November 9th marked the 25th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. Looking at Deutschland today, you would think that it had been even longer. I grew up an Army brat and had the opportunity to live in West Germany from 1986 until 1989 and it was a completely different place back then. The Wall came down to weeks prior to my returning to the United States.
I visited Berlin both on a family vacation as well as on school athletic trips. The diversity that you saw between East Berlin and West Berlin was contrasting to say the least. Being an American you had to pass through Checkpoint Alpha, Checkpoint Bravo, and the famous Checkpoint Charlie. The first time I visited it was an odd feeling when I saw the sign that said, YOU ARE NOW LEAVING THE AMERICAN SECTOR in English, Russian, French, and German. You always received a look from the East German border guards when you had to show them your passport when starting or finishing the trip through East Germany. You quickly realized though that they were very similar to you and it was amazing what a can of Coke could do for you.
One of the stops that everyone made was the museum right at Checkpoint Charlie. This museum showed the history of the Wall as well as all of the incidents that had taken place there. There were vehicles on display that had been used by people to escape from the East to the West. The most interesting was a car that had been made to look like a three wheeled car. A person had hid in a secret compartment that had been made out of the place where the fourth wheel should have been. The most sobering part of the museum though, was the observation deck outside. This is where you saw the stark contrast between East and West. West Berlin was very bright and bustling with business. East Berlin on the other hand was very drab and had a cold feeing to it with lack of color. One of the other contrasts you saw was the differences in how they areas were kept. The West side of the wall was covered in graffiti and the area looked lived in. The East side on the other hand was pristine, it looked like you could have ate off of the streets they looked so clean.
The night the Wall came down was eventful. We lived less than a hundred miles from the Czechoslokian border. We had all been watching on TV as the first parts of the Wall were being broken down. Then we started hearing all sorts of honking and celebrating outside. Being teenagers we all wanted to see what was going on so we headed outside. A makeshift celebration had started in the town square and people were celebrating like it was Oktoberfest or fasching. The party lasted through the night with people celebrating the fact they would be able to see relatives they had not seen in years.
When I left the United States to head to Deutschland, I thought I would hate it. I had never been outside of the States, other than to Canada for a day, let alone moving out of the country. The opportunities it ended up affording my though are priceless. Instead of reading about it in a world history book, we took field trips and saw it first hand. I was able to experience history first hand and see places that many people only dream about. Not many people can say they visited Deutschland, England, France and the Netherlands all in one year.
References
Moran, R., & Harris , P. (2011). Managing cultural differences global leadership strategies for cross-cultural business success (8th ed.). Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.
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