“I was enthused and happy”
We made phone calls at random across the entire country -- from norther to southern, from western to eastern Germany. Yet one denominator all call recipients had in common: it was their phone numbers which either contained the year 1949, when the Federal Republic of Germany and the former German Democratic Republic were founded, or the year 1989, when the Berlin Wall went down, and occasionally even the year 2009, which is the 20th anniversary of the peaceful revolution in former East Germany. We were asking the following questions to the call recipients: How did you experience the 9th of November 1989 and how have things changed for you since.
494989
WESTERN GERMANY: Baden-Wuerttemberg, Major City, Woman:
”Back then, we were watching the fall of the Berlin Wall on television. Yet personally we have no feelings of connection to former East Germany. Until this day we have neither been to eastern Germany nor to Berlin. But we have made plans to travel there. On that occasion I would like to see the Reichstag (i.e. German parliament building in Berlin). We haven’t had the opportunity to go there for many reasons. It simply depends on how things are going in life, so this won’t always make certain things possible that one would like to do.”
498909
WESTERN GERMANY: Hesse, Major City, Woman:
”I was in America, far far away from home, the day when the Berlin Wall went down. But I was able to watch the event live on television. This was possible because of the time difference. It wasn’t later than evening. Yet there had already been much turmoil preceding the event so that we already knew something was going to happen. It was all the same a great event. We found it overwhelming. We decided not to go anywhere that evening. Instead we were only sitting in front of the television and following the events. Somehow I was disappointed that I wasn’t any closer to the actual scene geographically. We just weren’t able to experience the atmosphere in Germany because we were still having another three weeks stay in the U.S.”
8949
WESTERN GERMANY: Rhineland-Palatinate, Village, Man:
”On November 9th, 1989, I was down at the restaurant during daytime laying out a new carpet. Later on at night, when I returned home, I turned on the television and saw the pictures: the Berlin Wall was down, the borders were open and people were greeting each other. I was enthused and happy.”
49890
WESTERN GERMANY: Lower Saxony, Small Town, Woman:
”Actually November 9th is my birthday. I was just 19 at the time. I’m yet a little angry, however, that this day didn’t manage to become the official day of Germany Unity. In that case it would have become our national holiday.”
“I was enthused and happy”
892009
WESTERN GERMANY: Lower Saxony, Village, Schoolgirl:
”When the Berlin Wall went down? Perhaps October 3rd, the day of German Unity. Does the event have anything to do with that date? We haven’t had this subject in school yet. But I know that people were trying to get out of eastern Germany because the were locked up, so to speak. Then they protested and at some moment the Berlin Wall just came down. I wouldn’t want to have such a wall. But I wasn’t able to get my own impressions of Berlin and eastern Germany. I’ve only been once to Bavaria (in western Germany) so far.”
490989
EASTERN GERMANY: Brandenburg, Village, Woman:
”If the Berlin Wall hadn’t gone down, I’d still be heating my place with coal.”
892009
EASTERN GERMANY: Brandenburg, Major City, Woman:
„If there hadn’t been any political changes, I wouldn’t have been able to go on exchange for a year to an American highschool in the U.S. My parents would still be making plans for their own home. On Christmas Eve we needn’t stand anymore in line for oranges. But we did have Bananas in East Germany as well. It is simply a cliché that we didn’t have any. (She laughs).”
491989
WESTERN GERMANY: Baden-Wuerttemberg, Village, Man:
”I wasn’t there personally. But one of my cousins was working in Berlin for half a year at the time being. We didn’t have any mobile phones then otherwise I would have called him of course and asked what was going on in Berlin.”
498909
WESTERN GERMANY: Bavaria, Village, Man:
”In 1990 we made an extra trip to Berlin. We were watching the people as they were smashing it to pieces, the wall I mean. Then they were selling chunks of the wall. But I can tell you right away how things were, I didn’t buy any. 'I’m not going to spend any money on this.' That’s what I said.”
498909
EASTERN GERMANY, Saxony-Anhalt, Village, Man:
”The peaceful revolution has changed everything by 100 per cent. What was the first thing that I did after the political change? I started my own business.”
498909
WESTERN GERMANY: Bavaria, Village, Man:
”In the early 90’s we were having on one occasion a celebration and were sitting comfortably together. One of our guests was a person from eastern Germany who was visiting our Allgäu province. At one point she told us how nice things were since the Berlin wall had come down. And I replied to her that they, the East Germans, had been living with the wall for decades and would surely need another twenty more years to attain the same living standard as in western Germany. Then she clasped her hands to her head. I told her she could really believe me. It would take that much time until the eastern and western parts of the country would be on a par. And I think I wasn’t so wrong back then. Things are still lagging behind and are not quite on equal footing.” (He laughs)
conducted the interview. She is freelance journalist in Cologne. She works for the Westdeutsche Rundfunk broadcasting service.
Translation: Michael Eisenstein
Copyright: Goethe-Institut e. V., Online-Redaktion
February 2009
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