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| Platz des 9. November 1989 |
Bösebrücke, on Bonholmerstrasße,
was the bridge that served as a border crossing between East and West Berlin
during the Cold War. Situated outside the central district of Berlin, it
crosses only railroad tracks rather than water, and is one of the last places
you can still see the Berlin Wall in its original form. The crossing
facilitated a passage from the Soviet into the French occupation sector and was
the first place where the wall was opened on 9 November 1989. After the
premature announcement from the East German government that private travel
would be allowed to the West, people began to clamor at Bösebrücke to make
their first foray into West Berlin. At 9:20 PM, to relieve the pressure of
people crowding the gate seeking exit from East Berlin, a few people were
allowed to cross into West Berlin. Their passports were stamped invalid. Three
hours later, the East German border guards reported that 20,000 people had
crossed the border.
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| Barbed wire still attached to the wall |
It has been nearly thirty years
since the fall of the Berlin Wall. I watch a group of school kids participating
in a school exercise, taking notes listening to a woman, about my age, discussing
the events that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent collapse
of East Germany. The kids were unimpressed, teasing each other just out of the
sight of the teacher, giving each other piggyback rides, and generally more
interested in the traffic that transited the bridge than in the remains of the
wall. The fall of the Berlin Wall was a seminal event in my life, both
personally and academically; yet for these kids it is ancient history. When I
was about their age, the Second World War had been over for about thirty years.
The end of World War II, the death of Hitler and the dropping of atomic bombs
on Japan, seemed far removed from my life. It still does. It is only natural
for these students to have the same feeling.
