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41 Comments
- heavyj1970, on 11/03/2009, -0/+17it make America seem pretty good, I was living in West Germany around that time, I gave an east berliner a cigarette and it was as if i gave him a thousand dollars, he couldn't believe people were so friendly outside of east berlin, especially an American, it was a nice feeling
- itsthemechanic, on 11/03/2009, -1/+15I'm (West) German, and I can remember the fall of the wall. I was like 13 at the time, and I heard on TV that the border was open, and that every East German was getting 100 DM "welcome money" from the government at the post office.
Before long, a bunch of Easties rocked up on my street. Parked their smoke belching Trabant in the bus stop (which is illegal), went in the post office, claimed their money, and came out and stormed the supermarket. They came out loaded with Western consumer goods... steaks, beers, cartons of cigarettes.
Yum, cigarettes. I was flat out and had 3.60 DM. A pack costs 4 DM. Went up to the Easties and said "Hey, I'm broke and I'm trying to get some smokes together. If I give you these 3.60 DM would you be kind enough to let me have some off the carton you just bought?"
"Neeeeee", they said, got into their smoking plastic car, and puttered away, leaving me to wonder whether that just was our tax money they spent in there.
Never liked the ***** since. - heavyj1970, on 11/03/2009, -0/+12you were already a broke smoker at 13 yo
- Danial, on 11/03/2009, -2/+10Down with communism.
- sphykik, on 11/03/2009, -3/+10These comments suck.
- asskicker32, on 11/03/2009, -1/+8Gorbachv did more than Reagan to bring down the wall.
- queenslife, on 11/03/2009, -2/+8OMG, u call that a great wall????? That was a walll of seperation. Seperating the humans....
- IphtashuFitz, on 11/03/2009, -1/+6I envy my brother for visiting Berlin before the wall fell. I was only 22 when it fell and really hadn't thought much about it at the time. Now that I'm older I really wish I'd had the chance to see it in person.
- inactive, on 11/03/2009, -0/+5Funny we had a German exchange student born in the west at my school and he'd complain how lazy those East German ***** are, most of it due to it being almost impossible to get fired from a job in the communist states unless you like got drunk off your ass and dropped a wrecking ball on someone.
Personally I never understood why it was such a big deal to have unity again, my ancestry is Prussian and it seems Germany did just fine when it was a collection of kingdom states in the Holy Roman Empire. While the collapse of communism is great it probably would have been better if they maintained two separate capitalist states with the west opening up trade but not complete absorption of the east. - santiago1, on 11/03/2009, -3/+8 "....All alone, or in two's,
The ones who really love you
Walk up and down outside the wall.
Some hand in hand
And some gathered together in bands.
The bleeding hearts and artists
Make their stand.
And when they've given you their all
Some stagger and fall, after all it's not easy
Banging your heart against some mad bugger's wall."
Pink Floyd, Outside the Wall - omgwtflawl, on 11/03/2009, -0/+4I saw an interview done with a Communist Party of Germany (or some such) member a couple of years ago who claimed the wall was there to keep West Berliners out of the eastern part of the city so they wouldn't "take advantage of cheap goods" or something like that. Riiiiiiiiiight.
- madeingermany, on 11/03/2009, -0/+4Growing up in West Germany, I had a lot of friends in school that had managed to leave before the wall fell. All of them and their families were very hard working. So much for my anecdotal evidence... the East German laziness is a stereotype.
However, saying that the wall shouldn't have come down is a pretty outrageous statement that I would compare to the Alaskan Secessionists. - inigomntoya, on 11/03/2009, -0/+3"being almost impossible to get fired from a job in the communist states unless you like got drunk off your ass and dropped a wrecking ball on someone."
And that would only get you executed on the spot - it still wouldn't even get you fired... - rnews4u, on 11/03/2009, -0/+3No doubt it was not an easy transition. I would not all East Berliners were like that.
- rnews4u, on 11/03/2009, -1/+4I hope students will be taught, in remembering this anniversary, what happens when government over reaches. We fought hard with Prague and Berlin to overcome communism.
- inigomntoya, on 11/03/2009, -1/+3Exactly. Any step in that direction is overstepping in my book. Socialism isn't a destination, its a stepping stone to something bigger and more Lennin-like.
- asskicker32, on 11/06/2009, -0/+2http://nhs.needham.k12.ma.us/cur/Baker_00/2001_p4/ ...
Gorbachev had a differnet policy in mind for the communist bloc. His drastic policy changes led to the opening up of eastern Europe and the unification of Germany. - inactive, on 11/03/2009, -0/+2@madeingermany
I never said the wall shouldn't have come down, just that perhaps there should have been an economic partnership at first instead of a total merger overnight.
I'd say overall though Germany has done quite well with integration, the real scary thing is if North Korea's regime ever collapsed, I can't see how South Korea would ever be able to cope with that, at least East Germans were aware of the world outside them it made unification easier. - itsthemechanic, on 11/04/2009, -0/+2That was a different generation. My generation has always been sceptical with extreme nationalism, including the United States with their flag-waving ways.
If anything, it's a West German vs. East German (Wessi vs Ossi) schism that still exists today, 20 years after the Wall came down. West Germans are seen by the East Germans to be arrogant, greedy pigs who care about nothing but how much money they can make. East Germans are seen by West Germans as lazy, ungrateful slobs who don't thank us enough for the fact we paid hundreds of billions to get them new roads, railways, telecommunications networks, and the like.
As a West German I just think the Easties need more of a pick-up-and-go attitude. If the town you live in has no jobs, pack up the car and piss off. That's what anyone in the states would do, instead of bleating about "the government to do something". That's exactly what they do, they lived for decades with socialism, and that's the way people still think today.
It will take a few generations for this to fade into oblivion. We call in "the Wall in the heads", and it's invisible, but very resilient to change. - Dregganaut, on 11/03/2009, -3/+4lol, Reagan worship
- Grova, on 11/04/2009, -0/+1Went to Germany when I was 12. Actually went through checkpoint Charlie on a military bus. Frickin' crazy, West Berlin was this thriving city and 100 hundred yards away there were still bombed out buildings from WWII.
- GailScott, on 11/03/2009, -0/+1Dugg because Pete Hamill wrote it.
- asskicker32, on 11/03/2009, -0/+1So amazing. I was 11 at the time and, living in LA, didnt realize the significance. Between this and "Tank Man" earlier in 1989, it was a powerful year and I only got to appreciate it in retrospect.
- lindsayjc, on 11/04/2009, -0/+1I think the east Berliner west Berliner schism is interesting when you consider the extreme nationalist pride that set the whole mess in motion to begin with.
- themastersb, on 11/04/2009, -0/+1One of the few times the international media actually helped a good cause.
- AngryDeuce, on 11/04/2009, -0/+1The 'Hoff should do a 20 year anniversary concert!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zXiClnK8oE&fmt ... - inactive, on 11/04/2009, -1/+2LMAO....yeah right!
- pathouston22, on 11/04/2009, -0/+18 diggs down. Digg always amuses me.
- xav8r, on 11/04/2009, -0/+1This is true! Reagan's military policy chess match bankrupted the USSR and Gorbachev turned off the money spigot to the DDR to save himself and bankrupted them, thus their demise and the domino effect on the rest of the eastern block countries ... It was a beautiful thing to witness!
- itsthemechanic, on 11/04/2009, -1/+2What do you get when you cross an East German with a Polish?
Some bastard that's too lazy to steal. - digitalArtform, on 11/03/2009, -3/+3Reagan didn't end the Cold War; he prolonged it.
http://www.counterpunch.org/blum06072004.html - Dregganaut, on 11/03/2009, -2/+2That's ironic, considering the war in Iraq that you're stuck in, and the burgeoning police state that you're becoming.
- inactive, on 11/03/2009, -5/+5Saw part of the wall at the Winston Churchill Memorial in Fulton Missouri...didn't think in my lifetime (50) I'd see it fall, but old Ronnie "got er done".
Socialist in the USA probably shed a tear when it came down, but too bad. Freedom is a natural state of being. - KimballO, on 11/03/2009, -8/+8It's very encouraging to remember the fall of communism and the triumph of progress. Thanks for submitting this.
- ciano, on 11/03/2009, -2/+2CAN'T STOP FALLING
- digitalArtform, on 11/03/2009, -3/+2Mr. Reagan, Tear Down This Myth!
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/10/opinion/10mann.h ... - inactive, on 11/03/2009, -2/+1Which ones, exactly?.
- Aandrewstrauss, on 11/03/2009, -4/+2my means was about its shave..and it was not build to keep people out....
- L0NER, on 11/03/2009, -5/+3Bastards interrupted a perfectly good episode of TMNT to show me some footage of a wall getting knocked down.
But I understand why its important now, - Aandrewstrauss, on 11/03/2009, -8/+2that is a great wall...
- ivanmarsh, on 11/03/2009, -11/+220 years ago and seems like just yesterday... perhaps because the economy has once again been ravaged by Reaganomics and we're at war in Iraq.
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