[Toquenne]

Can you believe it has been 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall!?

I remember watching it on TV with my Mum and little sister - my Dad, who was a massive Germanophile - had died earlier in the year and Mum just kept saying over and over "If only your Father could see this"

My parents had a lot of German friends who were celebrating for weeks after it happened.

I recall my parents talking about their trips to Berlin while the wall was still up - tram trips that went briefly through the East (The windows were painted over but scratch marks meant you could see through) - and the sadness of my Dad's friend whose family lived over in the East, while he had managed to build himself a veritable empire in the West.

So what are your memories? I can't believe it has been 20 years. I remember it so well, and at 13, I was more concerned about Bros and Madonna, but I still recall how important and life-changing it was.

[curlypops]

wow 20 years, that is amazing.

My dad has a piece of the wall.

[CaptainOblivious]

I was only 9 and had no idea about any of it when the wall came down. The following year we went overseas and happened to be in Berlin for the first weekend you could cross from one side to the other without a visa. Unbelievable really... My parents had taken us to a couple of concentration camps and we'd been to Anne Franks house and so on by that time but still had no real concept about it.

I can recall the people just walking back and forth at the checkpoint for ages, just because they could.

We also have some bits of the wall and even had a bash at part of it which was still standing. They just had a heap of sledgehammers all lined up along it so that anyone could give it a whack.

We also stayed with people in the East and West and the contrast was phenomenal. The family in the east, the kids were the same age as us and had never had grapes, oranges or steak and were just beside themselves when we turned up with them ready to cook dinner. the supermarkets had almost completely empty shelves because the people from the west would travel across the city and just buy everything.

[*magenta*]

I was a week or so away from giving birth to my first child, and to my absolute shame, didn't pay much attention to it.

[LynnyP]

It was extraordinary. I was driving to work when I heard and I remember having to pull over because I couldn't drive any more. So emotional. Such an incredible symbol of an age.

[Bimbogirl]

My DP is from the (former) East Germany and the anniversary is always an emotional time for him. He was 17 at the time of the fall and was part of an underground youth movement, pushing for reunification. They held meetings in secret locations, as being heard to discuss potential reunification could land you in jail or result in you being kicked out of school, your father loosing your job etc. There were Stazi (sp?), who were normal citizens who spied on friends, neighbours, colleagues and reported back any percieved Anti-East behaviour. So people just didn't trust anyone.

It took DP many months to actually cross the former border after the wall fell. In fact, his family did it together, hand in hand, lest for some reason the border closed up again. They all still remember the terror/exctiment at the crossing. His aunt was set up as part of an illegal border crossing many years earlier, and was jailed for a few years in terrible conditions. The West Germans "paid" for her release and she will never return to the former East.

One of the most positive big events to have happened in my lifetime I think. And no doubt the most positive, liberating and emotional thing to happen to DP and his family.

This post has been edited by Bimbogirl: 08/11/2009, 06:48 PM

[Toquenne]

For anyone who doesn't remember, or know much about it, an accessible and entertaining film is Goodbye Lenin (in fact I can't believe it isn't on the TV programme this week!) and a fantastic book written by a Sydney writer - Anna Funder - called Stasiland.

[Gossamer]

I also can't believe that the wall came down 20 years ago; thinking about it still sends shivers down my spine.

I was nearly 15 and my Grandmother was visitng from Czechoslovakia. It was amazing to watch the unfolding events in Berlin and then Prague with her. She was so emotional; having lived through Hitler's invasion and then the Soviet occupation she didn't believe that the Czechs would be free in her life time. She was, however, sad that my Grandfather (who was persecuted by the Communists) passed away the year before and didn't live to see this historic moment.

[boolean]

I know wow 20 years. I remember the disbelief and relief of hearing the news.

A friend of mine brought home a small chunk of the wall. She told us when she checked in at the airport to leave germany, her luggage was insanely over weight. When asked what she had in her luggage, she said a piece of the wall. They smiled and didn't charge her excessive baggage.

[kaboo]

It was my 18th birthday (gosh, that makes me feel old). And also the day after our HSC Modern History exam - just as well because it would have stuffed up all we had to write about the Cold War LOL.

I went to Berlin exactly a year later and it was amazing how quickly it had changed. I have a bit of the Wall (well, I think I do but who really knows?).