“It was an absolutely absurd and unusual
and very often extremely painful situation,
especially in the beginning.
Overnight, the Wall cut the city in two pieces
and friends, families, lovers were divided,
and no one knew for how long that would last.”
“For my generation, growing up in the 60s
and the 70s, Central and Eastern Europe was
an impenetrable area.
It was cut off by 1,400 kilometres of barbed
wire, automatic machine gun firing positions,
watchtowers.
Very difficult to get in and even more difficult
for people on the other side of course to
get out.”
“On the night the Wall fell it was sheer
joy because it was rather unexpected, at least
on that very night.”
“I was in Moscow.
That evening, I still remember it, my wife
entered the room and said, ‘hey, I’m just
listening to the BBC and they are saying the
Wall came down’ and I just reacted and said,
‘well, that’s not true’.
I continued reading.”
“I think it was the strive for freedom in
Poland, in the German Democratic Republic,
in other countries of Central and Eastern
Europe which showed that the force of freedom
is stronger than the forces of dictatorship
and repression.”
“The fall of the Berlin Wall marked a major
historic success for NATO’s policy.
NATO stood in opposition towards what the
Berlin Wall stood for, repression, dictatorship
and the division of Germany and Europe.”
“Pieces of the Berlin Wall are the only
elements that are used as memorials all over
the globe.”
“Freedom and democracy are symbolised here
because the Wall was peacefully overcome.
One can learn from Berlin that walls will
never be able to stop developments nor are
they able to stop political ideas.
They cannot stop freedom, they cannot stop
the wish to move freely.”
