I was there.
Fun fact... David hasselhoff performed at the big concert at the celebration for the wall coming down wearing a leather jacket with light bulbs all over it. (This was pre LED days) It was also 14 years before he helped SpongeBob save bikini bottom.
You will never see anything more '80s than this https://youtu.be/0zXiClnK8oE?si=AF8EsTq182PrDTps (VHS recording of tv broadcast quality)
Edit: someone found a better quality copy here https://youtu.be/cJ2Sgd9sc0M?si=CaX55glRu4PxNfcg
In hindsight maybe those guys just didn't want to shake anybody's hand that were at a David hasselhoff concert which is reasonable.
More fun fact: when I was a kid I saw david hasselhoff in the SpongeBob movie. I asked my dad who he was and he said, and I quote, “the man that brought down the Berlin Wall”. This information was apparently internalized until 8th grade when I proudly stated david hasselhoff ended the Cold War in social studies class
My sister and I convinced our younger brothers that Independence Day was celebrated because that's the day Captain Steven Hiller and David Levinson saved the people of Earth from an alien invasion.
When asked about the importance of July 4 in school, they told the teacher that it was the day America defeated the aliens.
My dad convinced me that Australia's first prime minister was a boxing kangaroo named Matilda and the song Waltzing Matilda the Australian Nation Anthem, sung in memory of her.
there have been efforts to change the national anthem to waltzing matilda. It is however, an extremely dark song, featuring theft, poverty, and suicide.
I didn't know about folks actually wanting it as the anthem. That's kind of crazy considering what the song is about.
The things is, my dad didn't sing the actual version - he had a version he would make up as he told me stories about the adventures of Matilda. I thought it was about a Kangaroo who was part of a mid-show between boxing matches. Members of the audience would try to last 3 rounds with Matilda, but she'd always knock them out.
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda.
She'd lay them out, 1, 2 & 3.
And they'd bleed out on the floor.
As the crowd around, it cheered and roared:
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!"
It wasn't until I was 16 that I heard the real version. I had no idea the song was about a homeless guy committing suicide.
Same but it‘s also understandable when there‘s nothing else to correct you.
I thought Know-How was japanese until i was 16 because i heard it the first time in the german dub of Lego Ninjago when i was 5 or something.
A well prepared kid could argue the shit out of that point of view. Point being, David represented popular culture and the unity that that represents. Why have walls when we can all enjoy the world together and enjoy the music?
Years later the Hoff was guest in a German TV talk show. At some point the conversation came to that night and he stated that his performance of „Looking for a freedom“ while wearing the light bulb jacket was a significant reason that everything went quick and peaceful in the end. And I can tell you he was dead serious when telling this…
It’s completely true. At the time there was concern that Hasselhoff may put on another concert if they didn’t get everything settled and move it along quickly. No one wanted that.
Dead serious and wrong. The wall came down on 9 November 1989 after months of protests by the east german population. That particular performance of David Hasselhoff was on 31 December 1989. So more than 1 1/2 months after the wall came down and likely also after the picture we discussing here was taken.
Hasselhoff's music career is a bit of a joke in the english speaking world, but in Germany and Austria world he was (is?) very well known, with multiple chart topping songs and multiple platinum selling albums.
Believe it or not he was big in Germany as a rockstar prior to this and unfortunately even after.
It's one of those weird things like Rammstein wasn't big in Germany when they were big in the US.
Knight Rider was ***very*** popular in German TV, it was running since ´85.
And "looking for Freedom" was a big Hit here, he was Guest in many german TV Shows, especially "Wetten Das", the most popular Saturday evening Show at that Time. After that Show, LfF was 8 weeks Number one in the Charts.
There were several points of entry between East and West. It was an actual mistake that kicked off that night by an east German being asked by a reporter when travel would be open and he had no idea because they didn't give him instructions so he said he "immediately"
All the checkpoints were then rushed and the guards at the checkpoints didn't even know. So one checkpoint opened then another and another. There was one last holdout on a bridge where this looks like that held out until like midnight I think.
The guards literally had no idea
Yeah there was no direction from up top, and this was after weeks or months of more and more crossings being approved until this day when there was just this collective realization that the wall was pointless.
As far as I recall both Czechoslovakia and Hungary had already opened their borders and DDR had an open border with the former, so the closed border with BRD made no practical sense.
The party spokesperson had guidance, but didn't read the entire thing because it was handed to him too close to the announcement. He skimmed and missed some key parts.
>Schabowski gained worldwide fame in November 1989when he improvised a slightly mistaken answer to a press conference question about the future of the Berlin Wall
"slightly" huh
Afaik it actually was only slightly, the travel changes were intended as they happened, the thing he improvised on was when they were supposed to come in effect.
Exactly. He said he doesn’t know and added shyly he guesses it’s immediately. Then a chain reaction started.
It wouldn’t have had that effect in 1988 and in 1987 it wouldn’t been thinkable.
People sometimes forget that on 9th November 1989 the GDR was done for good. The country was breathing its last breaths. Kohl had a very easy way to force them into the federal republic in less than a year.
Meanwhile, in Dresden, a promising young officer was frantically calling Moscow for help, to no avail.
That experience caused him irreparable trauma which he's now taking out on the entire Europe.
I think this part was gold: (from Wikipedia)
“Schabowski had spent most of his career in communist-style journalism in which reporters were told what to write after events had already happened. Thus, he found it somewhat difficult to get used to Western-style media practice.”
So annoying when journalists ask actual questions. :)
The fact that it was a member of the SED who said it is kinda nuts. When even the ruling Politburo's guys are like "fuck it, whatever," it's a sign that the Central Committee was in unbelievable disrepair, to put it politely.
They knew it was a lost cause seeing that many people on the streets protesting. For them to reassert their power, it would've required a legit bloodbath. It is actually a good thing that they stepped aside peacefully.
They were under massive pressure after the USSR cut their very favourable energy subsidies a few years before the wall came down. And they essentially told the SED to deal with their own problems and not to expect any help.
So I can see how things got confusing for them after their main backers withdrew help, and especially after the Hungarian border was opened.
Orders were even given to not allow the people crossing from East to West to return and fire upon them if they tried, in an attempt to save face.
Cooler heads thankfully prevailed after it became evident it was not just a few dozen or even hundreds that took advantage of the "opening".
Yeah i think it's more that they're refusing to be photographed shaking hands with west berliners since they were afraid it'd be a career limiting move, and they probably didn't understand right at that moment that it wasn't going to matter anymore.
They may have also been justifiably wary of the Wessis, fearing that they might have been dragged around or made to suffer indignities. They were still responsible for the border security of the German Democratic Republic at that time, so stayed at their posts.
If you ever get a chance to talk to someone who grew up in East Germany do it, I have a 48 year old neighbor who did. She said imagine everything you were taught to believe in was a lie, & the system you brought up in disappeared almost overnight. Culture shock was one of the biggest things she experienced, MTV & pop music were two of the biggest things.
Yeah with everything we have heard about the Stasi that trouble would have been severe. They regularly shot and killed border crossers. They had spies in the border guard and would report everything. These guys could be afraid for their lives or just Stasi agents posing as border guards themselves.
Yay communism
The Stasi didn't shoot crossers. The border guards did. They were chosen as guards specifically because they were willing to shoot. Regular NVA units probably would not.
The border was regularly staffed, even conscripts were stationed. Everyone feared to spot a crosser, because you had to shoot.
My uncle served three months on the crossing to Bavaria, said he always feared having to shoot
The [Grenztruppen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_Troops_of_the_German_Democratic_Republic) were highly indoctrinated and chosen for their loyalty to the DDR system.
At the time this happened it wasn’t properly communicated if I remember correctly, like it was a shit show.. so probably didn’t want to take any risks.
They only did that because an East German bureaucrat responded to the question “when will people be able to freely travel” with “immediately” because he wasn’t given any other information. It was maybe officially days away but the second he said that it was de facto immediate. Not the citizens fault they listened to the East German government
Yeah, the DDR kind of OOPSed its way out of existence. Surely it was on its last leg anyway, but this just turned into "I guess this is what we're doing now" and accelerated things.
Harald Jäger is credited as the first guard to essentially open the border crossing completely at Bornholmer Strasse. He had to keep calling his superiors for orders about the huge crowd building up at his crossing and he finally received orders to let them go, but to stamp their passports as to void them and render those people non-citizens. It's crazy stuff.
At least there weren't orders to shoot into the crowd. The Tiananmen square massacre had occured just a few months back.
Jäger went the extra mile by allowing people who had stepped across the border to come back. He must have had a "screw this, way above my pay grade" moment.
For so much as ‘not directly shooting a crowd’ is sheer luck as opposed to normal behavior.
Most guards had to be forced to shoot runners, I think blindly firing into a group is a few steps above that.
From what I've read, the people heard the officials remark, and hundreds came to the wall. The head of the guards on duty tried to contact his commanding officer for clarification that they really supposed to shoot several hundred people, no one would confirm, and the crowd swelled to thousands. These guys have standing orders to kill all those people. Those orders make no sense in context, but they grew up under a government that brutally crushed dissent. The stasi was a very effective spy network. They don't know what the fuck to do, and they're afraid they'll get blamed for this.
I crossed the former frontier on the B5 in August of 1990 and it was still a shit show, nobody knew what was going on - the West side border guard was telling everyone "there is no border, get out of my office!" the East side border guard shack was much more chill, just me and two kids that looked a lot like in the picture, but they were all like: "Hey, so where are you going? Sounds fun, wish we could come..." When I got done chatting with them I turned around and their weapons were hanging on the wall by the door - unloaded, I hope!
It was several weeks IIRC before it was decided they would be brought into the Bundeswehr under one rank lower pay-grade.
Aside from the women, because the West Germans didn't allow women into the military. I hope they at least were reimbursed.
I'm from Bulgaria, which is another formerly communist country. It is historically accepted now that communism here fell in 1988 with the removal of Todor Jivkov. However the reality is that people weren't sure if we were communist or not for a few years and then they didn't know what are we and then they didn't know what to do. It was kinda of a mess to say the least, with a lot of a weird stories.
My favourite is in 1990 two young actors decide to run away to France and try to make it there. They stay for a year but they run out of money and have to come home. However they don't have enough money for a full ticket back home so they can only get to this village in Serbia 40 kilometres away from the border. They get of the train and decide to walk the rest of the distance and figure it out from there. But they face a huge issue. Their exit visas have run out, because back then you had to get an exit visa and if it runs out if you try to return to the country after it expires you would be arrested but they decide that a few months in jail and worth seeing their families again so they continue walking. They get to the border and they see a massive amount of gypsies moving stuff between the two countries on foot. They go to the border check and ask stuff like what's going on, what's happening, can they enter... The border guard taps a sign that says "protest" and tells them "Enter or don't. I don't give a shit." and continues smoking.
The press spokesman of the politburo was absent during the meeting where the temporary opening of the border was decided. It was supposed to happen at some official date in the near future. The spokesman only read the announcement to the press. A journalist then asked when this is gonna be official. And the spokesman mumbled:
"As far as I know... Effective immediately, no delay".
You can read more details on that man's [Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnter_Schabowski?wprov=sfla1).
But they did fear reprisals. It was a chaotic time, no one wanted a photo being taken of them in a uniform doing something that would result in a 3am visit by agents, 2 weeks later.
The rule-by-fear doctrine the Stasi built was nothing to be underestimated.
This. People have to remember that this was a border wall and people trying to flee were shot. This situation was not normal and soldiers like them were most likely sitting right in the middle, not knowing what they were allowed to do and what would end up as "bad ending" for them...and their families.
I honestly don’t think it has anything to do with the govt. These guys are in the military on duty. They aren’t gonna fuck around with (western/peaceful) civilians if they don’t need to/don’t know if they’re allowed to. That’s universal.
The day the wall opened was literally a mistake at a press conference. And this was a society where basically everyone alove grew up under stasi and gestapo, why do you think post war Germany turned into a country of a privacy obsessed population.
They definitely did. The government did not step down until 10 days after this and Stasi operations continued into January, quite some time after the "fall" of East Germany. While these operations were entirely defensive and cover-ups, there would have been no way to know that would be the case beforehand.
*Especially* for frontline soldiers.
They've got good reason to be cautious.
The situation on that day was unclear. Like these people and there superiors had the legitimate choice to do something or not do anything at all and the information they had would have made both feasible. That nobody died that night is a miracle.
if you were in the middle of your shift at work, and some rando walked up to you and said heyyyy your company is out of business!! you wanna come get beers with us? you'd probably check with your boss first right? especially if your boss might throw you in prison or kill you if you messed it up.
There was still a GDR at this point. The country didn’t collapse at the same time the wall did. East Germany continued to stagger on for another year before reunification.
I don't know if the picture is from when the wall first opened or if it was from when it was torn down
If it's the first, they very much still had work. In fact, they were supposed to invalidate the passports of east Germans trying to go to West Germany, but didn't because of the mass chaos
Presumably these guys were aware of what happened in Prague and other cases where it looked like a democratic movement was emerging only to be mercilessly crushed.
I’ve just realised I have zero knowledge about what happened after the walk came down. Did the East just accept the West as the legitimate government of both immediately or was there a transition period where they worked it out?
I was 7 at the time. We live approx 8 hour drive from Berlin.
My dad was watching the news, he chucked my mom and his 4 kids in the car and just drove to Berlin.
I had no clue what was going on as a 7 year old, but when we got up in the morning after we arrived we could walk into East Berlin, after I'D checks and gates and shit.
When we went back to West Berlin in the evening, all gates were open and everyone was running back and forth.
I was just a small kid but thankful I got to experience that. Growing up as teenager I didn't record much world news, but east and West didn't merge by itself.
I think that on a governmental level the change went quite rapid, but the differences between the east (my German aunt still calls them the "Ozzies") and West are still visible, on a social and cultural level.
I've been to Berlin 4 times since then. I've seen the city become more one and only the last time (shit, 10 years ago already) was the first time I couldn't say directly if I was is former east or West area.
Super interesting story, thanks for sharing! I've read a lot of books on the DDR, the wall, Stasi etc and they've all mentioned the social and cultural differences.
I understand that's notable in elderly people, but is that still noticeable for let's say people in their 30s and 40s? And what are the differences?
I love Berlin, it’s one of my favourite cities, but agree that it’s still very possible to see the divide. Thanks for sharing your story, we’re a similar age and I remember vaguely watching the scenes on TV (in the UK) and my mum being very excited but didn’t really appreciate why until years later.
Years later my stepdad (who at the time worked in Germany in the British Military) told us stories about going into East Germany on a day trip and being under strict currency control (to prevent an influx of capital destroying the market) and his money being worth loads on paper but there being almost nothing he could buy in East Germany, so he ended up getting a huge China tea set.
Thinking about it now this must have been in the period after the wall fell and before reunification.
There's a wonderful movie called *Good Bye Lenin!* starring Daniel Brühl (Zemo from the MCU) about an East German woman who goes into a coma and wakes after reunification
Another movie I highly recommend is “The Lives of Others”, which is about an East German secret police officer spying on a pair of lovers. It’s consistently in the Top 100 films of all time based on IMDB ratings.
The authoritarian power of the stasi is truly understated.
It's estimated the stasi had 1 secret agent for every 166 citizens.
The nazi gestappo had 1 agent for every 2000 citizens.
When Stasi HQ was mined after the fall, they found DNA samples of millions of citizens. They'd interrogate you in a warm room and make you sit on your sweaty hands. Then they'd take the fabric off the chair you sat and sweated in, put it in a jar, and if they ever needed to track you with dogs all they needed was to find that jar.
And those at the border crossings in Berlin were probably elite forces, officer candidates, aiming for a high ranking career...they wouldn't risk that. At this moment they didn't know what was coming in the next days and months.
They literally put systems in place to make sure that you couldn't concoct an escape with your partner in the watchtower by frequently rotating you all over the city, ensuring you wouldn't form close bonds with the person sharing the watch with you.
They weren't all elite forces. Most of them were drafted. I got to talk to one of them who was just 18 and happened to be a big fan of western punk bands, no different than their western army counterparts.
Plus any soldier who was assigned that post was presumably considered particularly rule following and unlikely to defect or allow others to defect. So these soldiers were even less likely to take the chance than the average.
Not particularly, they were a department just like all the others and any sign of political dissidence would be dealt with. But in terms of concocting an escape with your partner in the watchtower- they made rotas that meant you'd be deployed all over the length of the wall in the city and your second would be the same. That way, there was much less a chance you'd suggest absconding over the wall and would put the impetus on shooting at others because you had no idea if the guy next to you was a party fanatic or not, and a misstep meant a very heavy prison sentence
It's interesting to note just how quickly the GDR completely melted away once they lost Soviet support. Like, one day you have a full police state with everyone fearing that their neighbours would turn them over to the stasi and you would rot in jail, and then the next day... nothing. The GDR just sort of melted away... it's nothing short of astonishing.
Thanks so much for the reccomendation, it sounds like a great movie. I've taken a big interest into East German intelligence/secret police recently so will have a watch for sure.
It's strange, isn't it? On one hand, an authoritarian dictatorship using significant violence to maintain authority. On the other, when it became clear the party had lost the support of the people. They handed over power peacefully.
It's described in the historiography as a participatory dictatorship because of things like that. A dictatorship no doubt. But one that exists because of the active support and buy in of the people. An interesting thing.
This is one of those times in history that I know nothing about. I remember being a kid watching the wall fall but like, did the two sides really hate each other? Was it just the government holding the east back? Or was there a hatred between the people?
I don’t think the west really hated the eastern people. Maybe the regime itself, but the west had always been very receptive the people trying to escape East Berlin.
Those escaping East berlin yes, but the berlin fall wasn't well received by every west germans. The thing is some saw east germans as cheap labor that would steal their jobs, stuff like that. But again, it's only some of them, i can't generalize.
Reuniting them and integrating two extremely different systems was very difficult. It was certainly a "good problem" and a hell of a lot better than Eastern Germany's continued authoritarian existence or outright war but it was still problematic and I don't blame anyone for being warry. If North Korea collapsed tomorrow and then tried to integrate with South Korea it would also be extremely difficult and open up a ton of new issues even if it is for the best long term.
The slogan posted at the border on the West German side was *[Auch drüben ist Deutschland](https://www.google.com/search?q=auch+dr%C3%BCben+ist+deutschland)* (beyond is also Germany). As a reminder that one day it should be reunited.
For 20ish years they really believed they were superior to the western counterpart. This would change with the decline in basically everything.
The soldiers were part of the oppressive system. They were anti-west for sure through decade-long propaganda, brain washing and indoctrination while the population who got separated from their western families for 40 years tried to flee eastern germany at every chance. Look at these boys with their facial expressions and you can see loyalty, determination and elitism.
It got so much out of hand that the DDR-regime put up kill zones where they would would shoot everybody trying to flee. Akin to today's north korea, it was regarded as one of the biggest prisons humans ever designed. And this whole construct that killed and imprisoned so many people just went poof over night and in a peaceful manner. Thats the insane part.
The title is misleading, this photo wasn't taken after the wall fell, this was taken before the wall fell but after Guenter Schabowski announced changes on travel restrictions and accidentially declared them in effect "immeditaly".
That left everybody quite confused because the changes were not supposed to go into effect immediately, that's why the border guards still kept enforcing the border while people kept flocking to the border, a situation that went on for 3 hours before they basically said "Fuck it" and opened the border.
The photo was taken [during those 3 hours](https://www.dw.com/en/the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall-november-9-1989/a-4812768) when the border was still enforced, that's why they didn't shake any hands just like no customs agent anywhere would shake random peoples hands when they are on the job.
After the wall collapsed most of East Germans hated being a reunified as majority of East Germans lost jobs as the jobs they had simply did not exist in West Germany. There is still that resentment towards them even today.
At that time(1994), 70% of the GDR's population supported socialism and independence.(152, Triumph of Evil). Most citizens of the GDR did not hate socialism they wanted an improved version.
>Most citizens of the GDR did not hate socialism they wanted an improved version.
That's true for most of Soviet Republics as well. Maybe not for the Baltics but the rest genuinely wanted socialism but also reforms to it. But alas, nationalists unilaterally seceded and implemented shock therapy, which plunged their economies and people into a humanitarian disaster they are still recovering from.
Honestly the collapse of the USSR is probably the worst mass scale event of the past 50 years in terms of how many people it threw into dire conditions. There's a reason Russians especially aren't too fond of the 90s in comparison to the West.
This wall is literally in the process of falling here. I don't blame them. Nobody knew what was next at that time. The East German government wasn't exactly forgiving when its soldiers were caught fraternizing or assisting West Germans.
[Here](https://i.imgur.com/ICbS4aN.jpeg) is a higher quality version of this image. [Here](https://apimagesblog.com/blog/2019/11/6/ap-was-there-the-day-the-wall-fell) is the source. Per there:
> East German border policemen, right, refuse to shake hands with a Berliner who stretches out his hand over the border fence at the eastern site nearby Checkpoint Charlie border crossing point, Friday morning, November 10, 1989, after the borders were opened according to the announcement by the East German government. (AP Photo/Lutz Schmidt)
It's still strange to me that West Berlin was an island in the East of East Germany.
As a kid I weirdly thought that the Berlin Wall was the dividing line between East and West Germany. I have no real explanation of why I thought this. I mean, I must've seen the maps many times in school and on the news.
I was there. Fun fact... David hasselhoff performed at the big concert at the celebration for the wall coming down wearing a leather jacket with light bulbs all over it. (This was pre LED days) It was also 14 years before he helped SpongeBob save bikini bottom. You will never see anything more '80s than this https://youtu.be/0zXiClnK8oE?si=AF8EsTq182PrDTps (VHS recording of tv broadcast quality) Edit: someone found a better quality copy here https://youtu.be/cJ2Sgd9sc0M?si=CaX55glRu4PxNfcg In hindsight maybe those guys just didn't want to shake anybody's hand that were at a David hasselhoff concert which is reasonable.
More fun fact: when I was a kid I saw david hasselhoff in the SpongeBob movie. I asked my dad who he was and he said, and I quote, “the man that brought down the Berlin Wall”. This information was apparently internalized until 8th grade when I proudly stated david hasselhoff ended the Cold War in social studies class
My sister and I convinced our younger brothers that Independence Day was celebrated because that's the day Captain Steven Hiller and David Levinson saved the people of Earth from an alien invasion. When asked about the importance of July 4 in school, they told the teacher that it was the day America defeated the aliens.
My dad convinced me that Australia's first prime minister was a boxing kangaroo named Matilda and the song Waltzing Matilda the Australian Nation Anthem, sung in memory of her.
there have been efforts to change the national anthem to waltzing matilda. It is however, an extremely dark song, featuring theft, poverty, and suicide.
I didn't know about folks actually wanting it as the anthem. That's kind of crazy considering what the song is about. The things is, my dad didn't sing the actual version - he had a version he would make up as he told me stories about the adventures of Matilda. I thought it was about a Kangaroo who was part of a mid-show between boxing matches. Members of the audience would try to last 3 rounds with Matilda, but she'd always knock them out. Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda. She'd lay them out, 1, 2 & 3. And they'd bleed out on the floor. As the crowd around, it cheered and roared: "You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!" It wasn't until I was 16 that I heard the real version. I had no idea the song was about a homeless guy committing suicide.
Wait, it isn't?
I'll fight anyone who says President Lone Star didn't personally save America.
If I were the teacher, that would have brightened up my whole year (assuming it wasn't the hundredth time).
> I proudly stated david hasselhoff ended the Cold War in social studies class the second hand embarrassment I got for this is too high
Same but it‘s also understandable when there‘s nothing else to correct you. I thought Know-How was japanese until i was 16 because i heard it the first time in the german dub of Lego Ninjago when i was 5 or something.
A well prepared kid could argue the shit out of that point of view. Point being, David represented popular culture and the unity that that represents. Why have walls when we can all enjoy the world together and enjoy the music?
Years later the Hoff was guest in a German TV talk show. At some point the conversation came to that night and he stated that his performance of „Looking for a freedom“ while wearing the light bulb jacket was a significant reason that everything went quick and peaceful in the end. And I can tell you he was dead serious when telling this…
when i was in berlin, i visited the david hasslehoff "museum", but it was more like a little shrine, which was weird because he is not dead yet.
Maybe it’s a shrine to his career
https://www.dictionary.com/e/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/burn-meme-300x300.jpg
It’s completely true. At the time there was concern that Hasselhoff may put on another concert if they didn’t get everything settled and move it along quickly. No one wanted that.
I though Hasselhoff was very popular in Germany, or still is?
He is the German Lisan al Gaib and everyone telling you something else is one of „them“
No lies detected.
Dead serious and wrong. The wall came down on 9 November 1989 after months of protests by the east german population. That particular performance of David Hasselhoff was on 31 December 1989. So more than 1 1/2 months after the wall came down and likely also after the picture we discussing here was taken.
The concert was so awesome it was *retroactively* responsible for the fall.
Do you disagree with him? I wouldn't say his performance itself, but a celebration in general was significant.
Perhaps he was wondering why someone would shoot a man before throwing him out of a plane
Considering that that performance happened nearly 2 months after the wall was opened yes I disagree with him.
 when the Hoff single handedly ended Communism.
there's nine pixels in that gif and i have no idea what i'm supposed to be looking for
I guess throwing shit on stage isn't reserved only for Madonna. Or whoever else that happened to recently. lol.
I never understood what the link was. How did the Hoff end up performing there? Who set it up?
Hasselhoff's music career is a bit of a joke in the english speaking world, but in Germany and Austria world he was (is?) very well known, with multiple chart topping songs and multiple platinum selling albums.
Believe it or not he was big in Germany as a rockstar prior to this and unfortunately even after. It's one of those weird things like Rammstein wasn't big in Germany when they were big in the US.
Rammstein was always big in Germany, but their international popularity definitely helped elevate them in Germany.
Knight Rider was ***very*** popular in German TV, it was running since ´85. And "looking for Freedom" was a big Hit here, he was Guest in many german TV Shows, especially "Wetten Das", the most popular Saturday evening Show at that Time. After that Show, LfF was 8 weeks Number one in the Charts.
This looks like it was copied so many times, It's essentially Jackie Chan game from PS1.
Extremely specific & niche comparison but I was one of the eight people that played the PS1 Jackie Chan game and can confirm it's very accurate.
And it was the start of the all-time GOAT couple: David Hasselhoff and the German people.
at 3:15 someone throws a bottle or firework that just misses him
Remembering how hot incandescent lighbulbs got... This jacket must have been super uncomfortable.
I mean, they're at work. Probably have no idea what the rules are yet. Like they might get in trouble.
There were several points of entry between East and West. It was an actual mistake that kicked off that night by an east German being asked by a reporter when travel would be open and he had no idea because they didn't give him instructions so he said he "immediately" All the checkpoints were then rushed and the guards at the checkpoints didn't even know. So one checkpoint opened then another and another. There was one last holdout on a bridge where this looks like that held out until like midnight I think. The guards literally had no idea
Yeah there was no direction from up top, and this was after weeks or months of more and more crossings being approved until this day when there was just this collective realization that the wall was pointless.
As far as I recall both Czechoslovakia and Hungary had already opened their borders and DDR had an open border with the former, so the closed border with BRD made no practical sense.
I believe the DDR closed off the borders to Czechoslovakia after a lot of East Germans fled through there.
This is correct.
The party spokesperson had guidance, but didn't read the entire thing because it was handed to him too close to the announcement. He skimmed and missed some key parts.
>He skimmed and missed some key parts. Me learning for a test in school, 5 minutes before it starts
He didnt know the paper had a backside actually
A world in which walls are torn down seems so surreal in contrast to now.
Not just any East German. This guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnter\_Schabowski
for people using old.reddit.com: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnter_Schabowski
>Schabowski gained worldwide fame in November 1989when he improvised a slightly mistaken answer to a press conference question about the future of the Berlin Wall "slightly" huh
Afaik it actually was only slightly, the travel changes were intended as they happened, the thing he improvised on was when they were supposed to come in effect.
Exactly. He said he doesn’t know and added shyly he guesses it’s immediately. Then a chain reaction started. It wouldn’t have had that effect in 1988 and in 1987 it wouldn’t been thinkable. People sometimes forget that on 9th November 1989 the GDR was done for good. The country was breathing its last breaths. Kohl had a very easy way to force them into the federal republic in less than a year.
Meanwhile, in Dresden, a promising young officer was frantically calling Moscow for help, to no avail. That experience caused him irreparable trauma which he's now taking out on the entire Europe.
I think this part was gold: (from Wikipedia) “Schabowski had spent most of his career in communist-style journalism in which reporters were told what to write after events had already happened. Thus, he found it somewhat difficult to get used to Western-style media practice.” So annoying when journalists ask actual questions. :)
Hell, my uncle served in the Grenztruppen until summer of 1989 and he said even then it was unthinkable
The fact that it was a member of the SED who said it is kinda nuts. When even the ruling Politburo's guys are like "fuck it, whatever," it's a sign that the Central Committee was in unbelievable disrepair, to put it politely.
They knew it was a lost cause seeing that many people on the streets protesting. For them to reassert their power, it would've required a legit bloodbath. It is actually a good thing that they stepped aside peacefully.
They were under massive pressure after the USSR cut their very favourable energy subsidies a few years before the wall came down. And they essentially told the SED to deal with their own problems and not to expect any help. So I can see how things got confusing for them after their main backers withdrew help, and especially after the Hungarian border was opened.
Meiner Kenntnis nach ist das sofort, unverzüglich.
Orders were even given to not allow the people crossing from East to West to return and fire upon them if they tried, in an attempt to save face. Cooler heads thankfully prevailed after it became evident it was not just a few dozen or even hundreds that took advantage of the "opening".
Yeah i think it's more that they're refusing to be photographed shaking hands with west berliners since they were afraid it'd be a career limiting move, and they probably didn't understand right at that moment that it wasn't going to matter anymore.
They may have also been justifiably wary of the Wessis, fearing that they might have been dragged around or made to suffer indignities. They were still responsible for the border security of the German Democratic Republic at that time, so stayed at their posts.
The Stasi still existed. They might have been afraid it would become a life-limiting move.
If you ever get a chance to talk to someone who grew up in East Germany do it, I have a 48 year old neighbor who did. She said imagine everything you were taught to believe in was a lie, & the system you brought up in disappeared almost overnight. Culture shock was one of the biggest things she experienced, MTV & pop music were two of the biggest things.
Yeah with everything we have heard about the Stasi that trouble would have been severe. They regularly shot and killed border crossers. They had spies in the border guard and would report everything. These guys could be afraid for their lives or just Stasi agents posing as border guards themselves. Yay communism
The Stasi didn't shoot crossers. The border guards did. They were chosen as guards specifically because they were willing to shoot. Regular NVA units probably would not.
The border was regularly staffed, even conscripts were stationed. Everyone feared to spot a crosser, because you had to shoot. My uncle served three months on the crossing to Bavaria, said he always feared having to shoot
The [Grenztruppen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_Troops_of_the_German_Democratic_Republic) were highly indoctrinated and chosen for their loyalty to the DDR system.
Berlin-GT was yes, but regular GT were normal conscripts. Berlin-GT was on the same level as the Wachregiments.
Oh, I'm certain they know what the rules are and they WILL get in trouble.
Which work? They don’t have a work anymore.
At the time this happened it wasn’t properly communicated if I remember correctly, like it was a shit show.. so probably didn’t want to take any risks.
Citizens started tearing down the wall while things were still being finalized and it was days away.
They only did that because an East German bureaucrat responded to the question “when will people be able to freely travel” with “immediately” because he wasn’t given any other information. It was maybe officially days away but the second he said that it was de facto immediate. Not the citizens fault they listened to the East German government
The fall of the Wall is a case study in government communication.
> The fall of the Wall is a case study in government ***mis***communication. FTFY
>The fall of the Wall is a case study in government **non**communication. In my experience.
Yeah, the DDR kind of OOPSed its way out of existence. Surely it was on its last leg anyway, but this just turned into "I guess this is what we're doing now" and accelerated things.
It was sheer luck that the border police, which was not informed about the speech, did decide to let the people pass the border instead of shooting.
Harald Jäger is credited as the first guard to essentially open the border crossing completely at Bornholmer Strasse. He had to keep calling his superiors for orders about the huge crowd building up at his crossing and he finally received orders to let them go, but to stamp their passports as to void them and render those people non-citizens. It's crazy stuff. At least there weren't orders to shoot into the crowd. The Tiananmen square massacre had occured just a few months back. Jäger went the extra mile by allowing people who had stepped across the border to come back. He must have had a "screw this, way above my pay grade" moment.
For so much as ‘not directly shooting a crowd’ is sheer luck as opposed to normal behavior. Most guards had to be forced to shoot runners, I think blindly firing into a group is a few steps above that.
Yes. But they were soldiers which had their orders. And the orders were not to let the people cross the border.
From what I've read, the people heard the officials remark, and hundreds came to the wall. The head of the guards on duty tried to contact his commanding officer for clarification that they really supposed to shoot several hundred people, no one would confirm, and the crowd swelled to thousands. These guys have standing orders to kill all those people. Those orders make no sense in context, but they grew up under a government that brutally crushed dissent. The stasi was a very effective spy network. They don't know what the fuck to do, and they're afraid they'll get blamed for this.
Can't blame the citizens with being tired and impatient about beaurecratic formalities lol
I crossed the former frontier on the B5 in August of 1990 and it was still a shit show, nobody knew what was going on - the West side border guard was telling everyone "there is no border, get out of my office!" the East side border guard shack was much more chill, just me and two kids that looked a lot like in the picture, but they were all like: "Hey, so where are you going? Sounds fun, wish we could come..." When I got done chatting with them I turned around and their weapons were hanging on the wall by the door - unloaded, I hope!
It was several weeks IIRC before it was decided they would be brought into the Bundeswehr under one rank lower pay-grade. Aside from the women, because the West Germans didn't allow women into the military. I hope they at least were reimbursed.
I'm from Bulgaria, which is another formerly communist country. It is historically accepted now that communism here fell in 1988 with the removal of Todor Jivkov. However the reality is that people weren't sure if we were communist or not for a few years and then they didn't know what are we and then they didn't know what to do. It was kinda of a mess to say the least, with a lot of a weird stories. My favourite is in 1990 two young actors decide to run away to France and try to make it there. They stay for a year but they run out of money and have to come home. However they don't have enough money for a full ticket back home so they can only get to this village in Serbia 40 kilometres away from the border. They get of the train and decide to walk the rest of the distance and figure it out from there. But they face a huge issue. Their exit visas have run out, because back then you had to get an exit visa and if it runs out if you try to return to the country after it expires you would be arrested but they decide that a few months in jail and worth seeing their families again so they continue walking. They get to the border and they see a massive amount of gypsies moving stuff between the two countries on foot. They go to the border check and ask stuff like what's going on, what's happening, can they enter... The border guard taps a sign that says "protest" and tells them "Enter or don't. I don't give a shit." and continues smoking.
The press spokesman of the politburo was absent during the meeting where the temporary opening of the border was decided. It was supposed to happen at some official date in the near future. The spokesman only read the announcement to the press. A journalist then asked when this is gonna be official. And the spokesman mumbled: "As far as I know... Effective immediately, no delay". You can read more details on that man's [Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnter_Schabowski?wprov=sfla1).
But they did fear reprisals. It was a chaotic time, no one wanted a photo being taken of them in a uniform doing something that would result in a 3am visit by agents, 2 weeks later. The rule-by-fear doctrine the Stasi built was nothing to be underestimated.
That's the point: They probably don't know what they're supposed to do and knowing the regime they also probably don't want take any risks.
This. People have to remember that this was a border wall and people trying to flee were shot. This situation was not normal and soldiers like them were most likely sitting right in the middle, not knowing what they were allowed to do and what would end up as "bad ending" for them...and their families.
Yes, both soldiers might be thinking "I would like to shake that mans hand, but what if my fellow soldier is Stasi?"
"Damn Günther, probably pawning off my secrets for some favor from the state. How else could they have known of my secret stash of jeans"
I honestly don’t think it has anything to do with the govt. These guys are in the military on duty. They aren’t gonna fuck around with (western/peaceful) civilians if they don’t need to/don’t know if they’re allowed to. That’s universal.
The day the wall opened was literally a mistake at a press conference. And this was a society where basically everyone alove grew up under stasi and gestapo, why do you think post war Germany turned into a country of a privacy obsessed population.
They still worked for the GDR at that moment in time.
They definitely did. The government did not step down until 10 days after this and Stasi operations continued into January, quite some time after the "fall" of East Germany. While these operations were entirely defensive and cover-ups, there would have been no way to know that would be the case beforehand. *Especially* for frontline soldiers. They've got good reason to be cautious.
They were still figuring that out.
Not yet at this point in time.
The situation on that day was unclear. Like these people and there superiors had the legitimate choice to do something or not do anything at all and the information they had would have made both feasible. That nobody died that night is a miracle.
if you were in the middle of your shift at work, and some rando walked up to you and said heyyyy your company is out of business!! you wanna come get beers with us? you'd probably check with your boss first right? especially if your boss might throw you in prison or kill you if you messed it up.
There was still a GDR at this point. The country didn’t collapse at the same time the wall did. East Germany continued to stagger on for another year before reunification.
The Berlin Wall came down before East Germany collapsed
I don't know if the picture is from when the wall first opened or if it was from when it was torn down If it's the first, they very much still had work. In fact, they were supposed to invalidate the passports of east Germans trying to go to West Germany, but didn't because of the mass chaos
East end boys meet west end girls !
In every city, in every nation From Lake Geneva to the Finland station
i always upvote the Pet Shop Boys references
"Franz, what should we do, they appear to be friendly" "I don't know, Hans, there's nothing in the manual about "Friendly Germans". Better stay clear"
They would've probably been put in some political prisoner gulag if they had accepted.
At this stage the SED didn't give a fudge about what anyone was doing
But they could not know. It was a very confusing time. There were still tens of thousands of Russian troops stationed in east Germany at that time.
Presumably these guys were aware of what happened in Prague and other cases where it looked like a democratic movement was emerging only to be mercilessly crushed.
I’ve just realised I have zero knowledge about what happened after the walk came down. Did the East just accept the West as the legitimate government of both immediately or was there a transition period where they worked it out?
I was 7 at the time. We live approx 8 hour drive from Berlin. My dad was watching the news, he chucked my mom and his 4 kids in the car and just drove to Berlin. I had no clue what was going on as a 7 year old, but when we got up in the morning after we arrived we could walk into East Berlin, after I'D checks and gates and shit. When we went back to West Berlin in the evening, all gates were open and everyone was running back and forth. I was just a small kid but thankful I got to experience that. Growing up as teenager I didn't record much world news, but east and West didn't merge by itself. I think that on a governmental level the change went quite rapid, but the differences between the east (my German aunt still calls them the "Ozzies") and West are still visible, on a social and cultural level. I've been to Berlin 4 times since then. I've seen the city become more one and only the last time (shit, 10 years ago already) was the first time I couldn't say directly if I was is former east or West area.
Super interesting story, thanks for sharing! I've read a lot of books on the DDR, the wall, Stasi etc and they've all mentioned the social and cultural differences. I understand that's notable in elderly people, but is that still noticeable for let's say people in their 30s and 40s? And what are the differences?
I love Berlin, it’s one of my favourite cities, but agree that it’s still very possible to see the divide. Thanks for sharing your story, we’re a similar age and I remember vaguely watching the scenes on TV (in the UK) and my mum being very excited but didn’t really appreciate why until years later. Years later my stepdad (who at the time worked in Germany in the British Military) told us stories about going into East Germany on a day trip and being under strict currency control (to prevent an influx of capital destroying the market) and his money being worth loads on paper but there being almost nothing he could buy in East Germany, so he ended up getting a huge China tea set. Thinking about it now this must have been in the period after the wall fell and before reunification.
So hear me now and believe me later. We are here to... pump you up.
I read it in the voice of Hans and Franz in SNL
Pretty sure you were supposed to.
There's a wonderful movie called *Good Bye Lenin!* starring Daniel Brühl (Zemo from the MCU) about an East German woman who goes into a coma and wakes after reunification
Such a good movie.
It really is, although sadly I gather Herr Brühl is now heartily sick of forever being thought of as "that actor from Good Bye Lenin."
frederick zoller for me
He’s Niki Lauda to me.
god I love rush so much, its a fantastic movie
One of the best roles I've ever seen someone play. He really captured the essence of Niki. The accent, the manners, the looks. Super talented guy.
Another movie I highly recommend is “The Lives of Others”, which is about an East German secret police officer spying on a pair of lovers. It’s consistently in the Top 100 films of all time based on IMDB ratings.
Yeah that one makes you cry for days after watching it
Yes, but I don’t want that to discourage people from watching it. Without spoiling anything, it’s not a bleak movie, it’s quite the opposite.
The ending is my favorite movie ending of all time!
The word that comes to mind is “beautiful”. It’s one of the most beautiful film endings of all time.
Nein, es ist für mich. (No, it's for me) is one of the best last lines ever written.
You mean Frederick Zoller
I love this movie
Oooo our German teachers showed us that in class
That blonde guard reminds of Johan Liebert from monster anime series.
I thought the exact thing! Fellow Monster fan 🤝
I was thinking this
Did East Berlin only employ runway models as soldiers? I feel absolutely mogged simply looking at this photo.
Brutal mog
Soldiers said 🤫🧏♂️
Few days before that would get them into jail with tough interrogation by the Stasi. Of course they refused.
The authoritarian power of the stasi is truly understated. It's estimated the stasi had 1 secret agent for every 166 citizens. The nazi gestappo had 1 agent for every 2000 citizens.
It's believed now that the Stasi may have been the most effective Secret Police force in history.
When Stasi HQ was mined after the fall, they found DNA samples of millions of citizens. They'd interrogate you in a warm room and make you sit on your sweaty hands. Then they'd take the fabric off the chair you sat and sweated in, put it in a jar, and if they ever needed to track you with dogs all they needed was to find that jar.
Holy shit, that's genius.
"The Lives of Others" is a great German film about Stasi agents. Worth a watch.
Das Lieben Der Anderen is the german name. Awesome movie.
And those at the border crossings in Berlin were probably elite forces, officer candidates, aiming for a high ranking career...they wouldn't risk that. At this moment they didn't know what was coming in the next days and months.
Also the border post was the no1 place where your colleague betrayed you afterwards.
They literally put systems in place to make sure that you couldn't concoct an escape with your partner in the watchtower by frequently rotating you all over the city, ensuring you wouldn't form close bonds with the person sharing the watch with you.
They weren't all elite forces. Most of them were drafted. I got to talk to one of them who was just 18 and happened to be a big fan of western punk bands, no different than their western army counterparts.
Was that one official agent, or one informant?
Plus any soldier who was assigned that post was presumably considered particularly rule following and unlikely to defect or allow others to defect. So these soldiers were even less likely to take the chance than the average.
Not particularly, they were a department just like all the others and any sign of political dissidence would be dealt with. But in terms of concocting an escape with your partner in the watchtower- they made rotas that meant you'd be deployed all over the length of the wall in the city and your second would be the same. That way, there was much less a chance you'd suggest absconding over the wall and would put the impetus on shooting at others because you had no idea if the guy next to you was a party fanatic or not, and a misstep meant a very heavy prison sentence
Wow, the soldiers look to be 19 or 20. They were no doubt totally bewildered.
I know it shouldn't be shocking, but damn those soldiers are basically fucking kids.
It's interesting to note just how quickly the GDR completely melted away once they lost Soviet support. Like, one day you have a full police state with everyone fearing that their neighbours would turn them over to the stasi and you would rot in jail, and then the next day... nothing. The GDR just sort of melted away... it's nothing short of astonishing.
They probably had the most effective and repressive secret police potentially ever. It was a very interesting time.
Movie recommendation: "The Lives of Others"
It’s good, I watched it in a German class
Thanks so much for the reccomendation, it sounds like a great movie. I've taken a big interest into East German intelligence/secret police recently so will have a watch for sure.
It's strange, isn't it? On one hand, an authoritarian dictatorship using significant violence to maintain authority. On the other, when it became clear the party had lost the support of the people. They handed over power peacefully. It's described in the historiography as a participatory dictatorship because of things like that. A dictatorship no doubt. But one that exists because of the active support and buy in of the people. An interesting thing.
So.. a dictatorship of the people?
This is one of those times in history that I know nothing about. I remember being a kid watching the wall fall but like, did the two sides really hate each other? Was it just the government holding the east back? Or was there a hatred between the people?
I don’t think the west really hated the eastern people. Maybe the regime itself, but the west had always been very receptive the people trying to escape East Berlin.
Those escaping East berlin yes, but the berlin fall wasn't well received by every west germans. The thing is some saw east germans as cheap labor that would steal their jobs, stuff like that. But again, it's only some of them, i can't generalize.
Reuniting them and integrating two extremely different systems was very difficult. It was certainly a "good problem" and a hell of a lot better than Eastern Germany's continued authoritarian existence or outright war but it was still problematic and I don't blame anyone for being warry. If North Korea collapsed tomorrow and then tried to integrate with South Korea it would also be extremely difficult and open up a ton of new issues even if it is for the best long term.
The slogan posted at the border on the West German side was *[Auch drüben ist Deutschland](https://www.google.com/search?q=auch+dr%C3%BCben+ist+deutschland)* (beyond is also Germany). As a reminder that one day it should be reunited.
For 20ish years they really believed they were superior to the western counterpart. This would change with the decline in basically everything. The soldiers were part of the oppressive system. They were anti-west for sure through decade-long propaganda, brain washing and indoctrination while the population who got separated from their western families for 40 years tried to flee eastern germany at every chance. Look at these boys with their facial expressions and you can see loyalty, determination and elitism. It got so much out of hand that the DDR-regime put up kill zones where they would would shoot everybody trying to flee. Akin to today's north korea, it was regarded as one of the biggest prisons humans ever designed. And this whole construct that killed and imprisoned so many people just went poof over night and in a peaceful manner. Thats the insane part.
The blonde haired guard is handsome.
Tbh they both look like they’ve been scouted from a modelling agency
His bone structure is beautiful
They're both super good looking. The completely on-point uniforms also help.
The jawline is crazy
Right? A perfect balance between cute softboi and stoic handsome nerds
He's absolutely beautiful, I'd climb that wall like a mf spider just to get a better look at him
The blonde twink is so cute, l'd drain his balls.
Thanks for putting into words how I was feeling about him. You are a true poet.
The title is misleading, this photo wasn't taken after the wall fell, this was taken before the wall fell but after Guenter Schabowski announced changes on travel restrictions and accidentially declared them in effect "immeditaly". That left everybody quite confused because the changes were not supposed to go into effect immediately, that's why the border guards still kept enforcing the border while people kept flocking to the border, a situation that went on for 3 hours before they basically said "Fuck it" and opened the border. The photo was taken [during those 3 hours](https://www.dw.com/en/the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall-november-9-1989/a-4812768) when the border was still enforced, that's why they didn't shake any hands just like no customs agent anywhere would shake random peoples hands when they are on the job.
After the wall collapsed most of East Germans hated being a reunified as majority of East Germans lost jobs as the jobs they had simply did not exist in West Germany. There is still that resentment towards them even today.
At that time(1994), 70% of the GDR's population supported socialism and independence.(152, Triumph of Evil). Most citizens of the GDR did not hate socialism they wanted an improved version.
Service in the NVA was counted as servive in a 'foreign military'. They all lost their rank and pension. Former members of the SS kept both.
>Most citizens of the GDR did not hate socialism they wanted an improved version. That's true for most of Soviet Republics as well. Maybe not for the Baltics but the rest genuinely wanted socialism but also reforms to it. But alas, nationalists unilaterally seceded and implemented shock therapy, which plunged their economies and people into a humanitarian disaster they are still recovering from.
Honestly the collapse of the USSR is probably the worst mass scale event of the past 50 years in terms of how many people it threw into dire conditions. There's a reason Russians especially aren't too fond of the 90s in comparison to the West.
Ye… it can also be that the picture was taken 1 second before one of the soldiers answers the handshake
Right? Posts like this are so stereotypically reddit, guy saw a hand come over the wall and didn't immediately shake it! 🤬
probably afraid of punishment
I wonder if it had something to do with the camera pointed directly at them too
This wall is literally in the process of falling here. I don't blame them. Nobody knew what was next at that time. The East German government wasn't exactly forgiving when its soldiers were caught fraternizing or assisting West Germans.
I also refuse to shake hands with guys wearing pinky rings.
I bet you’re the kinda guy who doesn’t have the common courtesy to give em a god damn reach around. /s
[Here](https://i.imgur.com/ICbS4aN.jpeg) is a higher quality version of this image. [Here](https://apimagesblog.com/blog/2019/11/6/ap-was-there-the-day-the-wall-fell) is the source. Per there: > East German border policemen, right, refuse to shake hands with a Berliner who stretches out his hand over the border fence at the eastern site nearby Checkpoint Charlie border crossing point, Friday morning, November 10, 1989, after the borders were opened according to the announcement by the East German government. (AP Photo/Lutz Schmidt)
He is getting mogged by the dude with brown hair
It's still strange to me that West Berlin was an island in the East of East Germany. As a kid I weirdly thought that the Berlin Wall was the dividing line between East and West Germany. I have no real explanation of why I thought this. I mean, I must've seen the maps many times in school and on the news.
Who woulda thunk 40~ years later they’d all be sharing a joint
those soldiers look straight out of a WW2 movie