Commemorating The Great Fall of the Terrible Wall – Holding a Piece of History

Do you remember the fall of the Berlin Wall? What an emotional event as we watched on television and in pictures!

Today, November 9, 2009 we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall.

I remember watching the images and the joy of the people of Berlin as the wall came down.  One of our family friends visited Berlin as a reporter soon after the wall fell and was allowed to bring back pieces of the wall that he chipped off by himself.  Below is a picture of me holding a piece of history, part of the Berlin Wall in my hands.

Courtesy Noir, Wikipedia, GNU License

Courtesy, Staka, Wikipedia GNU License

Courtesy Wikipedia, Public Domain

About the Berlin Wall from Wikipedia:

The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a concrete barrier erected by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) (East Germany) that completely encircled the city of West Berlin, separating it from East Germany, including East Berlin. The Wall included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the “death strip”) that contained anti-vehicle trenches, “fakir beds” and other defenses.

The separate and much longer inner German Border (the IGB) demarcated the border between East and West Germany. Both borders came to symbolize the Iron Curtain between Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc.

Prior to the Wall’s erection, 3.5 million East Germans had avoided Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions and escaped into West Germany, many over the border between East and West Berlin. During its existence from 1961 to 1989, the Wall stopped almost all such emigration and separated the GDR from West Berlin for more than a quarter of a century. After its erection, around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the wall, with estimates of the resulting death toll varying between around 100 and 200.

During a revolutionary wave sweeping across the Eastern Bloc, the East German government announced on November 9, 1989, after several weeks of civil unrest, that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans climbed onto and crossed the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, parts of the wall were chipped away by a euphoric public and by souvenir hunters; industrial equipment was later used to remove almost all of the rest. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on October 3, 1990.

Courtesy Wikipedia, GNU License

Courtesy Wikipedia, Sue Ream, CC 3

The Denver Post Blog posted awesome pictures of the event as well as the progression of the building of the wall, escape attempts, and the coming down of the wall.

Here’s the link to Ronald Reagan Berlin Wall Speech in its entirety, Courtesy Wikipedia.  I listened to the speech recently, and what a great hallmark it is.

Even Alvin and Chipmunks (the cartoon) had an episode I remember from the 80′s calling for the The Wall to come down.

Wikipedia Source: Berlin Wall. (2009, November 9). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:40, November 9, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Berlin_Wall&oldid=324762845