November 9, 1989 - The Berlin Wall Falls...

[Candlelight]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/3045527/Europes-Berlin-Wall-celebrations

World leaders join German crowds on Monday to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall - a stark symbol of the Cold War that divided a city and a continent.
Recollections of November 9, 1989 dominated German newspaper headlines at the weekend, and television stations ran programme after programme of documentary footage, eyewitness accounts and discussion panels about the event that changed the face of Europe.
"There has scarcely been an historical watershed so radical and so immediately visible as November 9, 1989," the Koelnische Rundschau daily wrote in an editorial.
"Anyone standing shortly before eight at the Brandenburg Gate would have thought it an absurd dream that there would be a crowd of people on top of the Wall four hours later."
Pivotal figures from the era that ushered in the collapse of communism in eastern Europe, such as ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Lech Walesa, who led anti-communist protests in Poland at the head of the Solidarity trade union, will take part in commemorative events around the once-divided capital on Monday.
Joining them will be the leaders of the nations which occupied postwar Germany, apart from the United States, which will be represented by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev are all due to attend the celebrations hosted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, amid a series of bilateral meetings.
Thousands of tourists have poured into the capital to mark the event which hastened the reunification of Germany, the collapse of the Iron Curtain and the end of the Soviet Union.
Merkel, who was working as a scientific researcher in East Berlin at the time, said this weekend the fall of the Wall was "the happiest day in recent Germany history".
Celebrations are planned all over the city, including the toppling of 1000 giant brightly coloured dominoes along a 1.5km stretch of the Wall's original path.
Shaken by mass flight of its citizens into capitalist West Berlin, Communist East Germany began erecting its "anti-fascist protection barrier" in the early hours of August 13, 1961.
According to a study published this year, at least 136 people were killed at the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989 while trying to escape.

*does a happy dance*

 

[Jetfire]

As imortant as this is...
It is a fluff peace for major news networks.
...Tom Brokaw was there!

It was bigger than those who reported it!!!
-rant over-

 

[ShamelessMcBundy]

"Shaka, when the walls fell."

 

[WillsBabe]

I remember watching the stuff leading up to this - the things happening in Romania and the Soviet Union. It was an amazing time. I was telling my niece back in the summer all about a divided Europe, and she found it a very difficult concept to believe. I remember watching the wall falling and all the people coming out of the Eastern Bloc in their Trabant cars. It was amazing.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

The fall of the wall is one of my earliest memories. My dad was in Berlin during those days on a business trip, and we saw it on the telly. Of course my dad wasn't anywhere to be seen, but I remember looking for him.

Way cool.

 

[Australis]

Good times. I had a few tough times in the 90s, but really, from the kick off of these events in Eastern Europe (Romania, Berlin Wall, etc) through to 9/11, it was a good time. Not perfect, but good. Topped off with the Olympics here in Sydney, and those brilliant opening and closing ceremonies. I was working in Sydney then, brilliant time.

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

At the time, I was in high school preparing yearly exams. Quite amazing to see it on TV on the other side of the world.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Historic moment indeed. I still have chills in my spine every time I think about that day. I was 11: I could not sleep that night because I just didn't know what kind of world I would be waking up the next morning.
In the end, it was not so really different, but the air was sweeter and we could breath more easily. A great day for Germany, a great day for Europe, a great day for the world.

 

[TGTheodore]

To this day I maintain that a lot of higher-up Russians and East Germans must have become quite wealthy courtesy of the Reagan and Bush Sr. administrations. The "collapse" just came a wee too suddenly after having lived through the Cold War for so long.

It was an amazing moment, but I think the machinations behind it were financial.

--Ted

 

[Australis]

Just had a thought. Further to my above post, that good time lasted from
(Brit dating) 9/11/89 - 11/9/01
(US dating) 11/9/89 - 9/11/01

9/11 - 11/9 Hmm.

 

[Jadzia]

I was very young when this happened.

When I was older, I remember my school had a small chunk of the wall on display. Then somebody in my year stole it, which caused an uproar.

 

[John Picard]

We had just returned from a deployment (US Navy) of a couple of months when I turned on the TV to see the wall being torn down. Talk about a moment in life. That caught us all completely off guard, and we'd been wondering what had happened (politically) while we were out to sea.

 

[Lindley]

I was six. I don't recall being aware of the event when it happened.

 

[Vulcan Princess]

I was seven. I remember the adults talking about how the Berlin Wall fell overnight. With all the literalness of a child, I remember thinking (but not saying) that it must have been a poorly constructed wall to just fall over like that. It wasn't until later that I grasped what a huge deal it was.

 

[John Picard]

I was seven. I remember the adults talking about how the Berlin Wall fell overnight. With all the literalness of a child, I remember thinking (but not saying) that it must have been a poorly constructed wall to just fall over like that. It wasn't until later that I grasped what a huge deal it was.

I remember coming home from pre-school to watch Underdog cartoons and couldn't understand the special broadcasts by NBC news concerning "Watergate". These special broadcasts were always preceded with screenshot of a fountain in front of a public building (can't remember which), and my little mind couldn't understand how a gate was made of water, how it was used, and what the big deal was.

 

[RandyS]

I was six. I don't recall being aware of the event when it happened.

I don't either, except for my mom telling me about it. I was 19 and in college at the time. 1989 was one of the best years of my life.

 

[Gagh]

A remember sitting up late as a 12 year old, watching this live on TV, and even at that age getting a huge feeling of the gravitas of the event.

 

[Jadzia]

I was seven. I remember the adults talking about how the Berlin Wall fell overnight. With all the literalness of a child, I remember thinking (but not saying) that it must have been a poorly constructed wall to just fall over like that.

I remember seeing the images on television of people stood on the wall knocking chunks out of it, and thinking: vandalism.

 

[Jeri]

We were living in Kassel, West Germany, in 1987 -- two years before, which was on the border with East Germany.

I remember we had wanted to go visit Eisenach, where Bach is from; but they had a border incident where someone was killed, and that always locked down the tourist visas for a while. We didn't get to go; but we did visit Berlin that year and saw the wall and Checkpoint Charlie.

The thing I really note about the fall of the wall is how sure everyone in both countries were beforehand that there would never be a reconciliation. It was not even on anybody's radar. And then it just happened. If that isn't enough to give people hope, I don't know what would.

 

[USS Triumphant]

I remember there being so much hope. And I guess some of that has been fulfilled, but Iraq War I, Bosnia, Somalia, 9/11, Afghanistan, and Iraq War II make it hard to remember, sometimes.

One of my favorite musical groups, T'Pau, came out with this not long after the wall fell. (Try to disregard what Carol is wearing - I swear the woman has abysmal taste sometimes.)

And of course, who could forget this? (No matter how much we might want to... )