My Wall Fell the Day After – Berlin Wall

Posted on 10. Nov, 2009 by M.L. Zupan in EU - European Union, Feature, Politics

Fall of the Berlin Wall - 20th Anniversary of Freedom

There are events in history that define life changing moments. They change the way we look at our world and they change the way we look at ourselves. It is in these “landmarks in history” that we also define time. They become the markers of the past and the crossroads for the future.

• Do you remember when… ?
• Where were you when… ?
• What were you doing when… ?
• What did you do before… ?
• What did you do after… ?
• Did it change your life… ?

One of those events human history that we remember in our time is the “fall of the Berlin Wall”. The following excerpt comes from a story written by Dorothea Grass. She was eleven years old when the wall came down. Her story tells of a family of courage, fear, anger and joy.

Weg aus der DDR – Mein Mauerfall am Tag danach

“Ihr Vater war aus der DDR geflüchtet, jetzt solte die Familie nachkommen: Warum unsere Autorin den Mauerfall verschlief – und der 10. Novermber 1989 zum Kuriosum geriet. [Translation: Their father fled out of the DDR, now the family has to follow: why our Author missed the fall of the wall." Sueddeutsche Zeitung

"My personal wall came down the day after

In the May of 1988 my father went to West Germany on a visa for a short term visit. He never returned. Shortly after, my mother started filing papers to initiate the process for family re-unification. Much later my mother explained that this had been their plan all along. But as children we were told that she hadn't known he would not return, simply so we would not accidentally tell anything to the 'Stasi” (secret police) and thus jeopardize the whole process, and all family members involved.

After that nothing ever remained the same. In our sleepy little town in Thuringia we had become those who “are going to leave”, enemies of the state, and were no longer part of the 'normal' world. For us as schoolchildren it meant were no longer allowed to participate in school functions. I learned that being at the same place at the same time does not mean people experience the same things. We had started living in a different world, a parallel universe to that of the “conformed citizen”. Men in gray overcoats randomly came to search our house and dig through our drawers, our telephone line had ominous clicking noises, and all of that to prove there had been a conspiracy to leave the country all along.

Not that we were not used to being different. My family was part of a church, and we were raised with Christian values. My grandfather had managed to keep his private company when all property was being made common good in the 50ties. We had lots of relatives in the west part of the country. Each of these facts alone was more than enough to raise suspicions.

In school everybody who went to a church had to be registered: there were five out of 25. If we didn't know God didn't exist, and Christmas is only a dusty old winter tradition? we were asked.  All the other kids stared at us. We knew in our hearts we would never be able to be “model citizens” and believed even as children we would someday leave.

On November 8, 1989, after much waiting, a year and a half after my father had left, we were told that “someday” would be tomorrow. We were to go to bed early and rise early in order to pick up our papers. How many times had I dreamed to see my father through binoculars standing on the opposite side of the hill, beyond “no man's land” and the border line. But using binoculars we never would have dared. In the weeks prior we had been told to move out of our apartment in expectation of an imminent departure. My mother's parents graciously had offered to let us stay with them during this time. Meanwhile emotions ran high in the country all around us.

So when Schabowski proclaimed on the eve of November 9 that the wall had come down, the TV in my grandparents house had long been turned off. We  slept right through one of the most monumental moments of German history. The next day my uncle told us: “The wall is open!”. We were hopeful and expectant all at the same time. We hurried down to the police station to pick up our papers, only to be caught in throngs of people heading the same way. “Where have they all come from?”, I remember wondering. They had never shown any interest in leaving before. I was getting angry. All our waiting, the undignified searches, all our hopes and fears – it did not seem fair that they did not have to go through the same pain as we had.

Yet, after we had collected all paperwork and made it across the border – when I saw my father standing in a parking lot on the “other side”, I didn't even wait for the car to stop. I jumped out while we were still driving and ran into his arms with tears streaming down my face.

I am glad, of course, that there is no more “DDR”. I am elated to see how much change human courage can achieve. Yet – on that 10th day of November, all I really cared about was that our family finally was happily united."

If you would like to read the original article in its entirety you can find it at: Mein Mauerfall am Tag danach - Sueddeutsche.de

Berlin Celebrates Demise of Wall – UPI.com
Leaders in Berlin Retrace the Walk West – NYTimes.com
World Marks Fall of Berlin Wall – NewsOK.com