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Twenty years ago: Fall of the Berlin Wall

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Nin
Post subject: Twenty years ago: Fall of the Berlin Wall
Posted: Wed 04 Nov , 2009 1:27 pm
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As you all know, I am German, so of course for me it is a very meaningful anniversary. I remember the day so well, my mother crying on the phone. Realising that it was twenty years ago made me realise time going by.

I am curious to know how you see the fall of the Wall today - as a major turn in European history, an overestimated event a huge moment of hope -and if that, have those hopes been fulfilled?- or does it mean nothing to you?

I will certainly write more about what it means to me, but my school also prepares an exhibition about that anniversary and I have a lot of work to do for it.

:)

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MariaHobbit
Post subject: Re: Twenty years ago: Fall of the Berlin Wall
Posted: Wed 04 Nov , 2009 2:13 pm
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My only memories of Berlin are from before the wall fell, so it makes me happy to imagine it without all that scary tension everywhere.

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TheEllipticalDisillusion
Post subject: Re: Twenty years ago: Fall of the Berlin Wall
Posted: Wed 04 Nov , 2009 3:47 pm
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I understand its historical significance, but it means nothing to me. I was alive when it happened, but too young to know or care. I cared more about GI Joe and Transformers... now if GI Joe toppled the wall against Cobra... I might have cared.

It certainly is excellent that you're celebrating a major anniversary of its fall.

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ToshoftheWuffingas
Post subject: Re: Twenty years ago: Fall of the Berlin Wall
Posted: Wed 04 Nov , 2009 4:07 pm
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I remember it like yesterday. Nothing else gave me such a sense of history being made, not even the Moon landings.
My son who was 8 at the time still remembers my reaction. You might say it was the final act of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.

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Lord_Morningstar
Post subject: Re: Twenty years ago: Fall of the Berlin Wall
Posted: Wed 04 Nov , 2009 4:19 pm
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Biggest single event of the 20th century following the end of the Second World War in my view.

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Riverthalos
Post subject: Re: Twenty years ago: Fall of the Berlin Wall
Posted: Wed 04 Nov , 2009 4:29 pm
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ToshoftheWuffingas wrote:
I remember it like yesterday. Nothing else gave me such a sense of history being made, not even the Moon landings.
My son who was 8 at the time still remembers my reaction. You might say it was the final act of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.
I too was 8 when the Wall came down. It's my parents' reaction I remember most. That and when the USSR came apart a couple years later. At some deep, visceral level they still can't believe it happened, though of course they know damn well it did.

I think I shall ask S what it meant to him. He was certainly old enough to notice and care and he was growing up on the other side, so to speak.

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Ara-anna
Post subject: Re: Twenty years ago: Fall of the Berlin Wall
Posted: Wed 04 Nov , 2009 7:22 pm
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I remember thinking that my children (unborn at the time) would live in a much more peaceful world., that I would not have to worry about sending a child off to war....boy was I wrong. Not that either of my kids are in any of the armed services and my son has asthma so he won't qualify anyway.

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Nin
Post subject: Re: Twenty years ago: Fall of the Berlin Wall
Posted: Wed 04 Nov , 2009 9:10 pm
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ToshoftheWuffingas wrote:
I remember it like yesterday. Nothing else gave me such a sense of history being made, not even the Moon landings.
I was not born in 1969 - but I felt like you, Tosh, in 1989 - this was history and it was happening under my eyes. And in my country! (Although I already lived in Switzerland). But for me, German, the most astonishing thing of all was that something good happened in Germany! I had always found being German heavy, being the heir of the Nazi crimes - and now it was different - being German was a sign of joy and hoope - so much hope! And even if many of the hopes have been disappointed within the renunification, the fall of the Wall had showed for me that the world can change, that everything is possible. And in that it has changed my view of the world, of life, of history for good. :)

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Estel
Post subject: Re: Twenty years ago: Fall of the Berlin Wall
Posted: Wed 04 Nov , 2009 11:30 pm
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I remember when it happened, and even though I was only 10, it was a huge thing. Perhaps it was because of growing up on a military base where part of the "Star Wars" program was being tested, but the eighties, for me, were all about the iron curtain, the cold war, etc. The Wall coming down seemed to signify a whole new era.


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LalaithUrwen
Post subject: Re: Twenty years ago: Fall of the Berlin Wall
Posted: Fri 06 Nov , 2009 4:25 am
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I remember it well, Nin. I was 17 and watching it come down brought tears to my eyes. It was such a symbol of hope that it was torn down! I was so happy for the German people. :) For all of us, really.

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Crucifer
Post subject: Re: Twenty years ago: Fall of the Berlin Wall
Posted: Sat 07 Nov , 2009 3:35 pm
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I was something along the lines of 6 months old at the time, and therefore have no recollection of the event, but I appreciate growing up without it! :)

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laureanna
Post subject: Re: Twenty years ago: Fall of the Berlin Wall
Posted: Sat 07 Nov , 2009 4:48 pm
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I always felt so sad for the people who tried to rush the wall and escape East Germany, and were killed. If only they had waited a little while. Most political regimes don't last a lifetime.

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