"I clearly remember the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. I grew up right in the middle of Germany in the seventies and eighties in the land of Hesse which was then close to the border to the east, Thuringia.
Close means about two miles.
When I was a little girl, my grandmother had talked about the war and how her family had to leave their homes which would today be in Poland.
This inner German border was 858 miles long and reached from the Baltic Sea to the now Czech Republic.
I knew about the alarms, trenches, booby traps. I saw the watchtowers every day. We also knew some of the 50,000 German border guards were observing us. Where I lived and played was what Winston Churchill had seen as the Iron Curtain.
I saw this iron curtain from the bedroom window, also a castle in the background (Hanstein Castle) where I thought I would never in my whole life be able to go.
It became easier to travel to America than to go to the other part of Germany.
However, I went several times for a visit before the wall came down after having to wait for a visa. I went to Erfurt, Weimar, Eisenach just to name a few places.
Life was different in the east. People were the same. I had a pen-friend in the east called Silke.
We are still in touch now and good friends. I could visit her before 1989 but she was never allowed to come over to the west.
I was always frightened of the strict border controls. The GDR soldiers were cold as ice and not friendly.
When I heard on the TV news on 9 November that the wall had come down in Berlin after the peaceful demonstrations we all cried, and only three days later the borders were opened near the village where I lived.
I heard the noises from the workmen with their vehicles to pull the barbed-wired fences down, and after half past one on Sunday 12 November 1989 the first Trabis (Trabant cars) came through.
What an emotional feeling! As westerners we had all been to the shops buying welcome gifts and so on.
I never forgot the Trabant smells for months after the wall had come down.
Everyone wanted to go to the west, to see all those places where they were not allowed to go, to meet friends and families.
This November of 1989 to me has been an unforgettable experience when the crossings were opened immediately.
In the past people had tried to escape and died."
your comments
Annette Strauch
Natallini Thank you for your comment which I treasure very much! Personally, this event ranks among my five biggest experiences in my life: 1. Fall of the Berlin Wall; 2. having had a successful operation, 3. my life in Wales, 4. the invention of web 2.0, 5. my time at University.Interesting experiences for you, Natallini, with your friend from Bamberg in the US in 1989!
Fri Nov 13 11:39:54 2009
Natallini, U.S.
What a great account of your experience with the Berlin Wall! I was in High School during this time. As with most U.S. school kids at the time, this would have come and gone without much fanfare. I was sitting in Latin class and my best friend who was on exchange from Bamberg Germany came into the classroom a little frantic and crying. She was telling us about the wall coming down and how amazing it was. She wished so badly that she was in Germany so she could go there. I think this will go down as one of the greatest moments in history.
Wed Nov 11 15:23:43 2009
Annette Strauch, Machynlleth
I am happy about your comment, Douglas! You have seen many changes in this world. Thank you - and peace!@Christian thank you also for your very interesting story and how you had your first contact with East Germany because of the Wartburg car. By the way, my father drove an Opel Kadett at the time which soon became the Astra.I am sure your wife is telling you many stories. We celebrated in Machynlleth last night with the DVD of "The Wall" by Pink Floyd from Berlin in 1990, wine and good crisps.This morning I was invited to talk on BBC Radio Cymru with Sabine ! Heinz and Emlyn Sherrington on a programme called "Taro'r Post.S4C has done a film called "Wal Berlin" for the Welsh TV. I watched the programme with interest but I thought they could have shown more views from the west also. It is a good programme, worth watching.The fall of the wall also changed the life of West Germans.I had the fence in front of my eyes every day and was really glad when everything went.The world is not better now but certain dangers have disappeared! There is unemployment in the former East but before some people had really useless jobs or were not working but they were all employed.
Wed Nov 11 15:07:43 2009
Christian Jerzembek, Bridgend
During November 1989 I was doing my national service with the west German navy. So I used to travel home on the Friday and back to the navy port Kiel on Sunday night or early Monday morning. On Sunday 12th November 1989 I was travelling with my car (Opel Kadett – in the UK that would be a Astra Mark 1) from my hometown Wilhelmshaven to Kiel when I decided to have a break and pulled into some services close to Hamburg. By then it was 11:30pm and had started to rain. Then I saw a family, looking a bit lost, sticking their heads under the bonnet of an unusual car. It took me a moment but then I realised that the car was a Wartburg and that the family must be visitors from eastern Germany. As I always carried a supply of tooling with me I thought I’d ask them what was wrong and if I could help them. They were most grateful but we were unable to locate or fix the fault. So I asked them where they were planning to go and it turned out that they were going to a place to visit family they have never before met not far (70Km) from my own destination. First I offered to give them a lift but the father was most concerned about leaving his car behind at the services as he had to wait 15 years to buy one (you had to fill in an application for a new car and had to wait until one was available – and you had to accept the colour that was available at the time…Secondhand cars could be even more expensive than new ones as they were immediately available! ). So in the end I offered them a tow to their destination. They were completely in awe that I trusted my car to be able to tow them for over 100Km’s; saying that this must be a heavy strain on my engine and gearbox. I pointed out that my car was a Diesel and it had 54hp so that shouldn’t be so much of a problem, which led to expressions of disbelief about so much power and demands to see the engine of my car. After they had crowded around the engine bay of my car for some time, admiring the engine and listening to it running, we tied their Wartburg to my car and set off in the direction of their destination. I had the mother and the children in my car while the father was steering his Wartburg behind me. During the journey we had some thick fog and it took us over two hours to get there. In the end we made it and they offered to pay me for my pains but I refused to take any payment from them. I went on my way and arrived in Kiel at 5am so I could have another hours sleep before my week started. I was glad that I could help them but unfortunately I didn’t take any contact details from them so I never found out how they got on afterwards, and if they still have the Wartburg car… This was my first contact with “the other Germany”, just days after the fall of the wall. Now, 20 years on, I live in the UK and my wife is from eastern Germany. She is currently writing a book about the time behind the iron curtain where she describes her own life and that of others under the thumb of the oppressive system in the east, living in constant fear of the Stasi (as they were watching western German TV programmes…
Tue Nov 10 11:21:05 2009
Douglas A.S.Higginson, Perth.Western Australia.
Many thanks for your interesting story Annette. I am 80 years of age and I can truly say that the breaking down of that wall made me very happy indeed. I may add that I did not have any association with any one connected to Germany. I was just so glad for everyone.
Fri Nov 6 14:13:27 2009
Do yoou have any memories of the fall of the Berlin Wall? Add your comments here:
