Berlin wall 30 years ago today

[Tanis8472]

It's 30 years ago that the Berlin wall finally came down.

Where has the time gone!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall

 

[Levo-Lon]

Remember it well, i think it was a great day... But we seem to be no wiser

 

[Tanis8472]

Absolutely.
I was a teenager at the time.
Also remember seeing this in 1990


View: https://youtu.be/3nO3vOJKFas

 

[Smudge]

There was an excellent 90 min documentary about it on BBC4 Thursday night. The Secret Life Of The Berlin Wall.
Worth a watch on iplayer.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

And if anyone is interested: There is a fantastic 10 part podcast called ‘Tunnel 29’ on the BBC Intrigue Show. Easily one of the best I have listened to.

 

[ianrauk]

I went to work and live in Berlin in 1990. It was pretty much nuts. Trabbies everywhere blocking up the roads. Some U Bahn stations where still 'Ghost' and the phone system was touch and go due to the sheer amount of East Germans using the system. Most of the wall was still there. I managed to grab a good few chunks. I kept them on a small bucket which I used as a door stop.
I loved every minute of my time there. And still love the city now.

 

[Dave7]

I was working in East Berlin shortly after the wall came down. We were in a 5* hotel within walking distance of one of the checkpoints......hard to believe the city was so poor when the hotel car park was full of big Mercs and Rollers.
Like @ianrauk I got some of the wall but I paid for the pieces to be red stamped as I gave them away as gifts..... I still have one of them.

 

[Baldy]

I was stationed in Germany just before it all came down, on the IGB (Inner German Border) not the Berlin wall. We used to shadow the Spetznatz patrols in nomansland, watching them watching us. All very surreal but deadly serious at the time.

 

[Alex H]

I was stationed at RAF Gutersloh - 1980 - 82. A 'perk' of being a serviceman means that access to the East was possible. (as long as you were in uniform )

As we crossed into East Berlin, the lady redcap wished us "a pleasant day and hoped my wife would enjoy the shopping".

I've posted these photos before, but it was 2013

Brandenburg gate from the East - 1981 - closest I could get without attracting 'attention'.

Went back to Berlin for my 60th - 2013 - same place, but a bit closer

Brandenburg Gate from the West - 1981

As near as I could get to my original shot - 2013

 

[DRM]

Remember having the news on the morning after the East German border was opened, not believing what I was seeing, we visited Berlin in 2008 when the kids were still in high school, they genuinely couldn’t believe how things used to be, with Germany divided up between us, the U.S, France & The Soviets, and that the East Germans just locked their citizens in one August night in 1961, splitting up families, I’ve recently just finished a book called Brixmis The last Cold War mission, it’s a really interesting read about the liaison missions of the British Army/Royal Air Force who toured East Germany gathering intelligence on what the Soviet & East German forces were doing, especially how brazen they were, or some of the more revolting ways that info was gained.

 

[slowmotion]

I remember reading about the Austin Healey Sprite when I was a kid in 1963. The story never fails to make me smile.

http://www.mossmotoring.com/sprite-true-love-cold-war/

 

[Accy cyclist]

Heck doesn't time fly! The overthrow of Communism was mostly a peaceful revolution,but my main memory of Christmas 1989 was the president of Romania and his wife (can't spell his name or look it up due to using my phone down the pub to post) being violently executed.

Edit...Just looked up his name. No way could i have guess spelt this....Nicolae Ceaușescu

 

[Fab Foodie]

Heck doesn't time fly! The overthrow of Communism was mostly a peaceful revolution,but my main memory of Christmas 1989 was the president of Romania and his wife (can't spell his name or look it up due to using my phone down the pub to post) being violently executed.

Edit...Just looked up his name. No way could i have guess spelt this....Nicolae Ceaușescu

His final day is interestingly told in a documentary called ‘Me and my Dacia’!

 

[Tanis8472]

Heck doesn't time fly! The overthrow of Communism was mostly a peaceful revolution,but my main memory of Christmas 1989 was the president of Romania and his wife (can't spell his name or look it up due to using my phone down the pub to post) being violently executed.

Edit...Just looked up his name. No way could i have guess spelt this....Nicolae Ceaușescu

Pronounced chow chess coo 😎

 

[Deleted member 26715]

It's all David Hasselhoff's fault they all fled when he started singing & even a brick wall couldn't stop them.