of this earthly life. My ancestors left “the old country” looking for religious freedom. They fled to the Ukraine when Kathrine the Great invited them. Eventually they took a boat to the United States and set up their homes in Kansas. All our lives we believed they left Germany. Just recently, we discovered they had actually lived near Amsterdam! I do have German heritage as well from different sides of my ancestry, as does my husband. So I have a great love for the German language and country.
I would love to hear more about the festivities there, Katie. Thanks
~a
November 9th, 2009 at 8:42 am
I was in 7th grade social studies class. I very vividly remember it because we had some West German exchange students from the high school that had visited us earlier that year. The whole idea of the wall at that time was so perplexing that I didn’t even fully understand it.
I had the chance to see it in it’s fallen form about 15 years ago. We also stopped at Checkpoint Charlie. Some of those stories were absolutely amazing.
November 9th, 2009 at 8:54 am
I was 23, almost 24, the mother of a two and a half year old and a five month old. I remember having the news on that night, rocking my baby as she cried (she had colic; she was always crying). I had majored in history, I was a news junkie, but my baby needed me, my attention was being pulled in a different direction, and I really missed the impact of that historic event. But I do remember thinking, as I held her, that maybe the world was taking a step in the right direction. (I also do remember having a moment of unease thinking of a reunited Germany ~ how sad is that?)
November 9th, 2009 at 9:10 am
I often forget that it happened in my lifetime because I was much too young to remember – only four. I was probably playing with my brother and feeling vaguely unsettled that there was news on the TV instead of cartoons (I remember feeling that way as Operation Desert Storm was going on a little later).
November 9th, 2009 at 9:45 am
I believe I was in 5th grade or so. We were also reading scholastic news. I remember we got some kind of poster of the wall coming down after. I remember feeling confused of how families could be separated from each other.
November 9th, 2009 at 10:07 am
FYI: “Iron Curtain” comes from a speech by the ever-eloquent Winston Churchill. He gave the speech when receiving an honorary here, in the US. The term was the “sound bite” of it’s day. You can read excepts of his speech here:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/churchill-iron.html
It still is a great speech.
November 9th, 2009 at 10:53 am
I also just posted about this. 20 years ago I was 13 and when the news came on my dad told me to sit down and watch because I was watching history being made. I wish I could be in Berlin today, please post about your day there.
November 9th, 2009 at 11:56 am
I was in college with no television. I did borrow a newspaper to read about it, but wasn’t sure what it meant for the future. I remember Reagan saying “Tear down that wall” or something like that.
November 9th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
This is strange to read, I woke up this was on my mind. I woke up my husband and asked him about it and he said no no no October 3 is the holiday. He is the German I am the American. I am like I remember this? David Hasselhoff sang I think when it went down.
I was 11 years old and Sister Bernadette made the announcement at school.
I would love to see pictures, Katie.
November 9th, 2009 at 9:15 pm
I don’t remember hearing about the Wall falling, but I do remember that there was a day that I was walking around downtown with my family and it was raining, so we went into some random downtown building and there was a piece of the Wall there. Here actually
I must have been about 9 or 10 and I said something like… oooh big deal, it’s a wall. And I remember that my Dad took the time to explain it to me.
November 10th, 2009 at 12:29 am
I don’t remember specifically where I was when I got the news about the wall, but I remember the time very well. I was 13, and the world seemed very hopeful. As if anything could happen, and anything did, but in the best possible way. Even now, thinking about the images and the feelings, I feel choked up.
November 10th, 2009 at 2:10 am
11-9-1989 the wall fell and 10-3-1990 is unification day.
The October date is a national holiday but 11-9 is a much more important day in German history. And this is not only my opinion.
Some sort of German fate.
Just the most important dates (there are more):
11-9-1848: Robert Blum, a member of the first German Parliament was killed although having diplomatic immunity
11-9-1918: November Revolution
11-9-1938: ‘Crystal Night’ – Jewish synagogues and shops are destroyed
11-9-1989: the wall falls down
Lots of Germans think that a national holiday would be more important on this date than in October. Me too.
November 10th, 2009 at 2:14 am
yes, there are two songs connected with this date
David Hasselhoffs singing I’ve been looking for Freedom
but much better: The Scorpions with Winds of Change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jPQM4o21aM
November 10th, 2009 at 2:45 am
Bad mistake – @Katie – could you please correct a date?
It’s 11-9-1938 NOT 1939 !!
I’m so sorry.
November 10th, 2009 at 5:48 am
Fixed it! Thank you for the amazing resources, Sabine.
-Katie
November 10th, 2009 at 6:44 am
I heard the news on the radio yesterday morning and immediately thought “I’ll have to check Katie’s blog to see what she posts!”
I was ten years old – and sad to say, I don’t honestly remember exactly where I was when I heard, but I do remember talking about it over dinner that night. A few weeks later my dad – for a reason unknown to me – got a “piece” of the wall that I think he still has.
November 11th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
I was 16 and remember watching Tom Brokaw reporting live from Berlin. My dad and I watched news specials for hours. I was amazed.
When my dad and I were in Berlin in ’99 we asked our (very young) server where we were having dinner where we could see a piece of the wall. He looked at me and asked “what wall?” My dad and I looked at each other incredulously and I said “The Berlin Wall.” He had no idea what I was talking about and had to ask someone else.
I have a piece of the wall sitting on my shelf. One of my BFF’s from HS has photos of herself chipping off her own piece of the wall. I always thought that was the coolest thing.