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Nov 25, 2009, 11:10pm

Polish Culture Forum :: GENERAL DISCUSSION - (Not related to Poland) :: European News :: Where were you when the Berlin Wall Fell?

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Topic: Where were you when the Berlin Wall Fell? (Read 38 times)

nictoe
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Where were you when the Berlin Wall Fell?
« Thread Started on Nov 8, 2009, 8:54am »

Seems like it all happened just yesterday:

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kaima
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Re: Where were you when the Berlin Wall Fell?
« Reply #1 on Nov 9, 2009, 12:12am »

Well, Perhaps I was the closest of this forum to the Wall that day. I flew out of Berlin about 3 hours before it opened up. I had a few projects on the US spy sites & was up for one of them, and there was no breath of suspicion that it might open up.

It was an electric time in Berlin, and PURELY by chance (want to buy a bridge?) I had to spend 3 days on the job the following week. It was magic. Over time I chipped about 60 pieces of the wall to give away, was chased off once by Berlin police so I went 500 feet to a spot behind the Reichtag to continue... it was forbidden by the US for us to do this, as they restricted us but brought in US VIP's to chip at it officially. Always an American, I figure what is good for the Politician and the General is good for the Citizen and the Private, so I continued to chip at the wall as I wished. In the end the Teufelsberg maintenance engineers gave me a piece larger than a brick for myself. I added that to a paving brick from Checkpoint Charlie, which everyone was ignoring....

Kai

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Jaga
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Re: Where were you when the Berlin Wall Fell?
« Reply #2 on Nov 9, 2009, 1:52am »

I was in Poland. We were amazed. I was in Eastern Germany just a year before and things seem to not progress that much yet.

The truth is that Poland's change helped Germany. But since Berlin wall carries so much significant meaning this is what people remember mostly

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Jaga PolishSite
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Jaga
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Re: Where were you when the Berlin Wall Fell?
« Reply #3 on Nov 9, 2009, 1:53am »

Here is more about Poles and what they think about Berlin wall:

What Poles know about the fall of the Wall

Poles think that the process which led to the dismantling of the Berlin Wall began in Poland but they know little of its history, shows a new opinion poll.

The survey by TNS OBOP and commissioned by the European Commission Delegation in Poland shows that 68 percent think that the Solidarity revolution and the toppling of the communist regime in Poland had an impact on the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Seventy percent of respondents consider the event as important, above all, for Germany. 56 percent that it was important for Europe and 38 percent that it was directly important for Poland.

Poles have a very hazy understanding of the history of the wall, however, which fell 20 years ago on 9 November. Only 8 percent could identify that the wall was constructed in the 1956-1965 time period and just 27 percent of respondents knew that it fell on November 9, 1989.

But Poles disagree with the idea - common throughout the rest of Europe - that the fall of the Berlin Wall is the key event marking the end of communism in the region. Fifty one percent think that the creation of Solidarity was the emblematic of the transition years of 1980-1989; the Round Table and the election of June 4 in 1989 is thought to be key by 29 percent. The Berlin Wall was mentioned by just 13 percent as the most symbolic event.

Eighty two percent believe that the fall of the Berlin Wall accelerated transformations in Central and Eastern Europe. On the other hand, 73 percent think that the importance of the destruction of the wall was more symbolic than real. According to 47 percent these changes and the unification of Germany would have even occurred without the fall of the wall.

The survey was carried out using CATI telephone interviews on 17 and 18 October from a sample of 1000. (pg)
http://www.thenews.pl/international/arty....f-the-wall.html

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Jaga PolishSite
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nictoe
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Re: Where were you when the Berlin Wall Fell?
« Reply #4 on Nov 9, 2009, 2:21am »

Most of my fellow polish factory workers were utterly stunned by the Berlin Wall news that day. In a daze, they just kept asking me whats going to happen next? Large sections of the wall still remain today of course.

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nictoe
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Re: Where were you when the Berlin Wall Fell?
« Reply #5 on Nov 9, 2009, 8:01pm »

I just love these clips:

Question: WHO had the honor of tipping the first domino ??

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nictoe
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Re: Where were you when the Berlin Wall Fell?
« Reply #6 on Nov 10, 2009, 11:16am »

Nov 9, 2009, 8:01pm, nictoe wrote:

Question: WHO had the honor of tipping the first domino ??

But of course !

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tuftabis
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Re: Where were you when the Berlin Wall Fell?
« Reply #7 on Nov 10, 2009, 3:03pm »

I was in Poland. We were terribly excited about Hungarians, Czech and finally Germans following our way to independence. With more central Europen nations breaking free from Russian yoke we became sure that the change was irreversible. Until the autumn of 1989 we were not sure and in fact afraid that Red Army, together with GDR army would intervene in Poland and kick our Solidarnosc out.

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