What was your feeling when the Berlin Wall was demolished on November 9, 1989?

Question

Ello, I need to know you feelings. I am doing a report about this and it would be nice to gather some of your feelings of how you felt when the Berlin wall collapsed I was not born yet so I would never know how to descirbe it.

Answer 1

This was a momentous period in history since it represented the symbolic end to the old Soviet Union, one of the most brutal and diabolical regimes the world has ever known.

The Soviet regime is estimated to have killed over 20,000,000 of its own people, including 14,500,000 needlessly starved to death and 1,000,000 executed for "political offenses." Many of the over 5,000,000 people sent to the Siberian prisons, or "gulags", never returned.

This was a wall to keep people imprisoned and to partially hide the disgraceful living conditions of the people in East Berlin. If ever there was a symbol against freedom and liberty, this was it.

The fact that it is gone is a very positive thing. But for millions who lived behind it, the changes are dramatic and often traumatic, certainly not easy. Those changes do not mean a cosmetic makeover, but a systematic overhaul of virtually every basic institution.

Many in the East, such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Balkan states, and Hungary seem to be doing quite well. Others, where communist leaders still rule, the situation is not so positive. Overall, though, the people throughout the former Communist Bloc know the future looks much brighter.

Answer 2

The Berlin Wall went up in 1962. and I was a freshman in high school. We happened to be studying a unit on WWII in world history at the time. Finally our teacher had something to tie 27 years of history together and we teenagers really began to get a feel for the Cold War.

The Wall came down in 1989, and Germany was reunified about 6 moths later. I happened to be in Berlin one week prior to the reunification and that was all anyone could talk about.

The person I was calling on lived in the Western sector, and his family lived in the Eastern sector. Listening to his story was like nothing I have ever experienced - I had only read about history - he lived it.

I never expected the Wall to come down during my life time. To be in Berlin that week, to me, was like walking with the first man on the moon.

Answer 3

I was in my thirties when the Berlin Wall came down. All of my cognizant life that Wall had been there, epitomizing the Cold War and the ever-present threat of the Cold War "heating up." I never believed it would come down during my lifetime and I felt almost overwhelming relief that maybe, just maybe some of the changes in Eastern Europe and the USSR were real. I think that was when I really started to believe in Perestroika and Glasnost, that they weren't some kind of show for the rest of the world.

Even living near TMI during the meltdown of unit 2 (1979) didn't scare me as much as the threat of nuclear war.

Answer 4

I was 15, almost 16 yrs old. Very naive. I was - speechless (quite a feat for a teenager). I watched the demolition on TV and sat mesmerized by the people celebrating. Believe or not, I wondered how many would truly enjoy this new freedom, and how many lives would remain as they were - still stunted by past, still unable to see past the Wall.

Answer 5

Well, if this helps, I was 12 years old, and I really didn't even know what the Berlin wall was, or what Berlin was, or why they had a wall.

Answer 6

I remember watching it on tv and crying. As kids growing up during the Cold War and the arms race that went along with it, my friends and I always lived with this vague feeling of dread that one person pressing "the button" could end the world. Watching the wall come down was a huge step in lifting that cloud of dread. It was a great moment.

Answer 7

I was like 7 years old at the time. So I was just like "wow, some angry people are smashing up a wall." I just remember it had graffiti all over it. Other than that, I didn't know what it meant.

Answer 8

I was excited and hoped for better days for the people of Germany; especially their relationship with the world. I felt it was a positive sign for a bright future for everyone.

Answer 9

all i know is that my husband and father in law went and bought some of the machines they were getting rid of :) and all our troubles started...they couldn't fix the old but computerized machines and had to get a german over to fix them each time one went down....the factory here is today in debt lol....they should have never brought that wall down ! :) *just kidding

Answer 10

I looked at my friend and said: "I wonder if the French are nervous yet?"