Mis-adventures of a Letterboxer-Errant

"A letterboxer errant without trail entanglements would be
like a tree without leaves or fruit, or a body without a soul"

(dvn2r ckr c. 2005)

Oh the places we will go! Dr Seuss

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Location: Pacific Northwest, VA, United States

a little kernel of a chaos manager for three children & a small amoeba of the US govt

Monday, November 09, 2009

THE WALL CAME TUMBLING DOWN !!!

Commemorating the
Fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago today
Honoring those valiant individuals who lost their lives trying to escape to freedom, the courageous ones who realized freedom after successful escapes & the stalwart individuals who defended the isle freedom, Berlin, so deep beyond the Iron Curtain.
I resided in Berlin, West Germany, from Aug 1981-Aug 1985 & then in Stuttgart, West Germany, from Aug 1985-Jun 1988. This experience in West Germany for much of my youth & during such a critical time in history had a lasting impact on me over my lifetime. It was very evident that there was a daily struggle for freedom by individuals in neighboring East Germany that unfolded right before our eyes. In fact the gravity of this struggle for freedom helped forge the individual who I am today. In fact, it's the reason why I chose the current career path that I'm on all these decades later.
A section of No Man's Land I photographed between Checkpoint Charlie & the Reichstag Building in May 1990.
(straddling remnants of the Berlin Wall in May 1990)
* * *
The evening the Wall 'broke open':
I still get goosebumps thinking about this momentous occasion when The Wall came down! I was at West Point walking from my barracks building to the library to conduct some research for a paper I was writing when I heard a rumor that The Wall had come down. I could NOT believe it! I ran to the library in hopes to learn more about the situation and caught a glimpse of CNN where I could see video images of folks dancing around Brandenburg Gate and atop The Wall. What really grabbed my attention was seeing teenagers dancing on The Wall wearing high school letterjackets from the two high schools I attended when I lived in Berlin (John F. Kennedy Schule & Berlin American High School). That was absolutely SURREAL seeing these kids dancing in what had been considered No Man's Land when we resided there.

A view of No Man's Land (the gap of land between the Berlin Wall that separated West Berlin from East Germany as seen from the French Sector of Berlin in May 1990 when I visited the area on a study program as a cadet.
Me doing my part to help 'tear down this Wall!" ;) (May 1990)

The following May (1990), I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in an overseas language training program which allowed me to spend 6 weeks in Berlin. It was absolutely
amazing to be back there, so soon after The Wall had opened. It was unbelievably cool to be able to head freely between West & East Berlin without having to flash identification, to be able to ride the S (Strassen)-Bahn (the street car that would cross between West & East Berlin) that had been forbidden for us when we resided there in the 80s. It was wild to be able to visit a disco in downtown East Berlin. That was absolutely unheard of when The Wall was still standing!
I took this photo of an East German vehicle freely passing through Checkpoint Charlie in May 1990. This would have been absolutely IMPOSSIBLE when The Wall was still up.

Finally, I recall seeing posters advertising the German-American Rodeo & German-American Volksfest plastered all around Aleksander Platz (the big city square in downtown East Berlin). Seeing those posters was when it really sank in that The Wall had fallen for good! ;)
* * *
The Berlin Wall--hoping that it serves as a constant reminder how precious & fragile individual freedom is!

5 Comments:

Blogger Hansenclan said...

Wow. THANK YOU for sharing your experiences concerning the Berlin Wall.

I have a sweatshirt (long outgrown, unfortunately) which commemorates the tearing down of the Berlin Wall.

To me, it is a symbol of the power of prayer, and that there is always hope. In my lifetime (I'm 47) The Wall had always been there and I assumed it always would be -- that nothing would change that.

I'm happy to have been proven wrong. What a blessed day that was. An answer to a multitude of prayers.

Hansenclan

5:58 PM  
Blogger Mark and Sue said...

Great to hear from you again and thanks for sharing more of your wonderful travel experiences.
x0x0
Mark

6:21 PM  
Blogger Ryan said...

Wow! You look like a kid in those photos! =) Glad to see you're alive and well!

Carpe diem!

-- Ryan

7:02 PM  
Blogger Liz Henderson (Hendel D'bu) said...

Great tour! Thanks for commemorating such a history anniversary! ~SHH :-)

8:28 PM  
Blogger Scarab said...

It was so exciting listening to the news at the time. That Christmas they sold pieces of the Berlin Wall in little boxes as souvenirs in many department stores.
Scarab

8:25 AM  

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