The Berlin Wall – This is a story about my experience with that Wall

The Berlin Wall was erected in the night of August 13, 1961, it was a weekend and most Berliners slept while the East German government begun to systematically close the border. In the early morning of that Sunday most of the first work was done, the border to West Berlin was closed. The East German troops had begun to tear up streets and to install barbed wire entanglement and fences throughout Berlin. The first generation concrete elements and large square blocks were used and were installed a few days later. Within the next months, the first generation of the Berlin Wall was erected. In June of the following year, the second Wall was built, in order to prevent the citizens in the East from escaping to the West. Over the next several years, the Wall was improved and it's difficult to distinguish between the first and the second generations of the Wall. It mattered little since the 3rd generation of the wall replaced them both in 1965, the year of my birth. And, that was not good enough to keep the populace contained and in 1975 the fourth generation of the wall was started. I do not suppose they were calling them 3G and 4G like the catchy moniker that cell phone companies call their high speed data plans.

Earlier this year we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of that wall, like Ronald Regan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”. On November 9 1989 a press conference was held where the GDR (German Democratic Republic) announced that travel restrictions for East Germans had been lifted. That was not exactly to plan, the person they sent out was not press savvy and was not well versed and spoke incorrectly. The plan was to have the restrictions lifted the next day so the borders were ill prepared of the onslaught of folk streaming out of communist Berlin into the free West. As the wall was being constructed, over 3.5 million folks had managed to escape, before the Wall became truly effective. In the 28 years it was erected over 5000 more attempted daring escapes, best that can be deciphered from the records nearly 200 died making the attempt. After the Wall fell it took nearly another year, it was October 3rd 1990 before reunification was formally concluded and Germany was reunited as one.

Earlier in that year, 1990, my Mom was planning a trip back to England, she was born there and her mother was still alive at that time. After talking to her many times about the trip, she indicated that she would really like to make it over to Germany to see the wall gone. She grew up in England and was there during the Blitz, which was the sustained bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941. That attack on Britain devastated many towns and cities across the country but it began with 57 consecutive nights of bombing on London. When it was over more than 43,000 civilians, half of them in London, had been killed and another million houses were destroyed or damaged. So, Mom told Bride and I, we were not married yet then, about not having enough in the budget to make the trip over to Germany and she was bummed. We were in no position to help out really but when we found out they would be taking Check Point Charlie out while she was in England we could not resist. We bought her ticket to Germany, it was from England so it was not terribly expensive. We asked only one thing, that she bring us a small piece of the wall to remind us of the occasion. She was there on that fateful day, June 22 when they literally craned out the building that was once a terrible symbol of the communist government that ran East Berlin – Checkpoint Charlie was gone.

Since that time a copy of the American guardhouse has been erected on the original spot and like anything, that replica was constructed with protest by some. I guess for the folks who ended up on the wrong side of that wall I can understand why they would not want to see such a thing. Well My Mom sends us postcards and letters from Berlin and she thanks us for picking up the flight. I can not imagine what that must have been like for her, it was incredible for me watching communism crumble in such grand fashion. I can only imagine what it must have felt like for her, to be bombed by the Germans and to see an Iron Curtain descend across Europe, as Winston Churchill first called it during a speech in Fulton, Missouri. And now, to not only see it come down but to be there when the symbolic Check Point Charlie was removed, it had to be…….. priceless. In her last postcard before leaving Berlin she told us, she had gotten us a piece of the wall, I remember being ecstatic. I was not sure she would be able to get a piece that was not from a tourist trap gift shop, most of wall was officially torn down when she arrived there. I knew I did not want a piece from a gift shop, I could have gotten that here.

Well we were living in Baltimore at the time and after her return, she planned a trip to come see us. When she arrived, she could hardly wait to give us our piece of the Wall – I was stunned! She told us the story of hooking up with a local taxi driver who toured her all around Berlin. This was NOT the tour that would have been provided through a travel agent, this was a backdoor look into the real Berlin. I did that a lot when I was in the military and we visited somewhere. I would take the official tours and see the things that that country wanted you to see, the good stuff. I would then find me a local, cab drivers were great, to take me around and show me the real sights, the ones that are varnished over by the publicity minded tourist industry. Anyway, she opens this package and pulls out a nearly 20-pound chunk of the Berlin Wall. Did I mention I was stunned? The taxi driver took her to a place to purchase a hammer and then had taken her to a spot that she was able to literally pound a chunk of the wall off. She had kept a large chunk for herself as well. How cool was this, a large chunk of the wall that was literally broken off the Wall by my Mom.

Not sure why but I guess with the coverage of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall early last month coupled with losing Mom earlier this year got me to thinking about that trip and that piece of the Wall I have.