THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL '20th ANNIVERSARY'

November 9, 1989 was the fall of the Berlin Wall. I was 8 years old and became an eye-witness of this historic world and life changing event. At the time I was not able to grasp what the fall of the Berlin Wall meant to my life and how it would positively impact the world.

I was a happy little girl born in East Berlin, the communist side of the city, and the Wall was part of my life. I knew that I was never able to see what the west side of my city looks like and how kids on the other side would be. I lived very closely to the Wall in the north east district called Pankow. The bus that I took every day to swimming practice drove by the Wall and I vividly remember that I always tried to sneak a peek over the Wall, however I could only see the top of buildings on the other side and never any people. I had a good life in East Berlin, yet I also remember a life of scarcity. We only had three flavors of ice cream. Our candy selection was rather small and soft drinks did not exist. I did not miss having a broader selection of candy, clothes, or toys because I did not know any better. After all, I had all I needed and I was never hungry.

The night of November 9, 1989 my parents woke my sister and I up to drive to the wall to cross over to the west side of the city. My parents were glued to the TV the entire week prior to that day, since people started demonstrating and vandalizing the city to get the East German government to open the boarders. It was a scary and an uncertain period and nobody knew what was going to happen....after all there was the Cold War between the USA and the Soviet Union and Berlin was the point where both nations came together and clashed. The city of Berlin was divided into East (the Soviet communist part) and West (the US, English, and French capitalist part) and ultimately was used as the front of the Cold War. Most people's fear was that instead of the East German government opening the Wall...that an actual war would break out, where military action and maybe even nuclear bombs would have been the result due to the radical demonstrations of the East Germans to tear down the Wall.

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and you might be able to get a better feel of how everything happened. I will always remember that day and it will be part of my life forever. I would have never been able to travel the world the way I have if it wouldn't have been for that historic event. It changed my life and millions of others! I LOVE BERLIN and as JFK said in front if the Berlin Wall 'ICH BIN EIN BERLINER'!