What happened next is difficult to describe. East and West Berliners were in each other’s arms.
Complete strangers were suddenly familiar with each other and kissed each other with tears of happiness in their eyes. Young people scaled the hated Wall and tried to make the first breaches in the gray concrete.
The scenes of welcome lasted all night and continued the other morning along the inner-German border from the Baltic Sea to Bavaria. After almost three decades of the Wall, Germany wanted to grow together again.
November 9, 1989, went down in history as the โWende,โ although the last word on the reunification of the two states had not yet been spoken.
After this historic event, the harassment on the A9 at the Hirschberg/Bavaria border crossing had not yet been completely cleared away when Thomas stood in front of our apartment door. It had been many years since I had said goodbye to my son at the main train station with a heavy heart.
At that time, I had no idea that it would take so long to see him again. Now my boy stood tall and handsome in front of me, a bit strange, but I immediately noticed the similarity with his little brother Sascha.
At first, I thought it was a sensory illusion of an overly proud father, but Chris also confirmed my perception. Thomas came from Munich and had brought his friend Rainer with him. Both immediately felt at home with us. The other day Andreas and Kerstin arrived.
I was proud to have everyone together again. Only Jacky was missing, but no one really expected her. A lot had happened during the long separation and that provided plenty to talk about. In the evening, we men retired to the basement bar for a bottle of beer.
Above all, I finally wanted to know how my boy, who was only eighteen at the time, had managed to escape to western Germany. But what Thomas told me astonished me, because I had a completely different idea of his escape. ๐ฃ๐ธ ๐๐ฎ ๐๐ธ๐ท๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ท๐พ๐ฎ๐ญ…
This is a supporter-funded publication. To receive new contributions and promote my work, become a subscriber: