9-11 is a Holiday in Germany!

How ironic is it? One of the most joyous days in German History, and one of the saddest days in German History (see my next post) are the same day....today.... 9-11.

9-11 is a very sad day in America... September 11th will forever be a day of reflection and sadness.... and for those of us alive that day and those of us that followed the events as they unfolded, we will never forget them.

The same can be said for the people of Germany... they will never forget where
they were on 9-11, that wonderful & exciting day. But it is not September 11th I speak of, it is November 9th: The Day the Berlin Wall came down!

***For those of you who do not know, Europeans write down dates different than we do here in the USA..... we could write July 4, as 7/4 ... a European would write it as 4/7.... hence today, 9/11 is remmebered as a most joyous day in Germany!

THE BERLIN WALL ... it was something that was just always there, it seemed to me growing up. It would never go away, unless Soviet tanks rolled over the top of it. We were taught & lead to believe that if Germany was to be re-unified, it would be under East German terms. There were, in 1990, over 500 books on economics that were written that detailed and laid out plans to go from converting a free market economy, to that of a plannned economy .... going from Capitalism to Marxism/Socialism... yet there was not ONE SINGLE book written at that time that laid out the plan or detailed how to do it in reverse.... convert a Communist Economy to that of a Capitalist Economy.

Oh that wonderful liberal left, with visions of sugarplum surrender dancing in their head.

Michael Deaver writes in his book, "Different Drummer", that he accompanied private citizen Ronald Reagan to Berlin in 1978... and as they walked along the Berlin Wall, Reagan said to him and the others with him, "We just have to find a way to get them to take that thing down."

Deaver confesses he was taken aback by the comment, and in 1978, at the height of the Cold War with Brezhnev in the Kremlin and Jimmy The Wimp Carter in the White House, that wall coming down just probably was not going to happen..... that there was foolish talk!

But Reagan pressed on. Less than 10 years later, on June 12, 1987, Reagan made his famous address AT The Berlin Wall where he said, "Mr. Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!" You know how many people on his staff and in his inner circle BEGGED him not to say that line? To utter that was tanamount to a declaration of war... he is just going to get us all blown up!

JUNE 12, 1987 "Mr. Gorbachev, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL!"

And it was on this day, 19 years ago tonight, that it had happened! At first, it was simply that the gates were open, but the citizens of Germany, wisely, began to tear it down, to hopefully thwart any attempts to close up CHECKPOINT CHARLIE again.

I was up in Washington, DC at the time... working for a Congressman in his Capitol Hill Office. We had the next day off from work for the Veteran's Day Holiday, so we all went out. There was about 8 of us, and another 20 friends from other Congressman's Offices. We went to downtown Alexandria to this awesome piano bar and partied into the wee hours. I met this awesome girl named Nadia Adly, whose father was a Syrian Diplomat. We went out once or twice, and I often wondered what ever happened to her. But that isn't important. What a night! I kept thinking about these people in Berlin and the party going on there! What was going through their minds?

Years later (2006) , I worked for a company and one of the higher ups was a gentlemen from Berlin. Our office was moving across town and he took a group of us to dinner. As we were sitting around making small talk, I just had to ask him about where he was when the wall came down. He began to tell these stories that just blew my mind... it was almost an hour by hour/blow by blow account. He told me the story of 9-11 and when he hears an American talk of 9-11, he has to remind himself that OUR 9-11 is not a joyous occassion.

Anyway, that night, he and about 6 friends went out. They were overcome at all these ugly & dull looking TRABANTS that were speeding through the streets of West Berlin. They settled into a coffeehaus / brewhaus about a half mile from the Wall and began to celebrate. A group of about 4 East Germans came into this crowded bar, and he said you could tell they were East Germans from their dull & drab clothing. They sat next to them and asked for a spare chair his party was not using, and a conversation was struck up. They talked and chatted til about 2 or 3 AM when it was time to adjourn and go home, when one of the people in his group asked them, "When are you all going back?"

The East Germans were kind of taken by that comment, he said, but he and the other West Germans were all waiting to ask it themselves. He said he is kind of ashamed for thinking that way now, but at the time, the mindset was for the East Germans to come and see the West... then you need to leave and go back where you came from...we don't need you here!

19 years! Wow! Lots has happened since then. If you ever want to read about something fascinating, research POTSDAMER PLATZ... it was the fields known as the NO MAN'S LAND between East & West Berlin. While the Wall was up, it was barren... nothing! Now it is like Times Square. As they were doing the construction there, they found huge portions of Hitler's Bunker that many did not know about. Joseph Goebbel's residence and a Gestappo motorcycle station were uncovered in the area where Roger Water's performed his WALL concert in 1990. Much of this area is sealed off, and exploration is forbidden. Who knows what they might find buried in there?

Anyway, alot has happened this week. Please take a moment to think about these events.... the good and the bad of 9-11 in Germany, and what happened November 7, 1917 .... and November 7, 2008 on what would have been the 91st anniversary of the Communist Revolution in Russia.

And November 11, 1918, when the armistice was signed to end World War I and the seeds to World War II were sewn. Let us remember how precious liberty is, and that Freedom is NOT Free. And let us remember all those who have died in the name of freedom & liberty... died to be free... and died to insure we remain free.