The fall of Communism

The fall of the Berlin Wall - 20 years on

Politics

09.11.2009

by Sarah Hartley

Dossier index

20 years since the collapse of the Eastern Bloc

Euranet presents a special programme marking 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall - broadcast from a cafe near Bornholmer Strasse, the first checkpoint to be opened on 9 November 1989. Our guests tell us about the divided city of the past and the impact the wall still has on life today.

Crossing the Wall

Pascal Kluttig was one of the first 500 East Germans to cross the border at Bornholmer Strasse. He was sitting in a cafe near the border when he heard the news and rushed outside to find out what was going on. At the checkpoint he joined a large crowd and as soon as the gate was opened he ran through. "We just wanted to figure out what West Berlin was," he says, adding that West Berliners showed a similar curiousity - warmly greeting those crossing and offering them the use of their phones to ring relatives in the West.

Network Europe Berlin Special

A special broadcast from Berlin to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall...

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Like thousands of his fellow countrymen, Pascal felt frustrated with the status quo in the GDR. He says many young people found ways to express this frustration by getting involved in hooliganism or subversive activity, such as helping those determined to try to cross the wall. But such activities naturally attracted the attention of the feared secret police, the Stasi.

Petra Moritz from the BStU Stasi archive documentation centre, however, explains that it was not just people like Pascal whom the Stasi kept tabs on. In one particular case, children were used to unwittingly inform on their parents. They were asked at school to describe the clock they saw on the TV screens at home before the news, unaware that the Stasi could tell from their answer whether their parents were receiving West German television or not.

Soundtrack to the fall of the wall

State contol extended to all areas of life - including culture and music. Music producer Mark Reeder, originally from Manchester but immersed in the Berlin music scene since 1978, explains how he had to smuggle records and equipment across into the GDR for his friends. As well as deciding what records could go on sale, the state would limit access to musical instruments, controlled the record industry and censored lyrics deemed to be unsuitable.

But Mark says that an underground scene did still exist. Young people, who were able to hear alternative music such as punk and new wave transmitted by Western broadcasters, began pushing for change. Underground concerts were held, often in churches, where they were officially described them as a "blues mass". Mark arranged one of the now legendary secret gigs by Western German band Die Toten Hosen in 1989, an experience he describes as "very emotional".

What happened next?

While no one doubts that the fall of the Berlin Wall was a historical milestone, opinions are much more divided on whether the changes since have all been for the best. With reunification the following year, East Germans saw their country and a way of life nearly 40 years old disappear virtually overnight. Many say that the good aspects of the socialist system were indiscriminately swept away along with the bad.

West Berliner Christian Bocker agrees that combining the two Germanys turned out to be more difficult than expected. "I wouldn't say a clash, but just a cultural difference," he explains. He feels there is still a marked difference in the characters of older East and West Germans. "East Germans are much less pushy, less willing to put themselves in the limelight," he says.

In 1989 many East Germans did not want to bring about the end of their state. One such East Berliner, Steve Winkler, is unhappy the way things are developing. He wanted to change the system within East Germany, keeping basic socialist values but allowing free speech and freedom of travel. He feels that reunification has led to a massive rise in nationalism, as exhibited by growing strength of radical left.