It was the evening of the 9th; came home from the hospital after work. It was about 2 a.m.; of course, my wife and kids were in bed already. Fixed myself something to eat, sat down in front of the TV and started searching through the channels. Suddenly, the Brandenburger Tor was there with people sitting on the Wall in front of it. Having lived in West Berlin, I knew that that was not a likely possibility. Great, I thought, another one of those dumb films showing the Wall coming down, or the East invading, or the West taking over, or something.

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(© BPA)

But, it showed "my" old West Berlin, so I watched it for a few minutes. Great movie: they even had some Vopos between the Mauer and the Tor ; looked almost real. I had my finger on the channel-change button already, when suddenly there was Dan Rather (I think it was D.R.) on a split screen. The makers of this movie really went all out to make it look realistic. And THEN, it slowly sank in what he was SAYING, and since there was no commercial break after the usual 15 minutes I began to realize that this was for real. I was glued to the set until dawn. Tried to call friends of mine in Berlin, but they were all at the party.

Watching the fall of the Wall holds special significance for me: as a twelve-year-old, I was visiting Berlin on August 13, 1961, when the Wall was built. I vividly remember the gut-wrenching fear I felt at the sight of the Soviet and American tanks facing each other at Checkpoint Charlie, the fear of not being able to go back home to West Germany again. What a contrast to the utter exhilaration of November 9, 1989!

And to complete the circle: this past October I was in Berlin again, 25 years after leaving, and stood near the spot in front of the Brandenburg Gate where I stood in 1961, and where they sat on the Wall in 1989, and was part of the crowd celebrating October 3. What a joy.