German Reunification Day - where does the time go?

[g-dude]

Hard to believe it’s only been 35 years.

And of course, here’s an unofficial anthem for the event…



Used to play this song with a band I was in back in grad school - most of the folks were German, and our entire setlist was auf Deutsch.

 

[bholder]

I remember it well, it was really kind of shocking just how suddenly it happened! Watching regular folks tearing down that wall was historic and cathartic!

 

[g-dude]

I remember it well, it was really kind of shocking just how suddenly it happened! Watching regular folks tearing down that wall was historic and cathartic!

I feel like that was probably the high-point of the 20th century in terms of global events.

21st century has been amazingly disappointing in comparison in a whole “hope for humanity” sense.

 

[Pdaddy1978]

As an old dude who remembers learning how to "duck and cover" along with with our other lessons, we never thought we'd ever see the wall fall and a unified Germany.
Watching it happen on TV was...surreal.
Hope, very much, springs eternal.

 

[Michedelic]

It was pretty amazing since, when I was 15, I got to view the village where my mother was born…from a mile away, behind a very tall wire wall/fence with a guard tower. Kinda puts things in perspective, especially now.

 

[JazznFunk]

I feel like that was probably the high-point of the 20th century in terms of global events.

21st century has been amazingly disappointing in comparison in a whole “hope for humanity” sense.

This. But it's what happens when people fail to study history, and they end up forgetting the worst parts, and double down on repeating the mistakes instead of capitalizing on the positive parts. I remember watching the wall come down on CNN's coverage when I was very young.

 

[VeryTallBassist]

The Hoff remembers!

 

[MrWolf14]

actually the Wall came down in 1989 but Germany decided to celebrate the official signature which happened 11 months later for a simple reason.
Quoting form Wikipedia:

An alternative choice to commemorate the reunification could have been the day the Berlin Wall came down: 9 November 1989, which coincided with the anniversary of the proclamation of the German Republic in 1918, and the defeat of Hitler's first coup in 1923. However, 9 November was also the anniversary of the first large-scale Nazi-led pogromsagainst Jews in 1938 (Kristallnacht), so the day was considered inappropriate as a national holiday

 

[mambo4]

Witnessing the end of the Cold War was amazing.
It's hard to describe the sense of optimism that launched the 1990s.
It really felt like things were gonna get better.

 

[rickdog]

My firstborn arrived while dawn was breaking for the first time over the ruins of the wall - an auspicious and doubly joyous day!

 

[devnulljp]

It really felt like things were gonna get better.

...and then they didn't

I used to have a piece of the wall. Lost in many moves over the years.

 

[JazznFunk]

...and then they didn't

I used to have a piece of the wall. Lost in many moves over the years.

My parents have a piece or 2 of it somewhere. I still remember what the box looks like! Certificate of authenticity and everything.

 

[mambo4]

...and then they didn't

I'll just cling to the memory that reunification happened , and the Iron Curtain came down (relatively) peacefully.
And keep that fact in mind when current events look bleak. Humanity can triumph, if we provide the circumstance.

 

[Fender_Bender]

I was worried you were going to go with Hasselhoff .

 

[Avigdor]

I remember it well, it was really kind of shocking just how suddenly it happened! Watching regular folks tearing down that wall was historic and cathartic!

The video clip where Hans-Dietrich Genscher announces to the people in the embassy that they are allowed to leave still reduces me to tears every time I see it.

 

[mikeoso]

I was born the day the Soviets detonated their first nuclear bomb, 8/28/1949. Did hiding under the desks and memorizing fallout shelters in elementary school. Was in 8th grade when the pricipal told us "school is cancelled tomorrow, stay home....in the basement." ...Cuban Missile Crisis. Did nuclear protection drills in the military during the late 60s. Taught HS history, and told my students "the Soviets will never give up their Warsaw Pact buffer.".. was never so happy to be proven wrong six months later.

Zen tells us to contemplate impermanence...I keep trying. Reunification Day helps.

 

[lark_z]

 

[g-dude]

actually the Wall came down in 1989 but Germany decided to celebrate the official signature which happened 11 months later for a simple reason.
Quoting form Wikipedia:

An alternative choice to commemorate the reunification could have been the day the Berlin Wall came down: 9 November 1989, which coincided with the anniversary of the proclamation of the German Republic in 1918, and the defeat of Hitler's first coup in 1923. However, 9 November was also the anniversary of the first large-scale Nazi-led pogromsagainst Jews in 1938 (Kristallnacht), so the day was considered inappropriate as a national holiday

The wall did indeed come down a year earlier, but that just meant free travel.

The BRD and the DDR (which was neither German, nor democratic, nor a republic) remained separate nations until 1990.

 

[Picton]

I heard about this in my High School German class.

My teacher had served in Germany during the 1950s and was extremely emotional about it all day. He really did love that country.

I tend to be a bit of a pessimist. The peaceful German reunification was wonderful and unexpected, but I wasn't fooled for long. The 90s felt very fake to me, in terms of everyone's optimism; it seemed to me like the American public very willingly pretended that everything was awesome, but that sort of baffled me. I wasn't surprised when everything crashed down later.

I had a professor who reminded us that the Soviet Bear was fearsome for decades, but it had been replaced by a dozen angry little cubs who were just waiting to come get theirs. The bipolar world was scary, but it was at least stable.

 

[bobba66]

Those wacky Germans!