Berlin Wall

It was my first big party and the best party of my life - never have I celebrated more relaxed, boundless. Squeezed among strangers who were as close to me that night as my parents were. It was November 9, 1989. We heard about the party of the decade from the news. I was only 10 years old at that time, but I remember these pictures of people dancing in the neon light of the border fortress (Berlin Lichtenrade) as if it had been yesterday. That night everything was unique. Unforgettable.

On November 9th I visited my grandparents in Berlin (I lived with my parents outside Berlin at that time). In the early evening my grandmother took me to the cinema (Arielle the Mermaid). After that we went straight home. My grandmother had been surprised that so many people are in the city, but since we neither listened to the radio nor watched television, we didn't notice the opening of the borders. But the next morning, of course, we did. I immediately called my mother. She told me that my brother had called her in the middle of the night. She - totally sleepy - answered the phone: "Mummy, Mummy, guess where I am", Kay asked. My mother: "Kay, I don't care where you are! It's the middle of the night and we were asleep!" Kay: "Man, mum, I'm on the Ku'damm!" My mother: "Kay, how many times have I told you not to drink so much beer!!!" Well, the rest of the night she couldn't sleep anymore. My parents hung spellbound in front of the television.

We had to work till just before midnight. But my wife and I had already received the unbelievably good news in the course of the evening: The wall was open. East Berlin was now empty. So you could get a taxi. We drove to the station Friedrichstraße: the divided station with the huge so far almost insurmountable steel plate between the platforms. We go into the palace of tears. A border guard takes a look at our identity cards. The path leads through an unadorned tunnel. Neon light flickers. Goose bumps. An ambience like the way to Stasi hell. But the opposite is the case. We can hardly believe it. The suburban train leaves. Experienced a thousand times; but this time in a different direction. Shortly before entering the Lehrter Bahnhof (today the main station): pure emotions and lots of tears of joy, the most beautiful day of our lives.

Unfortunately we did not come from the West to East Berlin on 9 November. But we could welcome the East citizens at the border crossing Bornholmer Straße. In order to really celebrate, we had to go to Breitscheidplatz - there was really something going on! 

In the morning on November 10th I accompanied my girlfriend to school - but nobody could think of school at all. We tried to walk from Schöneberg to the Brandenburg Gate. On the Straße des 17. Juni, about 100 meters, in front of the Brandenburger Tor, we saw two cars in the distance. We tried to stop them. The cars stopped and someone opened the back door of the first Mercedes: "My voice failed me when I recognized Willy Brandt. He shook my hand, looked around and said, "Come, let's go to the wall together." At that moment I understood: "Man, that was Willy Brandt! Man, the wall's really going down!" We all hugged each other euphorically!

For me the 9.11.1989 was an exhausting day and so I went to bed early. The next morning I drove, as usual, about 6.45am with my car to work. I saw my first Trabbi behind the exit Halensee - and that in the middle of West Berlin. At the red traffic light two young men from these cars waved at me laughing and I closed my eyes for a moment because I could no longer believe them. As more Trabbis passed me, I realized that I was experiencing a miracle, a miracle that touched my life and made me a grateful witness of my time. I get something as a gift that I have always missed as an Austrian Berliner by choice. At that time it never occurred to me to throw the approaching hurdles, efforts and impassability into the balance, because the exuberant feeling of happiness and relief over the peaceful overcoming of an unloved regime outshone everything else.