The Fall of the Wall

[€uroMeinke]

I've been following with much interest all the stories about the fall of the Berlin Wall. It seems amazing to me that 20 years have already passed. Lisa and I had the chance to travel to Berlin in May of 1990, the wall was breached but the Germany's were still divided and to visit the East, we still (as American Citizens) had to pass through checkpoint Charlie.

When we arrived their a model was doing a photo shoot, skimpy outfit, glass of champagne, and a peaked soviet army cap. Berlin was giddy. But walking into the East it was like stepping back into time, the streets, the buildings, many still baring the scars of WW2, we were back in 1945 and this was the Germany that lost. Romanian Gypsies roamed the streets in bright polyester among the more dower Ossies, and they gladly took our Deutschmarks, or any other western currency we were willing to part with.

The before an after pictures amaze me, how much Berlin has changed. Growing up, I never expected to see this happen. A divided Europe, and divided world were immutable realties - nuclear annihilation being the only other possible future anyone ever cared to speculate about. And yet the wall came down with so many unexpected consequences, the velvet revolution of the Czech Republic, the violence in Yugoslavia. So many unforeseen futures now written into the past.

Cheers Berlin, I'd love to come back and see what you've become.