Happy 30th Anniversary Berlin!
"Ich war dabei" - "I was there".
To mark the 30th Anniversary of the "Fall of the Wall" on 9 November 1989, a reposting of a picture of a Trabant coming through an ad hoc border crossing point near the Brandenburg Gate, in the days after wall was opened up. The foul smelling, high polluting 2 Stroke "Trabi" was unjustly nominated Car of the Year following numerous images similar to mine, of them crossing the border.
I had been Duty Russian Interpreter for 8/9 November, and just after midnight, the 2nd Regiment Royal Military Police Control Room called me out to Checkpoint Charlie to investigate a party of British servicemen who had failed to report back to "Charlie". Assuming it was a routine callout, I got dressed, took my radio and set off in the Duty Interpreter Opel Kadett for Charlie - no camera!
Getting closer to The Wall, it was obvious something was afoot; the Berlin streets were packed with pedestrians, and there were East German Trabants everywhere.
On arrival at Charlie I reported to the RMP NCOs and discovered that Charlie was still closed, with thousands of people pressed up against the gates in East Berlin. Gaining a vantage point, I observed as eventually, the checkpoint commander came out and from his gestures it was obvious he was giving the order to his cowering border police to open the gates. At this, one guard threw his peaked cap into West Berlin where a vicious scrum formed around it. And then, the flood gates opened, East Berliners streaming into the West like a flash flood to the sounds of cheering and whoops of jubilation. I spent the rest of the night reassuring a very nervous Soviet Duty Officer at the Soviet War Memorial in West Berlin, near the Reichstag, that they were safe from the thousands of Germans, East and West, streaming past his complex, since I was there to protect them.
And the overdue soldiers? They had reported to Charlie but couldn't get near it owing to the huge numbers in front of it. Someone told them that they may as well go to Invalidenstrasse which was open and had no checks being carried out.
I had listened on the car radio the evening before, to a GDR spokesman explaining that from 0900 hrs on 9 November, all East German citizens could report to their local council office where they would be freely issued with visas to visit West Germany. In East Berlin, they refused to wait until the morning, going to the various crossings in the city and demanding access to West Berlin, many with suitcases, intending to stay and see how permanent this dramatic new change of heart was; Charlie must have been about the last checkpoint in Berlin to open up.
Happy 30th Anniversary Berlin!
"Ich war dabei" - "I was there".
To mark the 30th Anniversary of the "Fall of the Wall" on 9 November 1989, a reposting of a picture of a Trabant coming through an ad hoc border crossing point near the Brandenburg Gate, in the days after wall was opened up. The foul smelling, high polluting 2 Stroke "Trabi" was unjustly nominated Car of the Year following numerous images similar to mine, of them crossing the border.
I had been Duty Russian Interpreter for 8/9 November, and just after midnight, the 2nd Regiment Royal Military Police Control Room called me out to Checkpoint Charlie to investigate a party of British servicemen who had failed to report back to "Charlie". Assuming it was a routine callout, I got dressed, took my radio and set off in the Duty Interpreter Opel Kadett for Charlie - no camera!
Getting closer to The Wall, it was obvious something was afoot; the Berlin streets were packed with pedestrians, and there were East German Trabants everywhere.
On arrival at Charlie I reported to the RMP NCOs and discovered that Charlie was still closed, with thousands of people pressed up against the gates in East Berlin. Gaining a vantage point, I observed as eventually, the checkpoint commander came out and from his gestures it was obvious he was giving the order to his cowering border police to open the gates. At this, one guard threw his peaked cap into West Berlin where a vicious scrum formed around it. And then, the flood gates opened, East Berliners streaming into the West like a flash flood to the sounds of cheering and whoops of jubilation. I spent the rest of the night reassuring a very nervous Soviet Duty Officer at the Soviet War Memorial in West Berlin, near the Reichstag, that they were safe from the thousands of Germans, East and West, streaming past his complex, since I was there to protect them.
And the overdue soldiers? They had reported to Charlie but couldn't get near it owing to the huge numbers in front of it. Someone told them that they may as well go to Invalidenstrasse which was open and had no checks being carried out.
I had listened on the car radio the evening before, to a GDR spokesman explaining that from 0900 hrs on 9 November, all East German citizens could report to their local council office where they would be freely issued with visas to visit West Germany. In East Berlin, they refused to wait until the morning, going to the various crossings in the city and demanding access to West Berlin, many with suitcases, intending to stay and see how permanent this dramatic new change of heart was; Charlie must have been about the last checkpoint in Berlin to open up.