Fall of the Berlin Wall ( Fall der Berliner Mauer)

How I missed the fall of the Wall

The NVA military service ID of the author. 

It is November 9, 1989. The day the Berlin Wall falls. And I get nothing with it. For while in Berlin events on beat, I am a soldier of the NVA and squat clueless in my barracks. Also, I can not remember how I got the message from the fall of the wall myself. But not only is it my way.

In November 1989, I am 20 years old and for a year at the National People's Army (NVA). I am completing my 18-month basic military service in the air defense in Schwerin. Half a year I have ahead of me. That it ferments for weeks and months in the GDR, demonstrations, occupations and mass escapes message, which I get in the barracks with only little. It's hard to get a picture of the situation in the country, which is independent of the opinion of the state media and political officers.

Shift the army action against its own people?

An impression of this situation I get when I go in early October for a two night getaway home. In the train I'm going for my uniform (soldiers had to travel in uniform) insulted as Stasi pig and threatened.

After October 7, the 40th and last anniversary of the GDR, but can then also in the department no longer conceal what is out there in the cities and on the roads of the country going on. Only the effects on us are absolutely terrifying. It is total output and furloughs. The guards are strengthened, the armories controlled even more than it already is usual anyway. Would use the command to support the police in protests in Schwerin, the neighboring Motorized Rifle Regiment would be disengaged and we have taken over their rearguard. This much we know.

The decisive statement falls - and no one gets it

That Erich Honecker had issued the secret order no. 8/89 on September 26, were, according to the DDR-hostile riots "to prevent from the outset," we do not know about it. The mood is tense. The anxiety to get the command to fire on its own people, is great. However, all units remain in the barracks.

On October 18, we received the order, the DDR main news program "Current Camera" to see. This Egon Krenz announced the resignation of Honecker and takes over his post. The historic press conference with Schabowski on November 9, sees no one. Because nobody looks at these types of voluntary programs. And so no one hears about 18.53 clock the crucial sentence: "private trips abroad can without proof of eligibility (...) can be applied (...) Permanent departures can be made through all border crossing points of the GDR to the FRG.."

A memory lapse and many small changes

They will most likely have informed us about the statement and its dramatic consequences on the following day at morning roll call. But as already written. I can not remember. Surprisingly, it goes all the comrades with whom I served at that time and I asked this on the occasion of this story, as well. For us, the NVA soldiers and sworn in on the GDR, will not be affected by the wall opening. That may have been the setting based on our experience and have caused the memory gap.

But then many things will be different for us. Albeit in small steps. Change almost daily our service provisions and expand to small freedoms. The policy lesson is abolished. Instead of "Comrade" we are addressed as "sir". We are allowed to wear civilian clothes in output and received in the West Barracks media. Overall, the service is a little looser. And then we get back our identity cards, which had to give up any NVA soldier before the convocation. With the pass we are allowed to travel to West Germany in the output or even leave now.

Return to another country

When I after my 1990 New Year's holidays arrive early January again in the barracks, makes the first morning roll call, the message of the shortening of the period of military service from 18 to twelve months for huge cheers. For my born January 26, 1990 is the day of discharge. So I go back 15 months in a country that is a completely different, and in which nothing will be as it once was. A country that prevail in the euphoria and optimism. I have all of what led to so little noticed is the worst memory gap in my life for me. But the decisive factor is that it has happened.