A different 9/11

[Twinky]

9 November 1989 - the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall...

When the East German government made its first confused announcement about permitting free travel to the West, the BBC's Brian Hanrahan in East Berlin set off to find out what was happening. Here is his description of the night the Berlin Wall came down.

At first East Berlin's wide cobbled streets were their usual empty selves.

But after a few miles, we were caught up in a vortex of hurrying people. By car, foot and on bicycles they were rushing forward.

Soon the street was so jammed we abandoned our car on the roadside and ran the last half mile with everybody else.

We arrived just in time to see the barrier swing up, and the gates open.

It is the curse of authoritarian regimes that at the moment they reform themselves and relax their grip they are at their most vulnerable - the crowd around us sensed it and was no longer afraid

BBC Europe editor, Gavin Hewitt

The excited crowd surged through - brushing aside the guards in green uniform who for years had threatened to shoot down anyone trying to cross to the West. But not tonight.

Nobody knew who would be in charge tomorrow, and the guards were not about to challenge the authority of the tens of thousands out in the streets.

One family had suitcases and children. They were getting away while the going was good. Others - celebratory and curious - were going as tourists to see a world long denied them.

Waiting for them were free buses to the Kurfurstendamm - West Berlin's main boulevard - and even families searching for, and sometimes finding, relatives who had been separated for decades.

'Death strip'

After watching the tears and the hugs, and sampling the champagne that was being freely poured, we slipped back into the East and went to the Brandenburg Gate.

Even at this stage it was still and isolated, with a ring of armed guards surrounding it, as though they feared the people would pick it up and carry it away.

But around me more and more East Berliners were gathering and looking across what was known as the death strip - the open ground in front of the Gate where guards could fire at anyone who approached.

And then spontaneously - emboldened by group courage - everyone started walking forward.

We went slowly at first while the guards backed away behind the Gate. Then as they slipped like ghosts into the darkness, we rushed forward and clambered up onto the wall itself.

The wall here was about 2m tall, with a flat surface on top.

Somehow we all scrambled up and crowded together like revellers on a tiny dance floor.

A day before, we would have been shot for being here - now people were knocking off pieces to take home as a souvenir of an unforgettable night.

For me it was that rare occasion when a story was unqualified good news.

After years watching the way communism was practised, I felt no need to mourn its collapse. Whatever came next had to be better.

Just as I finished describing the scene to the camera, I heard somebody behind me say: "I want to be an astronaut."

And why not - it was the night when dreams were coming true.

Edited November 9, 2009 by Twinky

[Watered Garden]

Fox News ! has a video of Reagan's famous "Mr. Gorbachev! Tear down this wall" speech interspersed with comments by others, pro and con. One of them is Mr. Gorbachev himself who of course poo-poo's the idea that it was even slightly influential. "All staged," he claims, "He was just using his acting skill!"

Well, hell, Gorby, it worked, didn't it?

[krys]

It is a time of real celebration. That was a great day, indeed.

[HAPe4me]

I lived there when it went up. It was a special thing to get a piece of it from a German friend when it came down. Even today, my friends in the eastern environs of Germany live with the ramifications of those years. Little things like being able to paint their house with color instead of drab graystone is a real taste of freedom for them. Slowly learning english is a treat. Their freedom to forget their Russian brings a giggle to their eyes.

[Twinky]

Hap, would love to hear more about your recollections of that very significant time.

[nyunknown]

That was a great day. A day a lot of people did not think was ever going to happen. At least hillary Clinton showed up. By the way why did not whats his name the obama show up. What up with that?

[HAPe4me]

Twinky- sorry if I mislead with my wording. I was only 10 when it went up, living in Heidelberg, so I have few remembrances of the reactions at the time. I know my parents had a friend who was a professor at the University and she was quite upset about being cut off from ready access to relatives. My mother cried when it came down and said "Now Dr. Leben will be thrilled".

My information about what it was like comes from a friend (Jurgen) I visited in 2006 near Callenberg. We spoke for an hour about what it was like, but I felt like I was intruding. He seemed really to want to forget those times. It might have been our difficulty in communicating (the only English he knew amounted to the word "ok". He grew up speaking German and Russian, and my german is mainly highschool era booklearning) but I think not. We spent 4 days together in eastern Germany while he showed us the area where my ancestry hails from.

It was he who seemed to have more than a little pride that he had not spoken Russian in 10 years. He was quite happy to be united with the rest of Germany.

Another friend (a sort of relative ancestrally back in the 1700s) did me a huge favor 10 years ago. I had written on a genealogy board that I would like to have pictures of the Grumbach area (southeast of Dresden) to show my father before he passed away. This gentleman responded and took several rolls of film which he developed and sent to me. When I pleaded with him to let me pay him, his response was "no, no, no. for so many years people in the east sent us packages of hope. I am very happy to finally be able to repay the kindness". I sent him a Denver Broncos hat anyway. The US west is still a thing of awe to them. They insisted on taking me to the Karl May house. (google it :) )