Twenty years ago today I was 12 years old, watching on TV as people chipped away at the Berlin Wall. I knew it was a big deal, but I had no idea why. In my mind, there had always been an East and a West Germany. I couldn’t quite comprehend what it meant for a country that had once been divided in half to finally reunite. Even today, on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, it still kind of blows me away.
As an American living in Germany, I sometimes forget that there was ever a time that a government believed that it could just simply build a wall which divides families, neighborhoods, train lines, and even buildings. What it must have been like to watch them build it, brick by brick, I can only imagine.
But I keep meeting people from the former GDR, and their stories remind me it’s true. Stories of families split on either side of the Wall. Stories of being threatened by the Stasi (Staatsicherheit or state security). I am also reminded of the harsh reality as I watch the Germans of today — raised in two different cultures — sometimes struggle to understand each other’s language, values, and mindsets.
But just as in 1989 I had never known a unified Germany, today there is a generation of young German adults who have never known anything different. I couldn’t be happier to be able to live here among all of them and have the unique opportunity to witness these struggles and differences and celebrations.
Thank you for sharing this unique perspective. I interpreted this day in very vague terms that I could personally understand, but I can not even begin to comprehend how this wall split lives and how the changes created split cultures.
How cool to be in Germany for the anniversary! I remember when it fell – I was doing a project on the Berlin wall (I can’t remember the teacher, but then I don’t remember much about McKnight! Ha!) and was able to incorporate the fall into it.
I found your blog through the ex-pat network (I run one from Bulgaria) and am enjoying it. It’s great fun to get ideas for a trip from someone who lives there. My husband and I are coming to Hamburg for a conference and I’m hoping to attend a yoga class while we’re there. Is there any chance you know of an English yoga studio in Hamburg?
Cheers!
An amazing night and indeed period. It was my 20th birthday (yes that made me 40 the other day!!) and it is one of those seminal moments in life that I certainly will never forget… to be played out on the cameras in front of the watching world it is hard to imagine how the people felt….the euphoria, the relief, the wondering why it lasted so long and finished so quickly…..now having visited Berlin and seen the remains of no-mans land and wondering about how the underground worked it seems even more amazing that such oppression could exist in Europe during my lifetime…..
What a personal connection you have to the day. Thank for sharing!