On this day in 1989, I was blessed to be in West Berlin to cover the opening of the Berlin Wall for our ABC affiliate in NH. On November 9th, we’d seen the impossible on television… people dancing atop the Berlin Wall.
The next day, I was there.
The island oasis that was West Berlin could openly welcome those from the East for the first time since it was constructed in 1961.
Our image is often the graffiti-covered Wall. However, that only reflects the West Berlin side of one wall.
In actuality, a double wall system ran for 96 miles, with 302 watch towers, 20 troop bunkers, and endless trip wires… surrounding West Berlin… to keep citizens from escaping from East Berlin and East Germany into freedom in West Berlin.
Varying widths of “No Man’s Land” existed between the double wall system, constructed to stop the mass exodus of people fleeing to the West.
(Excuse me, according to the East German rhetoric at the time, it was to protect its citizens from West German Fascism and American Imperialism.) 3 million East Germans had fled as the Walls were constructed.
As Socialism crumbled into Communism, the people suffered and were trapped. No… life was not better. Many people tried to escape over the wall to enter West Berlin.
The numbers are staggering… nearly 200 shot and killed, more than 100 more wounded, and 3,200 caught and imprisoned.
5,000 made it to freedom, but the numerous crosses and memorial tributes on the West side of the Wall tell the story.
On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan stood before the Brandenburg Gate and uttered the now-famous words, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
Two years later, we stood at the Berlin Wall and chipped our mementos.
But we also watched those from the East marveling at sights they had never before seen… sights as simple as a basic fruit juice box.
They stood in line for the chance to get to freedom in the West.
So, standing in line for 3 hours to step inside the marvels of Woolworth’s, a Western store, with shelves brimming with goods.
A neo-Nazi demonstration broke out on the walking street where we were interviewing people. Jim Linsky, my videographer, was attacked, and his camera was smashed.
These demonstrators did not want freedom for those coming from the East. They wanted East and West Germany to be reunited with Socialism and Communism for all.
Communism lost that day, and the world won.
East to West smiles flourished as people met and welcomed each other, and families were reunited. As we joined those welcoming people into a world of freedom, it was far more than humbling.
They hugged and thanked us, just for being Americans, for making freedom possible. I wept, remembering all the people who had worked, suffered, and sacrificed for that freedom.
Not knowing at the time how long the Wall might remain open, people rushed through it in droves.
And yet, the Eastern guards, once charged with stopping such travel by any means necessary, now merely smiled. Yeah, they were going to be free, too.
Military troops from the US and our Allies provided food to the newcomers, who arrived with only the clothes on their backs. West Berliners housed them.
Freedom was being born, and we were blessed to be there to watch it happen.
These people would never again be sucked into the seemingly benevolent promises of Socialism, as they had lived through its inevitable transition into total government control and Communism.
Thank you to everyone, yesterday, today, and tomorrow… who keep the torches of freedom burning.
The Berlin Wall… It fell for freedom.
