Berlin '89

[Oberon]

http://europa.eu/abc/12lessons/images/content_berlin_wall.jpg

So, what are your recollections of the day the wall came down?

Myself, I was five at the time, and I used to go to bed at seven pm and was meant to be asleep by nine, however, being that age, it was usually more like ten ;) I had a television in my room, in fact, I have the same television in my room right now and used to have it on from seven onwards until my Mum or Dad came up at turned it off when they went to bed and I was asleep. It was the droning of things like the ten o clock news and things like Newsnight that helped me drift off to sleep.
However, tonight the news was different, it was earlier for one thing and there was people climbing on this wall, and smashing it with pickaxes and sledgehammers, there was celebration as parts of it came down and everyone was smiling. Even for a five year old, it was clear that this was something special.

[HunterICX]

I was 2 years old, so probally I was in dreamland at the time it was broadcasted :O:

HunterICX

[OneToughHerring]

I was thirteen back then. I remember knowing pretty much exactly what was going on, I was a pretty well versed kid about politics back then. People say that it was a complete shock, well it wasn't. For weeks and even months prior and even throughout the 80's there was this talk that it might actually happen and it kind of culminated with the whole thing.

Wasn't all roses and happiness though, Romania's way was a bit harsh, killing both Ceaucescu and his wife on camera. And of course the Balkans, went really bad over there.

[Skybird]

I just had left Westberlin only some days before, moving from my parent's household to my first all-alone appartement in Osnabrück, and starting study at university. All new to me. I took note of the events, but honestly said - for the most I had other things on my mind. So many things in my life just were in a chnage, and so much was new.

Seeing the pictures nevertheless still is a moving experience. So many things could have gone wrong, resulting in utmost violence and cival-war like scenes.

Other people had done things in their countries before without which the peaceful revolution in germany would not have been possible. The Poles. The Hungarians. Gorbatchev.

That'S what it was indeed: a revolution. the wall did not come down by itself. It was brought to a fall with determination, fighting spirit and willingness to take enormous risks by many Eastgermans marching in the streets. And really, the risks for their health and safety was real, very real.

Many people wearing the uniforms of the hungarian border patrols or the Eastgerman police, found themselves suddenly in situations were they had to make a decision all by themselves - and many put their humanity over their uniform's obligations. These people can and should be as proud as those who found the courage to resist the regime and turned to the streets.

[Rhodes]

I had 7 years old! I remember seeing the news on tv and my parents talking about it and I was completly east of the matter. I ask about what was the Berling Wall and what was all the commotions about it.
Funny thing was, during that time the second series of mission impossible (the 89 one) was being transmitedhere on tv. And the episode of that week was one that they smugle 2 persons trought the Wall. My father laught about and said that when they film this ep, there was still a wall.

[AVGWarhawk]

I was just out of college. I first remembered a book I read as a kid that concerned some folks making a balloon and basket to get over the wall. I think there was a movie made about it as well. I then thought what an odd thing this wall this day in age. On one side of the wall enjoyed of all things something as simple as a bananna. The other side did not. Strange indeed.

[Carotio]

I had just turned 15, and I was watching it live at the tv with my family.
However, I did not visit Berlin till October 1991, which was 1 year after the unification, and 2 years after the fall. The new Germany was very young so I could still sence a bit of the past GDR (DDR), and I got a ride in a Trabant... :D

This message is btw being written while the domino wall is just about to fall in Berlin... :D

Some videos have been posted on youtube, and I will collect some at SHMF:
http://www.silenthuntermods.com/forum/index.php?topic=328.0

[Task Force]

sniff... about 4 or 5 years before my time... anywho was gonna post on this topic but was at school all day...

yay for the fall of the wall!

[Skybird]

and I got a ride in a Trabant... :D

Hehe, almost noboy here calls them "Trabant". They are called "Trabbi". :DL

[antikristuseke]

I was 2 years old, so probally I was in dreamland at the time it was broadcasted :O:

HunterICX

This. I have absolutely no recolection of that event for the above reason. Allso dont remember the following event, but was there with my parents. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Way

[KeybdFlyer]

Only slightly off topic... I had to laugh at a report on this topic on NPR this morning. The announcer introduced the piece as a report on the anniversary of "The fall of the Iron Curtain". I think he perhaps meant "The RAISING of the Iron Curtain" or maybe "The Fall of the Berlin Wall". Just semantics, I know. But very telling in its own way.

[Takeda Shingen]

I was 12, and remember it clearly. A watershed moment.

[Platapus]

I was at Offutt AFB NE working the swing shift :yeah::yeah::yeah:

[goldorak]

I was in high school at the time in Paris.
I remember coming back from school and watching together with my family and some friends the events on tv later that night. It was just incredible. We were witnessing literally history in the making. A one in a lifetime experience.

[August]

When I left Germany in 84 there was no sign of it ever happening. When it did it totally surprised me.

[nikimcbee]

It deffinately livend up a dull German class for me. It was amazing how fast all of Eastern Europe split. Then the Soviet Union collapsed, now that was amazing.

So is it a better place than it was back then?

[GoldenRivet]

I was 10 years old.

I dont remember much other than the fact that my entire family was on a road trip en route from Texas to my grandparents home in Kentucky.

We were checking out of our hotel very early in the morning when we first heard of it.

We were in the car, waiting for my dad to come back out from checking out of the hotel and it was all over the radio.

I remember not knowing much about what the berlin wall was... all i really knew was that some bad people put it up and it was keeping family members on one side of the wall from seeing their other family members on the other side of the wall. I also knew it was something my mom and dad seemed rather glad to hear about. so it is an exciting albeit brief moment in my memory.

some weeks later, my teacher presented this rather uninteresting chunk of concrete about the size of a soda can and told us that it was a piece of the Berlin wall... it was another one of those things that was passed around the room, each student taking a few seconds to check it out before handing it to the next student... the signifigance of the little chunk of concrete almost completely lost on each of us at the time no doubt.

[nikimcbee]

I was 10 years old.

I dont remember much other than the fact that my entire family was on a road trip en route from Texas to my grandparents home in Kentucky.

We were checking out of our hotel very early in the morning when we first heard of it.

We were in the car, waiting for my dad to come back out from checking out of the hotel and it was all over the radio.

I remember not knowing much about what the berlin wall was... all i really knew was that some bad people put it up and it was keeping family members on one side of the wall from seeing their other family members on the other side of the wall. I also knew it was something my mom and dad seemed rather glad to hear about. so it is an exciting albeit brief moment in my memory.

some weeks later, my teacher presented this rather uninteresting chunk of concrete about the size of a soda can and told us that it was a piece of the Berlin wall... it was another one of those things that was passed around the room, each student taking a few seconds to check it out before handing it to the next student... the signifigance of the little chunk of concrete almost completely lost on each of us at the time no doubt.

They have a section of the Wall here at the evergreen museum (in ore-gone) you should fly out here and see it:yeah:.

[GoldenRivet]

They have a section of the Wall here at the evergreen museum (in ore-gone) you should fly out here and see it:yeah:.

a section?

like how big?

[magic452]

I'm old enough to remember the wall going UP! And the stand off at Brandenburg gate and than the air lift and so many other things.

Lived with it so many years that I believed it to be a permanent fixture.

Was able to watch the whole event unfold on TV from the very beginning and couldn't believe what I was seeing. I really expected gun fire to erupt at any second.

My thoughts were, are we seeing the fall of the Soviet Union or the start of WWIII. It was truly a watershed moment.

Magic