Wandering Buoy

Archive of Berlin Wall Stories


 An over-zealous soldier  Ulf Schliche - 1989 - Schlesischer Busch
I served as a border guard soldier at Schlesischer Busch. For catching people who tried illegally to cross the border strip we were granted a special day off. Every 25 meters there was a lantern and you guarded 3 posts i.e. 75 meters. I was on duty. It was a hot summer day, late afternoon and I was ...

 Dutiful Border Crossing  Carmen Ückert - 1989 - Bornholmer Brücke
On the 09th November ‘89 I was visiting a friend in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen (East). In the news we heard the explanation read out by Schabowski on a sheet of paper. My friend did not want to believe it. So I went the next day to the police station, dutiful as I was, to get a stamp in my passport an ...

 An Italian Premonition  Augusto Lucariello - 1989 - BleibtreuStr und Hotel Plaza
On the 24th of September ‘89 I was in the Plaza Hotel in East-Berlin. There was a publicity event for Italian wine. I participated there with my band "Ensemble Neapoletano" and we entertained the people with songs like "Azuro". We didn’t know what to do with the 25 Marks from the compulsory exchang ...

 East-West New Years Eve Parties  Christos Dankus - 1969 bis 1989 - Fretzendorfer Str. kurz vor Klein-Machnow
At New Years Eve the people from the watch-tower always threw a backpack filled with foamed plastic to us over here which was fastened with a rope. Then we put the champagne bottles inside. They thanked us with a Christmas card! It was like this all these years. They must have past the information t ...

 My 9th November 1989  Gabriele Hartmann - 1989 - Reichstag und Oberbaumbrücke
...

 A Fake Wall for Kreuzberg  Kurt Jotter - 17. Juni 1987 - Kottbusser Damm
...

 The National Anthym on Radio ?  Barbara Stefanowa - 1989 - Charlottenburg
...

 I never could have imagined...  Klaus Wowereit - 1989 - Rotes Rathaus
...

 With a Forklift Across the Wall  Herr Konschak, Gemeindemitglied St. Thomaskirche - wahrscheinlich 1967 - Engeldamm 20
On Engeldamm 20 was a cabinet-maker contracted to produce bedroom furniture for the Russians. At this place the wall took away half of the street, so that the delivery trucks couldn't drive up to the workshop. The goods had to be transported with a forklift to the truck parked next to the wall. The ...

 Berlin Wall un-ltd. (Sicilia)  Martin Fischer - Juli 1990 - Sizilien
As the Wall came down in Berlin it was obvious that Europe would need a new opposition and reuse this proven idea which as a building had worked so well. The most evident direction to guard itself against was the south; Africa. So the freed Wall elements where taken down all the way to Sicily an ...

 It will be a take-over!  Stephane - 09.11.1989, ca.23 Uhr - Übergang Invalidenstr., danach Chausseestr., Auguststr.
On this evening I was at a concert in the Philharmonie, they were giving Le sacre du printemps. After the concert I took the bus that drove from Kulturforum along the wall into Wedding. (Number 89 if I'm not mistaken). From Brandenburg Gate onwards traffic was remarkably slow. West-Berliners were h ...

 The Jogger from Johannisthal  Rainer Bossdorf - 1960 bis 1990 - Berlin Johannisthal
...

 What the hurdygurdist thinks about all this  Manfred Grabowski - 2009 - Brandenburger Tor und Checkpoint Charly
The hurdygurdist: "It's a shame how on Checkpoint Charly and infornt of Brandenburg Gate people dress up in uniforms and pose for tourists. I was forced to wear the uniform of the East-German army and wasn't amused! I always wanted to get rid of the wall and went on demonstrations against the wall!" ...

 In the GDR we had our peace  Anonym - 2009 - ohne
...

 Glas and Glasnost  Martin Fischer - in den 80er Jahren - Alte Jakobsstr. EVG
...

 Roses for Everybody  Brigitte Kath - 11.11.89 - Bornholmer Strasse
Two days after the fall of the wall I bought a huge bouquet of red roses and went to the checkpoint on Bornholmer Street. Everybody who crossed the border I gave a rose. One guy asked: "Are they all for me?" - We laughed. Nearby was a stall by Reichelt where they gave away packed coffee for free. I ...

 Trespassing only for Germans  Virginia M. Raimundi, Poetin und Konzeptkünstlerin - November 1989 - Leuschner Damm
...

 Emprisoned on both sides  Virginia M. Raimundi, Poetin und Konzeptkünstlerin - Anfang der 80er Jahre - Bethaniendamm
...

 Between the lines as a policeman  Herr Lamenta - 1961 - Brandenburger Tor u.a.
...

 A vicar as IM  Erhardt Knauer - 1971 - Polnische Botschaft
...

 The most important place in the world  Kevin Castner - 1975 - San Francisco
...

 My Granny - a Fascist?!  Unbekannt - 1989 - Warschauer Strasse
...

 Kicked out, because we didnt want to cheer for Walter Ulbricht  Magarete Schettle - 1961 - Parteiversammlung der DDR
...

 Ossis like monkeys in the zoo  Wolfgang Krueger - 1989 - Wittenbergplatz
...

 Missed  Martina Wauschkuhn - - Koenigsallee
...

 A New Beginning  Hanna Hartmann - 9.11.1989 - Frankfurt Main
...

 Disclaiming Help of East German Police  A.v.Radetzki - März 1990 - Oberbaumbrücke
In 1990 I was a cab-driver in Berlin and was driving two Lebanese asylum seekers from Sonnenallee to East-Berlin. At Oberbaumbrücke they wanted to get out. When I stopped they got out and hit the run without paying the fare. I ran after them and when I caught up with them one of them pulled out a kn ...

 Earth from the Deathzone  Anneli Ketterer - 2005 - Mauerstreifen im Mauerpark
...

 Helplessly Witnessing the Death of Peter Fechter  Anonym - 1962 - Zimmerstrasse
...

 An Italian Wallpecker  Sandra - 1989 - Brandenburger Tor
I was born in Rome and until five years ago lived in Italy. I was 18 when I heard of the fall of the wall. I was so enthusiastic that I came directly to Berlin for a week's time and helped as a wall-pecker to tear down the wall. In Angola, I got to know my German husband and I was thrilled to hear ...

 Canoeing in the Deathzone  Marlene Juraschek und Peter Hoffmann - 1990 - Griebnitzsee
...

 New Years Eve with David Hasselhoff  Anonym - 1989 - Brandenburger Tor
I spent Christmas at my cousin's place in Bad Homburg and invited him and his wife to come to Berlin for New Year's Eve. I myself originally come from Brandenburg and together with another friend the four of us spent New Year's Eve in Berlin at the concert at Brandenburg Gate. The main attraction wa ...

 Porn, Olympians and Love because of the Fall of the Wall  Andre - 1989 - Brandenburger Tor und Velodrom
...

 Unlucky in Times of Happiness  Pfarrer Müller - 10.Nov. 1989 - Bethaniendamm
...

 The tuxedo, that flew over the wall  Ernst Vogel - 1961 - Papestrasse
...

 Disrupted Gaffiti  Uwe Hennig - 80er Jahre bis jetzt - Heilandskirche Bad Sacrow
...

 No obstacle for Poles  Stani - - Stani, Berlin-Pankow
...

 Donating Raw Material  Blubb 99 - 1986,87 - Görlitzer Park
It was around 86/87. I used to throw my empty beer cans over the Wall into East-Berlin. I wanted the GDR to have more recycable row material. If things had gone my way, the Wall should never have been taken down and the GDR-people shouldn't have been forced to sell themselves to the West. From the w ...

 Look at the commies over there  Satti - 13. Dezember 1986 - Eberswalder Str., Oderbergerstr.
Time: December 1986. Location: East Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg Berlin Wall with KFZ-Graben, Panzersperren, Postenweg, Lampentrasse Set: Observation platform for tourists on Bernauer and Oderberger/ Eberswalder Protagonists: Mustafa – East German Bohemian of African descent (24 years) with ...

 Grateful Christmas Season 89  W. Stapp - Adventszeit 89 - Grenzübergang nach Teltow
The border checkpoint from West-Berlin to Teltow is situated in Lichterfelde Süd. Walter Linse was abducted via this checkpoint in 1952, making this border crossing somewhat infamous. It was here on the border to Mark Brandenburg shortly after the fall of the Wall that the inhabitants of Teltow pu ...

 Transforming the Energy of Division  Jutta Höhn - 2008 - Schlesisches Tor
Early last year I read in a newspaper article that Berlin has the highest rate of singles. That made me think: Why? In accordance with my training as a therapist I wanted to answer this question by applying the method of Bert Hellinger and his systemic approach of family constellations: 1.To reali ...

 Entry denied  Stefan Höppe - 1987 bis 88 - Friedrichstr.
My story has more in general to do with the border between West-Germany and the GDR. Probably in 1987/88 during a reading / art performance in a gallery in Neukölln (West-Berlin) I was asked to come to a literature performance in East-Berlin. At the time, punk wasn't dead yet and I was clad in long, ...

 Endless Allotments  Nike Bätzner - November 89 - Treptow
Shortly after the fall of the wall I decided with a friend of mine to follow the wall from Kreuzberg onwards to the south, as far as possible. We found a hole in the wall and made it to the other side and were suddenly in a huge area with garden allotments. When we wanted to get back we couldn't fin ...

 Belated Wall Hopping  Howard MacCalebb - Sommer 2009 - S-Bahnhof Schönholz
My brother James came visiting from the States for the first time to Berlin and he wanted to see everything. He wanted to see Hitler's bunker, the wall, everything. So I took him to where the wall was, near here (Nordbahnstr. Renickendorf). And the wall is just this brick-thing in the pavement. So I ...

 Excerpt from the essay: 'The Mobile'  Lothar Stemwedel - nach 1989 - Berliner Himmel
...

 The Wall is gone  Sten Nadolny - 9. November 1989, etwa 22.00 Uhr - Hotel Perapalas, Istanbul
...

 Why a Japanese Gentleman saluted the Wall  P.U. - Herbst 1988 - Zimmerstr.
...

 Evidence Disposal  Frank Suplie - ca 1980 - Bethaniendamm Westseite
After the accomplished action we had to get rid of the evidence. The thing flew over the wall - but was returned promptly. This went on two more times then it stayed on the other side. After the wall had come down I went on the other side to look for it. I didn't find it anymore. ...

 Hush! in the palace of tears  Maica Evers - 80er Jahre - Friedrichstr., Tränenpalast
I had friends from Spain staying over and of course, they wanted to visit East-Berlin: Tv-tower, Palace of the Republic, Alexanderplatz, cheap books and records, queuing in front of Ratskeller restaurant (wait to be served), 20 DM compulsory exchange. On we went to the border crossing at Friedrichst ...

 sending-off  Vereinmitglieder des FSV Stralau - 1961 - Berlin Weissensee
...

 John Runnings, a hero of the eighties  Ralf Gründer - 80er Jahre - Checkpoint Charlie
John Runnings a hero of the eighties John Runnings was born on August 22, 1917 in Manitoba, Canada later moving to Seattle. Since 1986 Runnings, aged 64, regularly visited West-Berlin to demonstrate against the politically motivated border until the fall of the socialist regime. He always stayed ...

 capitalism on the way to school  Sarah - 1989 - KuDamm

 tv enemy observation  Frau Daedt - - Neuruppiner Str., Fretzdorfer Weg, Zehlendorf
A good friend from church choir lived with her sister in Neuruppiner Straße at the corner of Fretzdorfer Weg. She told me this story - unfortunately, both sisters deceased some time ago. On the other side of their street was the Wall and straight in front of their house stood a watchtower. When in ...

 The morning after  Meinhard Schröder - 10.November 1989 -
...

 Invisible border  Meinhard Schröder - ca 1993 - Berlin Spandau
...

 The E-Flat Horn  Willi Lange - ca 1980 - Grenzübergang Herleshausen
...

 The East kept us warm!  Jürgen Schneider - Winter 79,80 - Görlitzer Bahnhof
During bitter cold winter nights when our cole burners went slowly cold, we pushed our old VW-buggie to get it started and drove to Görlitzer Bahnhof. At the time, Görlitzer Bahnof didn't function as a train station any more. There were only a few derelict barracks left and the old rusty tracks, s ...

 Craving for the Wall  Marcus Schreiber - 2009 - Kreuzberg - Rastatt
In 1991, in autumn I moved back to the Rhine in Southern Germany. Berlin had changed too radically. The era with the Wall, special Berlin subsidies and cheap rents was definitely gone. Sometimes when I get attacks of nostalgia I go the the central cemetery where my parents rest in a columbarium. The ...

 13th of August at Brandenburg Gate  Lang - - Brandenburger Tor, Checkpoint Charlie
I was in Berlin the day the Wall was built and when it came down. In April 1961 I had moved together with my brother to Berlin to study. We saw, how more and more escapees arrived with the S-Bahn. Several thousands daily. For August 13 I had been officially issued a visa with which in the morning I ...

 Via East-Berlin to Copenhagen  Klaus Peter Prenin - - Flughafen Schönefeld
...

 With a truck through the Wall  Klaus Peter Prenin - 1967 - Wilhelmstr., Niederkirchner Str.
...

 A new city emerged  Mechthild Rawert - November 89 - Schwedter Str.
...

 With Willi Brandt in front of Rathaus Schöneberg  Renate Künast - 9. November 1989 - Bornholmer Brücke und Rathaus Schöneberg
...

 MTV unplugged  Fridolin Mangold - 1989 - Brandenburger Tor
I experienced the fall of the Wall. It was horrible. The whole world was there. Tv-towers everywhere, filming the all the hype. I wanted to prevent this and tried to pull the plugs. With MTV I was successful. I wanted the world to stay as it was. ...

 Across Mine Field to Fun Fair  Hakan - 1989 - Mariendorf, Nahariyastrasse
I was eleven years old. Right behind the Wall was a fun fair I wanted to go to with my friends. In order to get there we had to cross a field about which we had been warned that it was full of land mines. But we really badly wanted to get to the fun fair and so we just ran through. Nothing happened. ...

 Cross-examination and coffee  Jakob - Anfang der 70er - Am Kiesberg
...

 Missed chance  Platzek - 1966 - Harzer Nähe Grabowstr.
I wasn't of age, maybe fifteen or sixteen when my sister whom I visited often, lived on Harzer Street in Treptow. The house was situated right next to the Wall and therefore was doomed to be torn down. I observed how they demolished it. As the surrounding houses were too close, they couldn't blow it ...

 Spreeporsche  Lutz Hömssen - - Köpenicker Str. 10
...

 Among refugee traffickers and counterfeiters  Christian Carstensen - Sommer 1961 - Landwehrkanal, Nähe Potsdamer Platz
As a student I was enraged about the political situation and wanted to change things. I approached the students' association ASTA and there I got into contact with refugee traffickers. These refugee traffickers were a rather unorganized, idealistic bunch of people who effectively wanted to do someth ...

 Tank escorted return from honeymoon  Renate Hennig - 20.8.1961 - Dreilinden
...

 exclusive report for china post  Prof. Chang-tze Hu - Winter 89 - Buffalo/Berlin
After I worked at the Tunghai University in Taiwan for seven years, I had the possibility to spend one year in the United States in context of the Fulbright Scholarship. I chose the University in Buffalo, where Prof. Geoge Iggers was employed. Mister Iggers emigrated in 1930 from Germany. Since that ...

 The Duck Beak  Andreas Müer - 2000 - Entenschnabel
In 1982 I had moved to Berlin Kreuzberg and lived there for more than 12 years right next to the Wall. After the fall of the Wall I had moved to a condominium in Schönfließ. During this time we decided to build our own house and were looking for a suitable building lot. And as luck would have it: we ...

 It's all fake   - - Mühlenstr.
The so called hinterland wall was never painted! ...

 Preservation of the Wall  Andreas Otto - 1989 und heute - Prenzlauer Berg
...

 Pool parties flooding the border strip  R.Peters - 1987-1989 - Scharnhorststr 34
Until April 1989 I lived in Scharnhorststrasse 34 together with my husband and daughter, directly next to the Berlin Wall. It was a lively house with only young people living in there and lots of children. Summer 1987 I remember especially well, because this was the celebrations due to the 750. ann ...

 The tip of the iceberg - continued  Wolfram Drechsel - November 1989 - Alt-Wittenau
...

 The tip of the iceberg  Wolfram Drechsel - 12.08.1961 - Rathaus Schöneberg
...

 RBB reports incorrectly  Jürgen Litfin - 1961 bis heute - Gedenkstätte Günter Litfin, Kieler Eck
For decades, RBB has falsely reported that Peter Fechter was the first victim of the Berlin Wall. However, my brother, Günter Litfin, died on August 24, 1961, while swimming across the Humbolt harbor. Peter Fechter died almost one year later on August 17, 1962. In spite of my interventions, this ...

 Visa diplomacy  StäV - Dezember 1987 - Checkpoint Charlie
...

 Ossis for Turks  gehört von Georg Schmitz - 12.11.89 - U-Bahn Kochstr.
Blue collar workers floating from east to west: "Now that you got us - you can send all the Turks back home..." ...

 Window romance  Süleyman - 80er Jahre - Sebastianstr.
When I moved to Sebatianstr. the moving truck couldn't even park in front of the house, so close was the Berlin Wall. With a hand cart we towed the stuff from the corner road. At that time, the street was really quiet and dark because the Wall was over 3 m high. But my flat was on the third floor an ...

 Don't feed the dogs!  W. Andreas Wegener - 1983 Sommer / Herbst ? - Berlin, Scharnhorststr. 7
...

 Needles and Pins  Peter Kinzel - 17. August 1961 - S-Bahnhof Wilhelmsruh
In August 1961 I turned 8 and was with my parents on holiday in Austria when the news broke: "They are building a wall through Berlin." We immediately cancelled our holiday and drove back home. At the time, we were living in the Wedding district, but my family also owned a garden lot in Pankow/Wilhe ...

 A courageous woman and mother  Hagen König - 10.8.1961 - Nauen
...

 Rivercrossing  Jan - 1988 - Schlesische Strasse 32
On Schlesische Str. was this typical proletarian Schultheiss bar, nowadays called "Cake". In the backyard was a metal workshop where I used to work. In winter '88 it was unusually cold when suddenly a guy - completely soaked - turned up. His clothed were frozen stiff. We thought he was homeless, liv ...

 The Unwanted Floater  Lutz Hömssen - 70er Jahre - Köpenicker Str. 10
At the time, there was still a heater employed who'd fire up the aluminum furnace in the morning. He was always the first to come. Around noon he'd sit in the sun at the river bank. One day a bunch of clothing drifted by, which he recovered when he realized that he had secured a drowned corpse. We c ...

 With full speed into the West  Ulrike Herr - 1985 - Mehringplatz
...

 How we fired at the East unnoticed  Ein Büchsenmacher aus Kreuzberg - 60er / 70er Jahre - Kreuzberg
In the late 60ies when the Americans changed army calibers I had an idea to produce barrels for the new ammunition. I also produced sintered metal hollow point bullets and got a special production license from the Americans. This ammunition (also called dum-dum bullets) was used during the Vietnam W ...

 "The West is attacking us!"  Ulf Schiche - 1989 - Bouchestr/Puschkinstr
I was lucky to participate in two different worlds with the Fall of the Wall. On the 9th November I came back from my hometown Dahme to my cantonment after my first time off in 16 weeks. I was 25 and doing my military service in the NVA. We were in a company that watched a section of 5 kilometres o ...

 Insular life  Christian - 10.November 1989 - Bethanien
The Berlin Wall was a familiar entity in my life. I felt protected against ordinary people. When I was twenty, Berlin felt to me like a closed psychiatric ward where all the crazy people from the West were admitted, and the Berlin Wall was the protection. I used to live in Kreuzberg, Oranienstraße. ...

 Roast Chicken at the Berlin Wall  N.N. - - - Waldemarstr./Erkelenzdamm
Roast Chicken at the Berlin Wall the restaurant zur Henne at Erkelenzdamm used to have the best roast chicken in town. We went there often. The restaurant was located directly besides the berlin wall. While I was sitting there, enjoying the delicious chicken, I used to look at the wall, feeling con ...

 The iron wall  Anita Rehm - - Köpenicker Str.4
My name is Anita Rehm, I was born in Arnsheim, in a small wine village in Hessen. My earliest memories of the berlin wall were in the age of six or seven, when people were talking about the iron curtain. This term accompanied myself a long time. I often asked myself, what it means. I was thinking ab ...

 Criticism of Capitalism in the gaps of the Berlin Wall  Anne Fina - 11.11.89 - Ende Schlesische Strasse
...

 Get off the wall!  Armin K. - 22. Januar 1985 - Bernauer Str. / Hussitenstr.
In January 1985 the detonation of the Versöhnungskirche at the Berlin Wall close to Bernauer Straße was an important topic in the local newspapers of the western part of Berlin. We didn´t want to miss this event. To take pictures on the other side of the Wall, we drove with an Unimog and a ladder ...

 New Car at the 9th of November  Fam. Michel - 1989 - Strausberg und Eberswalder Str.
Fourteen days before the Wall came down my brother-in-law arranged a deal to bye a used car for good terms. It was a Skoda S 100, a car which was not easy to get these days. The day of the conclusion of the contract was the 9th November 1989, when my husband and my brother-in law went to Berlin-Schö ...

 The Biggest Knickers of German Re-unifikation  Jurek Wiepszynski - Anfang 1989 - Potsdamer Platz, Krempelmarkt
In the eighties I worked in Mysliborz / Poland at Koral a state-owned factory producing underwear and bras. Because of an error in production a huge amount of oversized underwear had been sewed that for years was stored in the factory's basement. When finally early in 1989 we were allowed to trav ...

 Duck for cover - we're under attack  Ulrich Eilsberger - Anfang der 70-ziger - Warschauer Strasse
In the early seventies I visited my sister then living in Berlin, together with my mother. We both went on a guided tour to East-Berlin. From the border on, an additional Eastgerman lady guide joined the tour, which was mandatory. With the guide a completely different atmosphere began to prevail. I ...

 10 Marks even for the Wessis  Thomas G. Betz - 1989 - Heinrich-Heine-Str.
In november 1989 i was living in a home for students in one of the buildings made of prefabricated slabs. It was directly at the Potsdamer Platz with a sensationel view over two parts of the wall and the rubbish-heap of Hitlers former shelter inbetween. The home doesn’t exsist anymore. Today it’s th ...

 Tank barriers were in my way  Anne Peschken - 18.10.89 - Grenzübergang Sonnenallee
In summer 1989 a friend of mine escaped via Hungary. Sometime later I got a phone call from somewhere in the south of Germany. It was exhilarating: Jan was in the West. Now I would be able to see him more often. He asked me to drive to his father in East-Berlin and to smuggle all his documents to th ...

 Lost in West-Berlin  Christina G. - 1989 - Zimmerstr./Lindenstr.
One week after the wall fell my father took me to Berlin. The city was totally crowded. We left our car on the east site and had to take various busses to get to Berlin Spandau. When we finally arrived we went to get our welcome-money and I bought a white Telefunken-radio. On the way back we took th ...

 East-West-Marriage-Parties  Frank Neumeier - - Friedrichstr. und HdJT (heute Podewil)
With friends - mainly musicians who also had jobs 'on the other side' - we founded a thriving escape business: Arranged marriages. A fake marriage was staged. "Wonna marry an Ossi?" The marriage could be officially cancelled afterwards. The Ossis had to cover the legal fees. Wonderful East-West-Ma ...

 Arrested for two cans of beer  Hans-Peter Streich - 1989 - Brandenburger Tor
On the Eastern side of the Wall, opposite the wooden platform was the watchtower, always guarded by two soldiers. I had a mobile vendor stall fixed to a bicycle and always stood on the same spot on the Western side of the Wall. As time went by, one got to know eachother and when I went home in the e ...

 Crossing the border with an U-Bahn ticket  Undine Eberlein, Helmut Fallschessel - 9. November 1989 -
Brandenburger Tor, Invalidenstr., Checkpoint Charly
...

 Close to miscarriage  M. P. - Winter 1966 - Nähe Sachtlebenstr. Zehlendorf
Winter 1966 I went on a walk with my husband when he suddenly discovered a border pole with strange signs on it. As a trained historian he was interested in deciphering the signs and went to have a closer look. Next thing I hear a loud bang and the earth splattered in all directions. We were both fr ...

 Where foxes say 'good night'  Hans-Peter Streich - 80er Jahre - Brandenburger Tor
I used to have a mobile sales stall, fixed onto a bicycle from where I sold beverages, sausages and popcorn, right next to Brandenburg Gate. I even had a gas-powered camping fridge. So, for years that's what I did for a living, always on the same spot. And when it got dark and quiet I was sitting on ...

 Deadly Balloon Flight  Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle - 8.3. 1989 - Zehlendorf
These are the left-overs of the hot air escape balloon. On March 8, 1989 at approx. 7.30 Winfried Freudenberg crashed down in the West-Berlin district of Zehlendorf. Just a few 100 meters futher south he would have re-entered the GDR in Kleinmachnow. What exactly lead to the crash remained unclea ...

 The marriage proposal  Anne S. - 1986 - Annenstr. bis Oberbaumbrücke
I had a boy-friend in East-Berlin who wanted to marry me in order to get out. He usually accompanied me to the checkpoint Oberbaumbrücke. Once he suggested we start walking in Annenstr. The closer we got to the Wall the more people in uniform we saw. At the time in Annenstr lived rather people who a ...

 A Door in the Wall  Thomas deGreef - 1989/90 - Bethaniendamm
I wasn't in town when the Berlin Wall fell. I couldn't believe the news I saw everywhere on tv. Weeks later I cycled along the Eastern side of the wall which had now become accessible to me. Approx. 100 meters north of Bethanien in Kreuzberg I discovered the shape of a door in the Wall. Next to it ...