The fall of the Berlin Wall

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

 Much has been written and spoken about the fall of the Berlin Wall which happened 30 years ago last Saturday.

It’s important at the outset to understand that Berlin, the whole of Berlin, East and West was an island enclave inside the territory of the German Democratic Republic, or as we called it, East Germany. All Berlin had a special status. But the Communists made East Berlin its capital city.

On November 9, 1989 as a result of a misspeak by politburo member Günter Schabowski, at an otherwise boring press conference, said that visits to the west would be possible for every citizen of the GDR, starting ‘right away and immediately’. On hearing the news, East Berliners rushed out to border posts across the city dividing East and West Berlin. 

At the Bornholmer Street East-West crossing crowds of East Germans suddenly arrived. The man in charge on the night, GDR Lieutenant Colonel Harald Jäger, was confronted with a problem. Opening fire was not on. He quickly and unofficially opened the barrier. And as they say, the rest is history.

In the mid-1980s I was a university chaplain in West Berlin.

Today Berlin is a major European capital, in many ways the centre of Europe. Thirty years ago West Berlin was a different place. It attracted West German dissidents and people who wanted to avoid compulsory military service. It was home to artists and musicians, including the Philharmonic Orchestra’s Herbert von Karajan.

It was not an easy place to get to. If you wanted to fly to West Berlin, say from London or Paris, you had to get there via a city in West Germany. Rail traffic to and from West Berlin was an adventure. The trains were old and at the inner German border there were long delays as a West German locomotive would be changed for a Soviet-built diesel electric unit.

But it was always exciting. Once the train entered East Germany, border guards arrived at your seat, impeccably dressed. They asked you for your passport, not another word would be said but they would give you a glaring look, methodically check your passport, stamp it with a transit visa and hand it back to you. They had that perfect ability to frighten you out of your life. On some occasions they came escorted by dogs. And just before the train arrived in West Berlin they would do a thorough search of the train, often removing ceiling panels searching for stowaways.

And then arriving at the run-down, depressing-looking rail station at Berlin Zoolologischer Garten.

Today Berlin is served by a spectacular glass-cladded rail station on the site of the old Lehrter Station right in the heart of Berlin. InterCity Express trains travel in and out of the city at speeds of 300km/h en route.

Ironically, the city is still without its new airport. Aer Lingus flies to the old West Berlin Airport at Tegel and Ryanair’s Berlin destination is the former East Berlin Airport at Schönefeld.

The new Berlin Brandenburg Airport has experienced years of mismanagement and corruption. It was originally due to open in 2011 but it’s still not open. Latest news is that it should be operational in 2021. So much for German efficiency. And guess what, some years ago glass tiles came flying off the new rail station.

Berlin, the German capital city is a great place but I miss West Berlin. And East Berlin too had its own special character. It offered the best of value in books and wine.