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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

...

...

...

...

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 ...

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 ...

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 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!" ...

...

...

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 ...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

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 ...

...

...

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 ...

...

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 ...

...

...

...

...

...

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 ...

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 a curly pony tail, old leather biker jacket dressed in a pair of old tube jeans Stasi officer (49) (in police uniform) - a miserable man with expression of a German shepherd American family ( Dad 38, Mum 32, Son 12, Son 10) typical T-shirts, polo shirts, blue jeans Post office clerk (45) Two border patrol guards (25, 19) with AK 47’s and military jeeps It is 5.45 p.m. outside a council flat in a mouldy, run down Oderberger Strasse. Mustafa exits through the entrance door of number 49. Mustafa holds a parcel that he wants to post before the office closes at 6 p.m.. The post is 500 m by foot just around the corner of Eberswalder Strasse. He looks at his watch and walks quickly towards North. On the corner of the street the Berlin Wall blocks Oderberger Strasse. But a tiny small passage way on the side walk is a sort of short cut that links to two roads. Mustafa is just 50 m away from the corner to Eberswalder when he passes a sign post: Attention! Border area - no trespassing beyond this zone! He looks at sign and then at the grey heavy sky. It starts to rain. He stops and covers the parcel under his jacket. He wants to go faster but then slips on the cobble stones. A big pile of fresh dog shit covers his shoe. He searches for a mud-pool to clean the shit from his shoes. He finds none, but a rubbish bin stand on the side with papers. He pulls out an old news paper. Headlines and slogans from the communist leadership. He tears it apart and starts to cleans his shoes. A Stasi officer in police uniform scrutinises him carefully from a dark corner on the other side. Mustafa can not see him and throws the shitty paper on the street. Its only 25 m to the corner of Eberswalder Strasse. The Stasi officer steps forward and makes eye contact. Mustafa slows down. He holds the parcel squashed tightly under his leather jacket. To make a false move, could get him arrested. He bypasses the border security zone. His heart races. His mind plays games: Was it a mistake to use a communist paper to clean his shoes? Did he have his ID card with him? What if he is delayed and can’t send the parcel to his favourite aunty for Christmas? He mumbles to himself: “Fuck, this wall! Nothing but a pile of dog shit...” He thinks he would not have to clean his shoes or send Christmas parcels to his aunty if there was no wall there. The Stasi officer crosses the street and gets closer. He whispers into his walkie-talkie. The two border patrol guards from above the watch tower take a close look at Mustafa. Mustafa slows down. He grabs in his pocket to find his ID card. To reach the post office around the corner, he must be extremely prepared, if he wants to make it on time. A group of American tourists climb up to the visitors observatio platform. The two border guard point their viewing glasses to the other side. Mustafa breathes deeply and looks over to see who is on the platform in the American sector. He suddenly chokes and feels imprisoned, vulnerable and victimised by their presence. He looks at the approaching Stasie officer and wants to build up courage. He pulls out his ID card in advance. The Americans are excited about the spectacular panoramic view they have over the entire area. The family dad takes out a VHS camcorder and starts to videotape. Mustafa walks up to the Stasi officer right on the corner of Eberswalder Strasse. He hands over his ID card. The Stasi officer studies it. Then he points at the parcel under his jacket. Stasi officer: “What’s this under there?” Mustafa reveals the labelled parcel without a word. The officer checks the address in the ID card and compares it with the sender address. Then he says: “You know, your address here and your address there do not match. Why is this?” Mustafa replies submissively: “Yes, Sir. Oderberger 49. I just moved in last week.” . Officer replies : “To live and walk around here you need a valid address.”. Mustafa has dreaded this and says: “I know, Sir”. The officer: “Well, the address does not match. Where do you really live?”. Mustafa tries softer: “Please, Sir the post office closes in 5 min, can I proof this later to you?” . The officer checks Mustafa’s ID card again and records everything in a small note book. Mustafa is nervous: “Sir, can I go now?”. The officer replies: “Young comrade, you are told what to do. To walk around without a proper ID card is not allowed in our country. You can come back after you changed your address!”. Mustafa protests: “ Sir, my aunt will not receive her Christmas parcel because of you. Can I not change my address tomorrow?” The two American kids quarrel about who can best hold the VHS camcorder. The oldest says:“ Daddy, daddy, can I film now?”. The dad smiles and hands the camcorder over to him and points at Mustafa and the Stasi officer. The mum is getting excited and shouts: ”Look at the two commies over there!...make sure you get them on tape for me!” The oldest son says: “I didn’t know they have niggers in the East, mum.”. Mustafa has overheard everything and looks up at them. He sees how the kid starts zoom on him. Suddenly, the dad screams over the wall:“ Hey, you! Howdoyoudo?”. Laughter on the platform. The two border patrol guards who observed the family from inside the watch tower are not amused. They switch on their megaphone and bark: “Here is the border police! Stop making capitalist propaganda and insulting our socialist citizens!” The Americans are getting amused that they are taken seriously. More excitement and laughter. The Stasi officer looks at Mustafa and then back to the Americans. He is hesitant about Mustafas plea and wants to make a decision. Mustafa says: “I promise you, I will change my address first thing tomorrow!” The American dad shouts loudly: “ Howdie! Are you communists or socialists?” The Stasi officer has not understood and says to Mustafa with authority:“Tomorrow you change your address, or I will arrest you next time.” Mustafa wants to go when the officer holds his arm and asks: “What did say to us?” Mustafa replies: “ He wants to know if you are a communist or socialist.” The Stasi officer shakes his head “ Americans...they always full of right wing propaganda, right?!”. Mustafa says: “ Yes, Sir. They are! Thank you!” The officer salutes and makes way. He takes position in his hideout post at the corner. Mustafa turns into Eberswalder Strasse. But the dad does not give up and shouts again: “Come on are you a communist, or what?” Mustafa ignores him and almost runs the last 60 m to reach for the post office. The two kids stump their feet and squeak like monkeys. The kids scream on top of their lungs:” Hey, you are you a commie, or a nigger?!”. Mustafa has enough. He stops, grabs a large pebble stone and throws it towards them. It flys over the wall, but falls too short. It drops into the no-mans-land. The kids laugh. Mustafa shouts: “ Fuck you! This is not a fucking zoo!”. They kids scream back: “ Fuck you too, you monkey ass!” The kids throw funny faces. The border guards are on high alert. A military jeep drives in high speed towards the watch tower. It takes position and stops. A border guard exits from the jeep and positions himself opposite the visitors platform. He shoulder mounts his AK47’s. The Americans have become silent. Mustafa turns around and enters the post office. The clerk, inside the post office is just about to close his gate. He has a bored empty look. Mustafa throws the parcel on the table and protests: “ Its only 3 min to 6 p.m. and I need to send this to my aunty in Duisburg today!” The clerk does not reply, but pushes him harshly out of the office. He shouts: “I have Feierabend, cant’ you see!!” Then Mustafa is thrown out of the building. The Americans are still videotaping on the other side. Mustafa looks at the two kids and gets furious and full of envy. He runs towards the wall into the border security zone. He reaches the wall closely. He then throws the parcel over the wall. It hits one of the border guards and lands inside no-mans-land. Frenetic applause and cheers from the American family. The border guard turns around and panics. He fires a round of bullets at the parcel. It blows into pieces and reveals the content. A wrapped up East German Christmas cake (Dresdner Weihnachtsstollen) blown into crumbs. Mustafa panics and runs back into Oderberger Strasse. The Stasi officer has seen everything and wants to arrest him. He shouts: “Freeze! You are under arrest!”. Mustafa out manoeuvres him with speed. The Stasi officer chases him but fails. He then calls for back up. The kids on the platform scream:“ Look daddy, they are trying to chase him!!” Suddenly, a police car with high speed arrives out of nowhere. It catches up with Mustafa. Three civil officers jump out and corner him. They push him down on the floor and pull a blanket over his head. One shouts: “You are under arrest for trespassing and destroying socialist state property!” Mustafa is handcuffed and thrown into the police car. They drive off. The older boy of the two American looks bewildered. He asks his dad who still videotapes: ”Daddy, why did he throw away the parcel ?”. The dad is silent and packs his camcorder away. Then the youngest one asks: “ Why did the people throw a blanket over his head?”. The dad is clueless and says:“ I guess the boy was getting mad...” The mum concludes: “ All this comes from being a communist... ”. The little boy is not happy with the answer. He shakes his head and says: “No daddy, he really was like a monkey in a zoo to me.”. The dad looks surprised: “ Yeah, I guess you are right, son...” The mum concludes: “ Come on, boys lets go and have some fun. I gonna treat you all for some American ice cream!” They descent from the visitors platform. It is 6.13 p.m. The rain has stopped.

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

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 ...

...

...

...

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. ...

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 ...

...

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 ...

...

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 ...

...

...

...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

...

...

...

...

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. ...

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. ...

...

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 ...

...

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 ...

...

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 ...

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 ...

The so called hinterland wall was never painted! ...

...

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 ...

...

...

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 ...

...

Blue collar workers floating from east to west: "Now that you got us - you can send all the Turks back home..." ...

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 ...

...

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 ...

...

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 ...

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 ...

...

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 ...

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 ...

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 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 ...

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 ...

...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...