About 5 years ago, on November 9th 2014, I watched from the hospital as Berlin put on a  grand display to celebrate 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. I had been looking forward to attending the event – a spectacular display where thousands of lighted balloons lining where the wall once ran were released into the sky. But instead I was trapped in the hospital, not to be released until the next day, with my very own little Berlinerin. I had my daughter just days before the anniversary and the two events will always be a bit tied in my mind.

Instead of being out with the crowds, we viewed the event live on our tiny hospital TV. As I cradled this new little being, apart from her extended family by thousands of miles but by choice, it felt very powerful to relive this city divided, families separated, people suppressed.

Raising a Berlinerin PHOTO: Erin Porter

So it was with anticipation I looked forward to this year’s events, 30 years since the fall of the wall. At first I was perplexed by the posted schedule. A week’s worth of concerts, talks, art…this sounded like fairly typical German festival stuff. Where was the pizzazz? The excitement? The celebration?

A colleague and former East Berlinerin said when she first crossed over the wall, she went across at our station. It looked much the same as her side, a quiet neighborhood ending in a dead-end of the wall. She took a look at the west, and decided they could keep it. That is home for us.

A lot has changed in the many years since the wall stood here and around the city. This anniversary marks the first time the wall has been down longer than it has been up.

I now have two little Berliners and the almost 5-year-old is starting to put together the pieces that we live in a once-divided city. We are 2 minutes away from an S-Bahn station that backs up to the former wall. Every day, we cross over the brick line that defines what was west and what was east.

So I have started to try and explain what war is, why a wall would’ve split the city, and the effects that had on the only place she has ever called home. It’s true that references to west and east still slip into nearly daily conversation. It is without sting, just a fact when giving directions, talking about festivals or history or architecture or real estate. It feels omnipresent so I expected the events this week to have some fanfare. 30 years later it is still a big deal.

The Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate in November 1989. PHOTO: Lear 21 (Wikimedia Commons)

2019 Celebration of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

The festivities were set to begin this weekend so we made our way down to Brandenburger Tor at the heart of it all. Stages and a massive sphere were on the street side of the gate with dividers channeling people through specific paths. Temporary buildings were still in the process of being put up and nothing was quite ready yet.

But there was something spectacular. Extending from the stages to the statue of “Der Rufer” (The Caller) on Straße des 17. Juni was a rainbow of ribbons. Created by artist Patrick Shearn as a “Skynet”, about 30,000 messages on colorful ribbon have been hung to represent the many voices that made possible the Peaceful Revolution.

As we snapped photos and ogled the rippling rainbow hovering over the street, workers handed out ribbons and we were invited to share our own message. We wrote “Rainbows over Walls” with plenty of hearts (suggested by the 5-year-old) and gave it back to be hung with the thousands of other messages of hope. It was beautiful and powerful and made me hopeful for the future.

An art installation being set up for the celebration in Berlin. PHOTO: Skynet, Ian Porter

For seven days there are over 100 festivities at the seven original sites of the Peaceful Revolution. For those unfamiliar, those locations include Alexanderplatz, Gethsemanekirche, Brandenburger Tor, Schlossplatz, Kurfürstendamm, East-Side-Gallery and Stasi headquarters in Lichtenberg. Berlin’s tourism board advertises that the city will be transformed into a “unique open-air exhibition and event venue”. Among the other events taking place this week:

• Open-air exhibitions (November 4-10th): Held in the 7 locations with video projections, various events, talks, etc will take place.
• Art Installation (November 4-10th): Along with the Skynet described above, there will be events during the week, including…
• Light Installation (November 4-10th): An aquatic light installation by the artist Rainer W. Gottemeier will draw border lines on the Spree River at the East Side Gallery.
• Handshape Art Project (November 9th): Reveal of a social art project that involved more than 10,000 handshapes – the result of a handshake. All 10,957 of these sculpts will form the Monument to Human Connection: a symbol of togetherness.
• Fall of the Wall Concert at Brandenburger Tor (November 9th): This free concert will include performances by Staatskapelle Berlin, WestBam, Anna Loos, Banda Internationale, Zugezogen Maskulin, Die Zöllner, Dirk Michaelis and Trettmann as well as a real-time technology dance performance (what?!) and a laser harp performance.
• Ceremony at the Bridge of Spies (November 10th): In Brandenburg, the Glienicke Bridge has inspired continuing interest and even a Hollywood movie. A remembrance ceremony will commemorate the role this location played during the city’s division.

Year-round memorials like Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer at Bernauer Strasse, East Side Gallery, and anywhere the wall once stood will also take on special significance this week. A full schedule of events can be found here: www.visitberlin.de/en/events-30th-anniversary-fall-of-the-wall. Visitors should also take advantage of the BVG’s Mauerfall-Ticket.

It’s not all celebration in Germany at the moment with the phoenix rise of the far-right and particularly the AfD party. Recent elections in Thuringia reconfirm the party and its anti-immigrant policies are not a moment, but a sustained sentiment. But it is times like this we can remember the majority of Germans don’t feel this way.

Here’s to hope.