Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Berlin 25 years ago

Twenty five years ago today in the middle of East Berlin tens of thousands called for democracy and freedom in the GDR.

Among those who addressed the crowd were writers Christa Wolf and Stefan Heym. So too did Jens Reich and Gregor Gysi speak. But also on the podium that day was Markus Wolf from State Security. He was jeered off the platform. Politburo member Gunter Schabowski, who is the person, who seemingly accidentally, gave the green light for the opening of the Wall, also tried to speak at the meeting but he was shouted down.

After the demonstration the crowd dispersed peacefully and there was no talk of bringing down the Wall.

Five days later the Berlin Wall was breached.

It's ironic that on the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Wall there will be no trains running in Germany. German DB locomotive drivers are due to begin a 100 hour strike early on Thursday morning.

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