30 years today, the Berlin Wall fell.

[DGRossetti]

Something I grew up thinking I'd never see. Along with things like the Good Friday Agreement, end of apartheid ...

Yeah we almost had it right there for a while and yet here we are in a time where instead of tearing down walls, we’re rebuilding them. Trump, Brexit etc.
Plus ça change...

...and it fell due to error and was never supposed to have fallen on that day.

I never knew that.

I was there the week before it fell and certainly no sign of it falling. I went through checkpoint Charlie and into east Berlin. It’s pretty amazing to think I was one of the last people to see it like it was. I remember standing on the viewing platform in West Berlin at about midnight and looking down into no mans land in the middle. Soldiers patrolling with dogs, etc. Crossing check point Charlie was quite tense, i was only a teenager.

That's amazing, SleepyKat. I remember watching it on the news.

Here

And some in east Berlin. We were told not to take photos, so was sneakily taking some as we drove through east Berlin.

I was there at the time living practically next to the wall, watched the anouncement and failed to understand it - was woken by my DF phoning me in tears.

Fascinating to see the photos, SleepyKat.

Great photos @SleepyKat
I visited Berlin this year really interesting place .

It's been gone longer than it stood, too.

So how come you went into east Berlin @SleepyKat ?
Were you able to go freely into the east and leave ?

I remember it, I was 6 yet the memory is so vivid, of course i didn't really understand but it was so obviously important that it stayed with me. Odd to think that there are fully grown adults for whom it is just history.

I was 17 when it fell, it is amazing that it's 30 years ago!

Also the anniversary of Kristallnacht - not such a nice thing to commemorate.

I was 8. I remember seeing it on the news at the time but didn't understand the significance of it.

We went to the Permagon museum. You had to get a permit and show your permit and passport....and be slightly interrogated at checkpoint Charlie. I think any westerners apart from West Germans could visit. We actually drove from Hamburg to Berlin through east Germany. We were told not to stop on the autobahn as cameras would be monitoring us....not sure how true that was.

I was 17 and in the 6th form when the Wall fell. The summer before I'd gone on the German exchange and as a group we spent 4 days in Berlin, travelling over to the East on one day.

My overriding memory of the East is of greyness. It was August, but everything was in shades of grey, buildings, the clothes the people wore, the cars. We went into a supermarket in the Alexanderplatz and the shelves were barely stocked. I think you had to change at least 20 Deutschmarks into Ostmarks and you couldn't bring them back over the border. We struggled to find anything to buy and we ended up giving our spare change to this little boy outside the Televison Tower.

I was fascinated by the city and when I got back, I wrote to the Berlin information centre in very bad schoolgirl German and they kindly sent me loads of books and leaflets. I've never managed to go back, but DH and I are planning a visit next year.

@SleepyKat East Germany ranks as the most monitored country of all time - the info that they gathered on their citizens is truly terrifying and also the vast spying network they built up. I have no doubt at all that you were watched! We should never underestimate what determined governments can do when they set their minds to it!!!

yes, the stasi were certainly good about spying on their own citizens and getting relatives/neighbours to inform.

When I was at school a friend of mine’s dad worked for the British security services. I had no idea at the time and thought he sold double glazing. But he used to go to east Berlin quite a lot and I heard years later about late night car chases, etc. No idea what the British security services were doing poking about there.

It was a monumentas occasion, not only did it reunite gErmany it marked the end/ downfall of the cold war.

Here's a couple I took this year. You must go if you get chance .
Very sad history but such lovely place now .

The wall coming down was the first time I ever felt like I was living through history - I was 15 at the time and a keen history student! However, if you'd have told me that I'd end up living in one of the former communist countries, speaking the language (albeit very badly), married to a citizen who took part in the demonstrations for freedom with whom I am raising a bilingual daughter that very traditional welsh teenager would have laughed you out of the room!!! It's funny where life takes us!

I was there the week before. We naively declared we had East German Currency on returning to West Berlin - we were sent back to spend it! So we had a meal. Surprisingly good.

Week later the wall came down.

I was at university then. We had a TV room and I remember people piling into watch the events.

Such an incredible event.

I remember watching it on TV, I was 15. It was incredible to see. Just can't believe it's 30 years ago!

Fuck I feel old!
I was 16 at the time. It didn't really hugely impact me, cuz my life as I knew it was going tits up anyway, but I do remember the news coverage.