Just noticed this one, today (the 5th).

I was in Wuerzburg the day the wall came down.  It was a major topic there in our world history class.    I was finishing out the last year of the 11 I ended up spending there before I turned 16.  It was a fun place. 

Reading your stories of the times you spent over there brings back memories.  While I was (usually) seeing the same places over there that you did, I found that a lot of them didn't change very fast.  The same buildings would be in the same place for what seems like forever.  Even going back later on business trips, it doesn't seem changed.  You know you're in surreal land when you're teaching (as an adult) in a brigade classroom and can look out the window and see the window for the bedroom you spent 5 years in.  And it looks the same.  They even manage to keep the army housing looking the same.    Okay, enough rambling.  Got lost on the walk down memory lane.

Hypereborean Wanderer was a month old when we went to Berchestgaden for the first time.  We sat him on a stone wall that surrounds the patio of the General Walker Hotel.  I have a picture of him in that same place when he was ten years old.  And yet another when he was older.  The amazing thing is that I have seen pictures of Hitler and his cronies standing in that exact same place next to that low wall, taken in the thirties and forties.  It is one of the things that I love about Germany.  Thanks for stopping by.

The world celebrated that day.  It's sad to see how, after only 19 years, so many people want that wall to divide their own cities.... and their own hearts.

The 3rd October 1990 was a randomly chosen date to sign the dotted line of the reunification process. The truly remarkable fall of the Berlin wall happened on 9th November 1989 and during the months before that. The communal elections in spring 1989 were so fraudulent in their endresults that the people started to protest and a peaceful revolution took place. The people challenged the regime and organized a demonstration every monday where one of the slogans was "We are the people" (Wir sind das Volk).

But the 9th November was remarkable because it all came down to a misunderstood radio/tv announcement that the innercity borders in Berlin would be open made by Mr. Krenz and thousands went on the streets that night to go across to west berlin. The border patrol guards didn't know what to do and they did not want to create a bloodbath, so they did nothing and the people simply lifted the border and went through. That night they climbed the wall and from that day on the borders were open in Berlin.

The Handbag lady didn't want germany to reunite at all for fear of a too strong germany.. I think we did a good job in the last 19 years.

I watched it on tv....I was in 10th grade I think....it was pretty awesome...I remember seeing the people on the wall and thinking (among other things)...wow they're hair is cool like ours!  hahaha...BIG.

The fact is that the border crossings elsewhere had already started coming apart before that night.  There were over a hundred thousand East Germans lined up at the West German/Austrian border; they had crossed into Austria through border crossings that were barely manned.  The East German Border Police and the Army patrols had lost practically all interest in maintaining the crossings.  It was pretty evident by the time the wall was breached that it was going to happen.  But I remember watching that night as the volk mounted the wall and started pounding on it and trying to tear it down.  It was an awesome experience.  That Friday one of my buck sergeants took off for Berlin in his POV (no border checkpoints, no travel pass, no Russian guards, just drove to Berlin.  Something no one had done in decades).  He came back with the back bumper of his little Chevy bumping on the road because his trunk was full of chunks of the Wall.   I got a little piece of it somewhere.

The revolution as it were had started before when people left the GDR en masse via the FRG embassy in Prague and Hungary, but the whole thing culminated in Berlin when people simply lifted the border barriers themselves and walked across and through the Brandenburg gates and started to pick at the wall. I have a friend who heard the news in the radio and thought it was a hoax. She was 19 at the time and simply couldn't fathom that this should be possible. Nobody thought it was possible because the wall represented (among other things) a different political system and both, the federal republic and the german democratic republic, claimed to be the legitimate political operating system for all of germany. Giving in was out of the question because everybody said that they supported reunification but under their respective system. You probably know all that so sorry if I was preaching to the choir here

I have a friend who begs me all the time to get him a piece of the wall, but that isn't so easy anymore. There are still parts of it left standing as a monument, but I can't go there and start breaking pieces off. He'll just have to do that himself if he wants it that bad lol I won't commit a misdemeanor or even a felony just because he'd love to have a part of histoy in his hands.

I was working at the Robinson Barraks gas station at the time and I worked with a guy whose parents, who lived in the states, asked him to get them a piece of the Berlin Wall. He didn't know where to get one, so he took a piece of broken sidewalk curb from in front of the gas station, splashed some whiteot on it, and mailed it to them.

I needed this BFD.  I am so glad I checked and could read it.  Thanks for posting.  How is the family and you?

I may be back soon.  What a roller coaster of a ride, but like all of them, the ending was good!

I bet if you gathered up all the souvenier pieces of the wall and put them all together you would wind up with a wall ten times bigger than the original.  I bet I have met more than two hundred of the original 65 Flying Tigers!! 

HEY DOC!!  Really good to see you back around here.  Lots of folks have moved on.  Things here in the Swirl are fairly good, my favorite time of year, cooling down after a hot summer, leaves are turning colors and nights need a sweater.  I was more or less forced into retirement but am kinda getting used to it.  No work, OKAY!  Do post something up there now and again, we miss ya round these parts.

Utema:  I really feel blessed to have been in the presence of so much important history.  I have to admit that it gave me an eerie feeling that night, watching on TV and waiting with sphincter tight for the VOPOs to open fire.  I had spent the majority of my military career trying to keep the border sealed...and there it was...just falling down.  Considering the challenges, I personally think that Germany has handled things very well.

Finally, I can comment. I was having a hard time getting the box to show up.

That really had to be something to be there to witness such a piece of history. You sure have seen a lot.

Dr. Guy....where have you been? It's good to see you.

Kelly:  Suddenly my "quote" function is defunct.  The thing is that if you live long enough, you get to see a lot.  I was just lucky enough to see some of it up close.  My Grandma was old enough to remember the Wright Brothers' first flight and watched men walking on the moon.  All ya gotta do is stick around!