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62 Comments
- bettverboten, on 11/07/2009, -3/+42Awesome post... lovin' it...Freeeedom!
- Blinker1315, on 11/07/2009, -0/+28It's astonishing to me that the latter half of 2009 hasn't been filled with 20th anniversary retrospectives of the momentous events of 2009. With a media that's list-happy, this history has been relegated to almost a side-note. I remember when the Wall came down very clearly; I was at my desk at work when the news came in. I'd been in East Berlin in '87 and then returned in '90 and even in those three years the change was so enormous I'll never forget it.
- MacBookForMe, on 11/07/2009, -0/+17An amazing historical collection of brutal 'real politics'
- rabidjester, on 11/08/2009, -3/+18REAGAN SMASH!
- Half-Fast, on 11/07/2009, -1/+16I was serving in (then) West Germany when the wall came down. My Army unit was on a training exercise near the border about a week after and the human tide coming west was amazing. A lot of people were walking and those that had the little Trabant cars left them where they broke down and continued with what they could carry. I was 22 then, and it wasn't till that moment that I fully realized what freedom really means.
- jc7012, on 11/07/2009, -0/+14Freedom over oppression all on one page?? Dugg.
- Vanderkeif, on 11/08/2009, -1/+12Ich bin ein Berliner!
- sexybobo, on 11/08/2009, -1/+11You are an idiot. While a Berliner is a jelly donut named after Berlin. What he said was correct.
It would be like some one saying "I am one with the people of philly" Yes a philly is a type of sandwich but it is still the proper way to say you support the people of Philadelphia. - BabyWookie, on 11/08/2009, -2/+10In your deranged, socialism hating mind, isn't today's Germany also "evil social collectivist totalitarians"? After all, they do have a single payer health care system and extensive social safety nets.
- aecarol, on 11/08/2009, -0/+7I was in Germany TDY with the Air Force at Hahn AB for for a month when the wall fell. I could not get to Berlin because active duty military required special papers to travel to Berlin, so I watched it all on TV. Civilian contractors from our group simply booked a train and went to Berlin to "soak it all in".
Growing up as a Army Brat in Germany as a kid (Landstuhl Army Medical Center) I never thought that I would live to see the wall peacefully come down.
And then to see the Soviet Union fall in a graceful way really had my hopes soaring for Tiananmen Square. The world was so close.... - laibixi, on 11/08/2009, -3/+10I am from Germany and honestly i can not hear anything more about the fall of the wall! Yes, it was important and one of the greatest things ever to happen in this country. But there is way to much about it in our media right now and the current urgent problems are a little bit overshadowed by it right now. It would be nice if our government and our media would put the same emphasis on the current big problems in this country, as they are putting on this hisoric event. It seems as if they are trying to make the people forget about what is happening right now.
(and by the way: THE DAVID HASSELHOFF-THING IS ******* ANNOYING, STOP IT, WE DO NOT LIKE HIM!) - reddikilowatt, on 11/07/2009, -0/+7It is a shame that the world seems to have forgotten. I recently pulled up an old Sting album from that time and it seemed as strange as the World War 2 comic books that had the Japanese with buck teeth and slanted eyes.
And this brings back memories of seeing the wall come down on TV and not really believing it until I tuned into BBC World Service on the short wave radio.
I guess this is my generation's fault it's not getting much attention. The damn hippies celebrated every stupid little milestone of the 1960s like time didn't exist prior to their birth. I guess we're a little more jaded. - SEN5241, on 11/08/2009, -2/+8You are a Jelly Doughnut?
- Five35, on 11/08/2009, -0/+6I was in the US Army during the 70s stationed in Frankfurt, West Germany. When we first arrived in country, we were briefed about our mission, which was to potentially stop Russian armored forces heading west across the Fulda Gap, until reinforcement arrived. We were basically there to slow down the Russians, not stop them completely, since we would have been outnumbered 10-1. At that time, it seemed incomprehensible to me that the wall would ever come down. Glad it finally did. I also think it must have been very difficult for the East German people to leave the security of their communist way of life where everything is pretty much provided for them, and then to suddenly have to fend for yourself. Glad it's now history and most have assimilated well.
- maexn, on 11/08/2009, -0/+6I live in Berlin and the picture of the Brandenburger Gate are almost surreal, so freaking empty... now it's the most built up area.
fun fact, the cleared out area in the second Brandenburger Gate picture is the place where they just build the new US embassy: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2049/2536351622_5c8 ... - CPeanutG, on 11/08/2009, -1/+6Reagan sleepy...
- snak3st, on 11/08/2009, -1/+6David Hasselhoff saved the world from Communism!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zXiClnK8oE - directedition, on 11/08/2009, -1/+5Indeed. Let's all get back to blaming Germany for WWII.
- javaco, on 11/08/2009, -0/+3So in your sense it was very subtle that the East German gouverment baptized the structure "anti-imperialistic protection barrier" back then. In their propaganda the wall saved the "workers' and peasants' paradise" from the "faschistic capitalistic complex".
Obviously you don't know that we, the westerners, could travel there while the easties couldn't go the west. - directedition, on 11/08/2009, -0/+3I think "graceful" is a relative term here. Most believed that nothing short of worldwide thermonuclear war would break up the soviet union and end the cold war.
- carlosos, on 11/08/2009, -0/+3As someone that was born in "West" Berlin in 1985, I have to say thank you General Curtis LeMay for the air lift and the soldiers that died or otherwise I would have probably be born in in East Germany.
Picture of the Air Lift Memorial with the names of the soldiers that died:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d5/Insc ... - CPeanutG, on 11/08/2009, -0/+3Dugg for Homer Simpson graffiti.
- BabyWookie, on 11/08/2009, -1/+4I lived through the fall of the USSR. Trust me, there was nothing "graceful" about it. There were quite a few bloody regional conflicts, nationalist purges, refuge crises and economic turmoil that made American Great Depression seem like a cakewalk. Plus, the whole breaking the country apart thing was against the peoples' wishes and was simply about a group of power-hungry thugs each getting their own country to rule over and pillage. The USSR should have continued on as a democratic country, sans Georgia, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. In those republics, the people have actually voted for the separation.
- djm19, on 11/08/2009, -0/+3The confusion is over the indefinate article.
"Ich bin Berliner" is what anybody from Berlin would say. The "ein" is always omitted. However, Kennedy is speaking more poetically here, and as he is not really from Berlin he correctly says :"Ich bin ein Berliner", which can mean both that he is a pastry and a Berliner. - eh123, on 11/08/2009, -1/+4he hates freedom, obviously.
- Chachuka, on 11/09/2009, -0/+2Do you really think bringing it down is a good idea?
I was reading about Geert Wilders today. He says that Israel is the West's first line of defense against what he perceives to be a serious threat posed by the spreading of Islam. - JSPyper, on 11/08/2009, -0/+2You know your government sucks when they have to wall the borders to keep people from fleeing.
- RobaAssi, on 11/08/2009, -1/+3Mother, did it need to be so high? All in all you were all just bricks in the wall.
In global retrospect, the Berlin Wall is one of the most horrifying acts of fencing off the same country into two portions. Today, in 2009, it is almost hard to believe that it stood there for so long. Yet, we never stop to think and condemn the same kind of wall splitting off the West Bank by Israel. When you think about it, it's just as absurd and horrifying.
- diggdong, on 11/08/2009, -1/+3cool story ham
- g0nefishing, on 11/08/2009, -0/+2 Mikhail Gorbachev !!!!
- inactive, on 11/08/2009, -0/+2damn you beat me to it..
- lacrimosa2008, on 11/10/2009, -0/+2the usual...moaning on a high level, financial crisis, and we developed Crysis....
and by the way: WE LOVE DAVID HASSELHOFF!!! - Virgule, on 11/08/2009, -0/+2Thanks you. I don't know much about the wall and to be frankly honest I never put myself into it either.
So it actually was a wall to prevent people from leaving the east but not entering?
That would clears things up... - lacrimosa2008, on 11/08/2009, -0/+2thx for reuniting us, david hasselhoff
From germany with love - emildorbell, on 11/08/2009, -1/+3What IS happening right now in Germany? Curious.
- laibixi, on 11/10/2009, -0/+2hehe, naja einen gewissen unterhaltungswert hat er natürlich schon! ich gebe es ja zu!
- shaka776, on 11/08/2009, -1/+3I was in 6th grade, and I remember my teacher telling us it was a momentous day, and one that would live through history.
- directedition, on 11/08/2009, -0/+2That's because my 20-something generation was too young to take notice when the wall fell down, and we drive too large a percentage of the market for TV stations to risk alienating us with stuff like "history".
- AnalogAssassin, on 11/08/2009, -0/+1Word.
- Vig6y, on 11/08/2009, -0/+1the History Channel doc tonight about it was great, learned a lot
- aleksgg, on 11/08/2009, -0/+1Ich bin ein mexikanischer! Wie geht es dir?
- sindex, on 11/08/2009, -0/+1I remember watching the news about this while getting ready for school. Weird to think that was 20 years ago.
- Virgule, on 11/08/2009, -1/+2"preventing people from leaving East Germany"
I always hear that but did it prevent people from leaving west germany too? (The answer is obvious but there is something subtle in there..) - capthowdy1027, on 11/08/2009, -0/+1Awesome article, very awesome collection of photography.
- inactive, on 11/09/2009, -0/+1Because depro9 wants all the jews butchered for the greater glory of Allah...
- SEN5241, on 11/11/2009, -0/+1@(wtf!)bobo
Wow, that's a bit harsh. I guess humor is lost on an obnoxious twit like yourself. - depro9, on 11/09/2009, -0/+1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_West_Bank_bar ...
- javaco, on 11/08/2009, -0/+1Eres un "Mexikaner" :D
- Chachuka, on 11/09/2009, -0/+1What is that?
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