GAPP Milestone 1989
From 1989 to 1990, student participation fell slightly, but the program soon rebounded. As the dust settled from reunification, GAPP would reach new records throughout the 1990s,
GAPP during German Reunificaion and the 1990s
For decades, Germany was split into two separate nations: East and West. Over 40 years later, the two countries would reunite. During this tumultuous period of time, GAPP continued to organize and facilitate exchanges. Students who participated during this time got to witness some of the most significant historical moments in modern German history.
For me, the most important part of my GAPP experience was seeing Berlin and the wall. I was shocked at the reality that those in power can have that much control over people’s lives. That's just not something normal, at least in my experience. It really left an impression on me.
By the end of the 1980s, East Germany began to see a series of protests. Economic stagnation had gripped the East, and citizens were beginning to defect to the far more prosperous West German side. In 1988, Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev announced he would allow Eastern Bloc nations, like East Germany, to make internal decisions independently.
Several countries began seeing more peaceful protests, and the world focused on the infamous post-war boundary, the Iron Curtain. As Austria and Hungary removed their border fence in August of 1989, the Iron Curtain and the Eastern Bloc began to disintegrate.
We visited Berlin during our trip, and our English teacher took us into East Berlin for the day. First we went to the main areas inside the city, then he said 'Let's go see something else,' and we ventured further from the city center. Because the center was like a showcase; the further away you got, the more you could see what the East was really like. I remember seeing all these buildings with bullet holes from the war that had never been fixed, so much was in a state of disrepair. It showed just how tight things were in East Germany near the end.
GAPP Exchanges See A Slight Drop Amidst Conflict
GAPP continued exchanges throughout the 1980s, with students even making short excursions to the East German side. However, as tensions built near the end of the Eastern Bloc era, total student numbers dropped for the first time in GAPP’s history. The increasing fear of retaliation from the East German side as protests rose in number may have dissuaded some students from taking the trip. GAPP continued to hold exchanges during this time, but significant changes began happening to the country.In July of 1989 we met two university students who attended Humboldt University in East Berlin. I learned about the changes that were happening in East Berlin in 1989, and how it was becoming difficult to get visas to other eastern countries like Hungary.
When we went to East Berlin, the GAPP students and coordinators received a day visa that unfortunately got lost by the end of the day. So the border guards would not let us pass back to West Berlin but put us in a room with no windows and no interior door handles. We were in there for a couple of hours but ultimately they let us out and we were allowed to go.
The Berlin Wall Falls
As the Soviet Union weakened and East Germans fled to the West, the Berlin Wall became a political focal point. The wall, a heavily guarded concrete barrier that separated East from West, sat as a powerful symbol of Soviet control in Germany. As other Eastern Bloc nations became embroiled in revolution, protesters crowded on both sides of the wall. With the leadership of East Germany loosening restrictions several days before to quell protests, half a million Germans gathered around the East/West divide. The Berlin Wall’s destruction began soon after, with citizens on both sides attacking the symbolic divide with sledgehammers and pickaxes, chipping away at the concrete.The Berlin Wall officially fell on November 9th, 1989. On December 22nd, 1989, the Brandenburg Gate was opened to allow West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and East German Prime Minister Hans Modrow to greet one another. Less than a year later, the two sides were officially rejoined on German Unity Day, October 3rd, 1990.
I actually had to take a test on October 2nd 1990, the day before German Unity Day. After the test, I remember seeing all this glass on the ground, with broken champagne bottles everywhere from the celebrations.
