The Fall of The Wall

Some more thoughts about this anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall and the opening of all the borders surrounding East Germany.
It just makes you think how much has changed since, and what was always simply there(as insane as the whole idea of a wall built to keep a country's citizens from leaving, and that East Germany pretty much bankrupted itself by spending so much to build, man, and maintain the wall which surrounded the entire country, not just the east section of Berlin) since I could remember growing up, is already a thing of the past.

Because my mother is from Berlin, I visited that city a number of times when I was a child and then on into my 20's. Most of my mother's family was lucky--they lived in West Berlin(meaning they could travel freely wherever they liked in the world, even coming to visit us in the USA a few times), but there were some cousins who had stayed behind in what was known as the "Ost Zone"(East Zone). They exchanged letters and cards but never could meet.
The "Wall", as strange as the whole concept seems now, was a daily, accepted fact of life for Berliners, and all Germans from the time it went up in 1961. When we visited my relatives, it was just always there in certain places--a looming concrete barrier with warning signs in English, German, Russian and French nearby. Sometimes a backdrop for photos--a odd sort of tourist attraction , like near the Brandenburg Gate. Sometimes, when taking a walk in one direction, you would come to the end of the American or English zone and there was that wall again. Even when on a boat on a river or lake, there, in the middle of the water was a sign sticking out, warning not to cross a certain point. You could see across the water at some buildings and knew this was East Germany. You spotted watchtowers (on both sides of the wall) and accepted it as normal.
The last time I was in Berlin was 1989, but in the early spring. I wish I could have been there in November, for the joyous events. But already, there was a feeling of some loosening up of the strict rules that most Soviet-influenced countries usually experienced. While taking the photos(in slideshow below)at the Wall one day, I was approached by a young man who told me he was from Russia and he gave me a few pins of his city--St. Petersburg. But at that time, still, it was called Leningrad. And I was somewhat surprised that the Russian was on the West side of the wall! Things were definitely changing and 1989 was an amazing year.

In 1989 the first free labor union was founded in the communist Poland.
The end of the communist system had begun.
The Soviet Union could control their satellites yet but with the new leader Mikhail Gorbachev their politics changed in 1984. Gorbachev's reforms, Perestroika and Glasnost should renew the Stalinist system in the Soviet Union but not replace the communist system.The reforms in the Soviet Union also had its effects on the other communist countries, especially in Poland and Hungary.
On August 23, 1989 Hungary opened the iron curtain to Austria.Months before East German tourists used their chance to escape to Austria from Hungary and in September 1989 more than 13 000 East German escaped via Hungary within three days. It was the first mass exodus of East Germans after the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961.Mass demonstrations against the government and the system in East Germany begun at the end of September and took until November 1989.Erich Honecker, East Germany's head of state, had to resign on October 18, 1989.
The new government prepared a new law to lift the travel restrictions for East German citizen.At 06.53 pm on November 9, 1989 a member of the new East German government was asked at a press conference when the new East German travel law comes into force.He answered: "Well, as far as I can see, ... straightaway, immediately.
Thousands of East Berliners went to the border crossings. At Bornholmer Strasse the people demanded to open the border and at 10.30 pm the border was opened there.That moment meant the end of the Berlin Wall.Soon other border crossing points opened the gates to the West. In that night the deadly border was opened by East Germans peacefully.

info from The Fall Of The Berlin Wall website

I'll never forget waking up the next morning and seeing the happy, peaceful event on the TV news--the masses of happy East Berliners streaming into the West and the welcoming West Berliners greeting them. Like one big party. It was amazing and even last Sunday when I watched a documentery(mostly about the brave attempts to escape over the wall by some East Germans), I got all choked up and emotional at the end, watching once again, the footage of what happened on November 9, 1989. My mother was woken up early that morning by my ecstatic uncle, telling me their cousins from East Berlin were actually in his apartment at that very moment, and the border was open!