chrissxb

I was a 12 year old guy and watched the German News. Some time later my mom came home from work and I told her that breaking news. She replied: that is not possible, ... we spent the rest of the evening in tears in front of our TV . thinking of it and seeing the images of fall 89 on TV still gives me a gooseflesh and tears in my eyes.

what about you? do you remember? how did you get that information and what did it mean for you? Ronald Reagons speech in 1987 came true only 2 years later.

Falco Peregrinus

At the bar of my faculty society, watching the news on TV and drinking beer...

Aviatrix

I missed it!

At the time my partner was working in Brussels. We had arranged to meet in Brussels on the evening of 9 November, stay the night at his apartment and drive to Germany the next day to attend a hobby fair in Hannover.

I flew from CBG to AMS in the afternoon, got on a train to Brussels, we went straight out to a restaurant then straight to bed.

Woke up the next morning, went into the kitchen to make coffee, turned the TV on, and... WOW! I just burst into tears... (I should mention that I spent my childhood within walking distance of the East German border).

Then we set of for Hannover, and the further east we got the more Trabis we saw on the road... it just felt unreal! And Germany seemed to be echoing to the sound of just one word: WAHNSINN

USAFAN

Great thread!
I was that day and the next one or two days together with Mrs. USAFAN in Berlin....Had a feeling something would happen ... not that the wall was opening.
On Nov. 9th I had a meeting with an "On-line-information-provider" at Potsdamer Str. (West Berlin). Invited them to a Greek restaurant next door...but found out what happened only later at my hotel at Ku-Damm.
Next morning I had a meeting a TAZ, direct opposite Check-Point Charley. Those press-people had a lot to tell.... went to Check-Point Charley where the Trabbies were passing ... lots of press ... plenty press containers in front of Brandenburg Gate...I will never forget those days....could write a book about all. However, no tears, the whole event was very joyful. Provided the people from the East with coins (to make phone calls from a booth), with maps, which I had in my car and small Ritter Sport chocolate "quarters", etc.

Helena Handbaskets

I am an American, but I spent my "junior high school" years in Germany while my dad worked there from 1974-76. During our travels we drove through East Germany to West Berlin and even crossed over into East Berlin for a day. That experience and seeing the Alps were the two that had the most powerful and lasting impressions on me from our time in Germany.

So when I saw the news reports, I thanked God for CNN (24 hour news was still a bit of a novelty then), and was glued to the TV for hours. I went to work the next day bursting with the immensity of the thing and found myself among people who in general either failed to grasp the importance of it, or had not heard about it at all. I suppose I should have anticipated it, but I felt like I was having this great party all by myself in a crowd of people who didn't care to join me. I probably shouldn't sound so judgmental; I might very well have reacted similarly if not for my experience in Germany.

As coincidence had it, my dad was traveling on business in Germany, and was scheduled to be in Berlin 3 days later. I dusted off my rusty German and made a (fairly expensive, back then) phone call to the contact I had for him in Berlin, and communicated well enough to ask the woman to relay a message to him when he arrived: "Bring me back a piece of that wall!"

I still have that little piece of concrete, and keep it with a keepsake that has similar resonance to me - a replica of the key to the Bastille that was presented by France to George Washington, and still hangs on the wall at his Mt. Vernon home.

cfischer

In front of the TV all day videotaping the events, I still rememeber the day very well.

alex0683de

I was six, so I don't remember very much, but there are two images that remain etched in my memory and which I will never forget:

1. People standing in front of the wall, breaking down sections of it, singing So ein Tag, so wunderschön wie heute, so ein Tag, der dürfte nie vergeh'n. (Rough translation for non-German speakers: "Such a day, as wonderful as today, such a day should never fade away.")

2. People chanting Zugabe, Zugabe, Zugabe... ("Encore, encore...")

I also remember being allowed to stay up much, much later than usual!

f4free

The whole family was glued to the TV. It was fascinating, even given I was a little kid back then I clearly remember this.

szg

16 years old an also watching television. I can remember pictures of the Brandenburger Tor, where people came together after the wall was removed.

DTS

I was 7 yrs old, back then we didn't watch much TV so no one noticed it (plus I was propably in bed). The next morning my mother woke me up (usually this was done by my father, but he wasn't at home that week) for breakfast. The daily ritual of my parents was (and still is) to turn on the radio during breakfast for the news. At that moment we heard about the open borders and my mother started to cry, I actually didn't realize what happend but noticed that my mother was very happy.
This and my one and only journey to Berlin in 1986 are the only memories that I have of the wall and the border.

ralfkrippner

I just was drawn to the army to spend my military service in Nagold in the Black Forest part of Baden-Württemberg. The first three months of that term were very demanding so that in the evening one was really tired.
Well, despite a once weekly class that should create political awareness, there was no information or discussion of this topic during the daily duty times (roughly 5 a.m. to 8 p.m.) whatsoever. So all the news we got was via the small tv that one of the comrades brought into the 8 man sleeping room, till the "lights out" at 10 0r 10:30 or so. I remember we were glued to that for 2 or 3 evenings before we could get home over the weekend. I would have liked to stay much closer to the unfolding event and am very sorry that it was not allowed by the leaders of my unit that we young recruits follow the event for the one or other hour on tv or radio. So I lived through the whole event on the tv retrospectives that were broadcasted on the usual 1/5/10 years frame.

Flying Lawyer

I was preparing for my bar exam. My fraternity had a drinking evening this very day and I needed an evening to get a good shot. In the middle of the evening a young guy came in and said "the wall is down". We asked him whether he alreday had a drink too much. Obviously not. We spent the rest of the night in front of the TV.

exbayern

Great thread! I had just emigrated a few weeks before. I recall debating in Political Science class in the summer of 1989 whether we would see the wall fall in our lifetimes (most of us said 'no')

During the summer of 1989, we would have refugees cross the border all the time into our corner of Bavaria, a small indicator of what was to come.

During the day of that date, I sat in front of CNN crying my eyes out. I had to go work an overnight shift and could barely peel myself away to go to work. Of course, at work nobody really understood the emotional impact. I was living alone in a new city with no German community, and really felt like I was not invited to the party, nor would anyone understand my disappointment at the lack of the 'invitation'. Soon after I actually moved to be closer to family and a more substantial German expat community, where I could buy familar foods, newspapers, etc.

That event actually had a major impact on my decisions over the next few years. I found it very hard NOT to move back.

Much of my family lived in East Germany when I was a child; some of the family who escaped to the West could not go back until the regime change, and by then most family had passed away. Like millions of others, we had our own challenges with the changes, but it was a wonderful experience to witness.

totti

I was a 9 year old school in east berlin. While my parents did watch TV I was in bed sleeping. The only thing I remember is that when I went to school next day, more than half of my class wasn't there, because they did trips to the other part of Berlin. I don't have any special feelings connected to this incident, probably because I was too young. But for sure I am happy that it did happen...

supermasterphil

I was 5 years old and I don't remember that much. We were of cause watching TV, I see totally strangers hugging each other, my parents crying, people drinking plenty of sparkling water on TV and a lot of "strange" dressed people and very old fashioned cars

I love this topic by the way, great job chrissxb^^^