The wind of change blows straight

It sounds like music group „The Scorpions“ knew exactly what would happen.

„The wind of change blows straight 
Into the face of time 
Like a storm wind that will ring 
The freedom bell for peace of mind“ they were singing in August 1989, three months before the “Wall of shame” dividing Germany and Europe fell.

The months before the fall of the Berlin Wall had been full of movement. Gorbachev's Soviet Union had been transformed by reforms, Hungary had opened its borders, and more and more East Germans were willing to go out. They want to leave the GDR with its restrictive and overprotective system and leave behind the eternal lack of supply in food and modern equipment.  And escape from the supervision of secret services and the impossibility to express their opinions.

The light border

The 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall has been a big commemoration event. 7000 illuminated white air balloons formed a temporary wall along the former course of the Berlin Wall. All of these were released one by one to the sky by children or adults, carrying wishes for the future. The Wall fell symbolically again. More than a million Berliners and tourists participated at that giant installation and listened to the following concert at Brandenburg Gate. It was a magic moment, watching these balloons disappear in the darkness and realizing the courage needed to break down a simple stone wall that created so much despair.

In 1989, resistance formed, at first, in weekly meetings in churches, then, more and more people dared to demonstrate on the street in GDR cities. The largest manifestation on 4th November in Berlin was a decisive step. Artists, writers, filmmakers, photographers were holding critical speeches under the applause of half a million of people. The government slowly understood that people were not willing anymore to get along with the socialist experience they were forced to be part of.

Finally breaking outof the "socialist experience"

The famous press conference of 9th November 1989 produced a general confusion when government spokesman G. Schabowski announced that traveling would be possible without visa. This precipitated the fall of the Wall, as thousands of Berliners rushed to the border crossings and finally made the soldiers open the barriers. It was a general happiness of breaking out and feeling free to express and go wherever one wanted. Days of confusion and uncertainty followed, but for the GDR government, there was no way back. The frontier was open, and people were finally going to “the west” for the first time since 30 years. The East German state crushed down and on 3rd of October 1990 Germany reunited.

For the sake of freedom

The fall of the Wall, though, is the event of recent German history that probably changed most people's lives. For our generation, born after the Cold War, it is hard to imagine to be closed in a State where you are not free to go where you want, tell what you think and do what you want to do. But if our parents had not had the courage to believe change was possible, we would probably not enjoy the freedom, travel opportunities, communication, peaceful Europe we have today. This commemoration is a good moment to think about 200 people that were killed trying to cross a man-made Wall for the sake of freedom. It's a good moment as well to honor all these who risked their lives organizing the resistance inside and all these thousands that went demonstrating, that did not accept the situation as it was and gave us the example that things can change, if people keep the hope.

“Take me to the magic of the moment / On a glory night / Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams” the “Scorpions” song continues. These children of tomorrow are represented by our generation. We share our dreams across nations, free from the burden of history, in peace with a lot of countries. Our freedom is precious and people had to fight for it. It's our generation's task to develop the access to freedom for everyone, to break borders and restrictions. New walls are forming, more invisible ones, like the EU outside border restrictions towards Africa. Now it's our turn to fulfill the poetic main lesson from 1989: it's possible to make seemingly impossible dreams come true.