20 Years Ago Today....

I was thirteen years old, and had just started taking German in the eighth grade.  I knew that I didn't want to take French and Spanish didn't interest me, but I also knew that to get into a college, that I needed to start taking a language in Jr. High School.  I took German because I wanted to be able to have a connection with my family, even though once I started I was too shy and embarrassed to ever talk to either my father or my grandmother in German.

The only possibility for me to take German was to take two classes at the nearby High School, which meant getting on a bus every afternoon and heading over with all of the 9th graders to the High School 5 minutes away.  Honestly, we probably could have walked it if we had left during lunch, but whatever.  I was going to take a science at the high school as well, but for some reason I wasn't allowed to do that, so I ended up taking band instead.  I was not terribly great at the clarinet, and I don't think I ever played in any concerts with the band - maybe one - but it was a fun experience.

But back to the wall.  I remember watching the Berlin Wall fall on TV.  I remember having goosebumps and realizing that this was something really important.  It was amazing.  We talked about it in my German class.  We had posters to commemorate it, and it was all anyone could talk about for weeks, maybe months.  At that time I think everyone was a little unsure what was going to come next - not just the Germans.

20 years later, most of the students who I live with in the dorm were just a couple of months old when the wall fell.  Some were maybe 2 or 3 years old.  That's not to say that they don't understand the political implications of a unified Germany and what it meant for the wall to fall, especially those who are interested in German culture and history.  But most see today as a day to have a party and drink.  When I watched the dominoes fall on TV tonight, I cried, because I started to get the same feeling that I did when the wall came down 20 years ago.

On November 9th, 1989, there were more than just two countries coming together.  It was more than just a symbolic gesture.  From the borders opening in Hungary, to the protests in Leipzig, to the opening of the borders in Berlin, there was a sense that nothing would ever be the same.  I think people were certainly apprehensive, but many had hope for a better future.  When we talk about "Hope" and "Change" today, they are often just political slogans, but when the Germans call this period in their history the "Wende" (or turning point), it meant and still means something more than a word written on a placard.