A 20-Year Memory: The End of a Wall

Robert Frost knew that there is something that doesn't love a wall. That was as true for a government sanctioned wall as it was for one in a New England field.

(pmPilgrim Photo; August 1970)

It was twenty years ago this week that the Berlin Wall came down. A fact of life in Berlin for over 28 years and a symbol of the deep divide we knew as the Cold War, it seemed like a permanent fixture. We should have known better, of course, since history is not static and things change. But it was an image deeply embedded in our consciousness.


(pmPilgrim Photo; August 1970)

I spent the summer of 1970 in Austria and Germany. There was no way that I wouldn't go to Berlin. There is was. The Wall. There were places along the wall where you could get relatively close to it. I gather it became more formidable and seemingly stronger over the years. But even in 1970, nine years into its existence, it was still chilling.

(pmPilgrim Photo; August 1970)

Above is the American Checkpoint into East Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie. The Wall is on the far side of the checkpoint where there was an East German checkpoint as well.


John Kennedy visited and later gave his famous
"Ich bin ein Berliner" speech.




Ronald Regan visited and gave his famous call:
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."





But 20 years ago the world shifted. The Soviets were "suddenly bankrupt." Communism was discovered to be a failure in Eastern Europe where it had held such apparent power. We discovered that the Wall was a facade hiding pain and sorrow behind its brick, concrete, and mortar.

(Kennedy, Reagan, and student pictures from Wikipedia.)

I wasn't there in 1989 when it came down. A friend later brought me some pieces of the Wall to keep as a memento. The power of East European dictatorship crumbled and placed in thousands of containers to be remembered and no longer feared.

History should tell us that nothing is permanent. Even what we see as impossibly planted may one day, sooner or later, change. It may all be broken up and placed in containers for future generations to ponder as the living generation tries to understand it.

An important lesson.

Wikipedia on The Berlin Wall