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Berlin as a set city was before the symbol of division and the Cold War.

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And suddenly with the Fall of the Wall Berlin was a positive symbol for a revolution in which no blood flowed and that is rare.

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In summary, I was extremely surprised, because you actually had the feeling that the state 
will indeed not be eternal,

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but I was not sure if I would still experience that there is no longer the DDR.

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And on November 9, I was completely surprised, I was at home in West Berlin in my apartment

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and had the radio on and then heard "The Wall is open".

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One thought first, okay, it is not the first of April. Then I thought, well, it will be true -

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then I sat down in the train, I drove to Werther city train station, which was actually a very 
lonely S-Bahn station at the Reichstag

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where then the wall between West and East Berlin was.

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Yes and there were crowds and people on top of the wall

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and I thought, I want that too, but the wall was quite high.

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I did not come up by myself, but there were people everywhere who pulled you up.

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And then I stood up there, it was just opened and there I stood on top of the wall,

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2 meters away, border guards with weapons that were very unsettled.

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Some people have looked away, some have sung, some have started to throw stones at the border police.

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that is, the situation was not clear yet, on the one hand it felt like a folk festival

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and on the other hand it was not clear if the mood will change suddenly.

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Luckily, then peace had prevailed. And then everything went on in fast motion.

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Moderator: Was there also an insight into the border fortifications after the 9th of November?

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I think that was already known to most West Berliners, because they lived very close to it

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and there were several areas like barbed wire, then there were areas where dogs ran.

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I can remember I lived near the Teltow Canal and then it was like that,

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when you walked there for half an hour on this channel in West Berlin, you started and at some point you were at the side of the border.

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And then that was the DDR, not East Berlin. And if you went there, a spot went on and the light accompanied a person.

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So as West Berliners one was familiar with the border installations.

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There were also subway lines, which then drove under East Berlin area.

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So the security apparatus was already omnipresent.

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I was arrested in the DDR when I visited relatives. That was the crosswalk at Berlin-Friedrich-Strasse,

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where I gave my ID and there you got an entry document and it took a long time until a police officer came

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and said that I was arrested in the name of the German Democratic Republic 
and I should go with him.

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And I thought what is now happening?

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It turned out that something was wrong with my papers and then I came to a basement room with artificial light and then had to tell how my days went by.

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I was repeatedly asked the same questions by nine policemen.

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Whereas I might say I wasn't attacked physically.

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I was there 10 to 12 hours and in the end someone came in a jeans and asked me if I would like to have a cigarette.

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He said it was all a good thing, as I also studied law I would probably get a good job.

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And that I could also "help" them.

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So he was campaigning for the Stasi to do a good job and help. I said, I'll think about it.

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At the end of the day I was deported. Someone opened a door and I stood on the West Station 
S-Bahnhof Friedrich-Strasse.

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The West platform in East Berlin Friedrich-Strasse.

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He said I should come back the next day, which I did not.

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Moderator: Berlin has changed since 1989. Social-political changes took place in Germany but also throughout Europe.

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From your point of view, what did these changes in the Democratic Change look like for the country and for Europe?

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I thought it was bad that the people in the DDR were oppressed, that there were no human rights

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and no freedom of travel, whether there were one or two states and nobody was able to travel in 
or out peacefully.

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These human rights violations were the worst.

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But I would have wished that one looks what can be done.

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Otherwise, I see the change as positive. West Berlin did not belong to the Federal Republic.

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All Berlin was occupied. Three western sectors, one east sector.

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The Basic Law did not apply in Berlin. There were already many special features in 
the American sector.

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Here one could be shot until 1989 according to the legal situation without identity card without warning.

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This was not applied but that means that Berlin as a set city became the center of Europe overnight.

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Before, the city was the symbol of division and the Cold War.

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And suddenly with the Fall of the Wall Berlin was a positive symbol for a revolution in which no blood flowed and that is rare.

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Moderator: Many people say that much has been forgotten and many are turning to parties that have nationalistic tendencies and even xenophobic tendencies.

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First of all, it has to be said that it is great that we have achieved the peaceful revolution, but that is not enough for decades.

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I still think that it is a mentality problem.

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Some may also expect the state to care more about its citizens.

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I also see many fears of immigration in the right populist area.

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There is a fear of strange areas, although there are none. This shows more of an existential fear.

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And therefore there are different projection surfaces.

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And of course there are objective things as differences in financial performance between East and West.

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This is grist for the mill of the people, which are already against the turn.

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There is still a need for political action in my opinion.

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Moderator: Need for action is a good catchphrase - what would you say, what would 
Europe have to do,

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what could every single citizen possibly do or even do politics to bring the idea of ​​Europe as a peace project more into the hearts and minds of citizens?

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So I would rather rely on the younger generation.

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Through digitization you are internationally much more networked.

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It works very well on a small scale and at the European level I have two requirements:

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First, that the European Parliament is finally strengthened and gets a right of initiative,

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so that they can propose laws by themselves, not just submitted to them.

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And second, that finally this unspeakable unanimity of the decision is abolished, and replaced by the majority principle.

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For example, we could then put an end to the problems such as the distribution of refugees in a relatively short time.

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In order to have any weight in the world in the US, China, not only for the economy,

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but also for values - I mean the US has no more - Europe must stick together.

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There is now also the trend that now more people are interested in it again,

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in the European elections there was a larger turnout - many younger - so I am not pessimistic.