The 9th of November 1989 began for the Berliners as a usual working day. The weather forecast said it would be a rainy day with mild temperatures of 10 degrees. The greyish sky that day seemed to confirm the predictions. However, the evening brought something unbelievable! The Berlin Wall was, due to the current report of the Pulitburo SED on the new travel law, literally overrun. On the border checkpoints were long queues of people – nobody could have been stopped anymore. They conquered the Wall, danced together, hugged with tears of happiness in their eyes. The city that had been divided for 28 year was finally open! GDR citizens could travel again, families reunited, and friends were able to meet again!
There was no divided country anymore – a completely new chapter of German history could start!
On the 30th anniversary of the fall of Berlin Wall, our apprentice Agata, invites you to an emotional tour through the past Berlin. She has collected some memories from the members of our team and presented it in both video and written form.
Yesterday I asked my mother of we still had photos from the 9th of November 1989. She said `no‘
since it hadn’t been a special day for us. Interesting because we left the GDR in July. In August we moved to Aschaffenburg form my parents had found job there and somehow Berlin was too far.
At that time we did not have a tv so about the open borders we found out when Marla, a study friend of my parents, together woth her family, suddenly stood at our door. On the 10th of November, she simply got into her car in Greiz and came to us. When I think of that day, friends of our family come to my mind. In the photo, you can se us on the day of our departure. It was a sunny day. Our friends organised everything for us and we had to pick up our ID certifications form the ministry. Bernhard drove us while Marianne stood already in the queue so that when we arrived, we could immediately get in. That train we could not miss. In Charlottenhof park we had a farewell picnic and very probable that we cheered with a glass of Rotkäppchen sparkling wine. In the photo I look quite thoughtful and suddenly I remember one thought that then I did not dare think about – we actually could have missed the train and then I would not have to leave for good.
Do you still remember that time? We would be grateful to hear from you. Share your memories with us via email: post@berlinek.de or send us a voice message via WhatsApp: 01604759619
This kind of self-prepared videos are a wonderful idea for a project during language lessons. They can be very easily didacticized, and many interesting topics can be implied. For instance, by describing different situations students may practise the tenses forms.
How exactly videos may be used during lesson we will tell you soon in another post.