Berlin as a set city was before the symbol of division and the Cold War.
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.
In summary, I was extremely surprised, because you actually had the feeling that the state will indeed not be eternal,
but I was not sure if I would still experience that there is no longer the DDR.
And on November 9, I was completely surprised, I was at home in West Berlin in my apartment
and had the radio on and then heard "The Wall is open".
One thought first, okay, it is not the first of April. Then I thought, well, it will be true -
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
where then the wall between West and East Berlin was.
Yes and there were crowds and people on top of the wall
and I thought, I want that too, but the wall was quite high.
I did not come up by myself, but there were people everywhere who pulled you up.
And then I stood up there, it was just opened and there I stood on top of the wall,
2 meters away, border guards with weapons that were very unsettled.
Some people have looked away, some have sung, some have started to throw stones at the border police.
that is, the situation was not clear yet, on the one hand it felt like a folk festival
and on the other hand it was not clear if the mood will change suddenly.
Luckily, then peace had prevailed. And then everything went on in fast motion.
Moderator: Was there also an insight into the border fortifications after the 9th of November?
I think that was already known to most West Berliners, because they lived very close to it
and there were several areas like barbed wire, then there were areas where dogs ran.
I can remember I lived near the Teltow Canal and then it was like that,
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.
And then that was the DDR, not East Berlin. And if you went there, a spot went on and the light accompanied a person.
So as West Berliners one was familiar with the border installations.
There were also subway lines, which then drove under East Berlin area.
So the security apparatus was already omnipresent.
I was arrested in the DDR when I visited relatives. That was the crosswalk at Berlin-Friedrich-Strasse,
where I gave my ID and there you got an entry document and it took a long time until a police officer came
and said that I was arrested in the name of the German Democratic Republic and I should go with him.
And I thought what is now happening?
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.
I was repeatedly asked the same questions by nine policemen.
Whereas I might say I wasn't attacked physically.
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.
He said it was all a good thing, as I also studied law I would probably get a good job.
And that I could also "help" them.
So he was campaigning for the Stasi to do a good job and help. I said, I'll think about it.
At the end of the day I was deported. Someone opened a door and I stood on the West Station S-Bahnhof Friedrich-Strasse.
The West platform in East Berlin Friedrich-Strasse.
He said I should come back the next day, which I did not.
Moderator: Berlin has changed since 1989. Social-political changes took place in Germany but also throughout Europe.
From your point of view, what did these changes in the Democratic Change look like for the country and for Europe?
I thought it was bad that the people in the DDR were oppressed, that there were no human rights
and no freedom of travel, whether there were one or two states and nobody was able to travel in or out peacefully.
These human rights violations were the worst.
But I would have wished that one looks what can be done.
Otherwise, I see the change as positive. West Berlin did not belong to the Federal Republic.
All Berlin was occupied. Three western sectors, one east sector.
The Basic Law did not apply in Berlin. There were already many special features in the American sector.
Here one could be shot until 1989 according to the legal situation without identity card without warning.
This was not applied but that means that Berlin as a set city became the center of Europe overnight.
Before, the city was the symbol of division and the Cold War.
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.
Moderator: Many people say that much has been forgotten and many are turning to parties that have nationalistic tendencies and even xenophobic tendencies.
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.
I still think that it is a mentality problem.
Some may also expect the state to care more about its citizens.
I also see many fears of immigration in the right populist area.
There is a fear of strange areas, although there are none. This shows more of an existential fear.
And therefore there are different projection surfaces.
And of course there are objective things as differences in financial performance between East and West.
This is grist for the mill of the people, which are already against the turn.
There is still a need for political action in my opinion.
Moderator: Need for action is a good catchphrase - what would you say, what would Europe have to do,
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?
So I would rather rely on the younger generation.
Through digitization you are internationally much more networked.
It works very well on a small scale and at the European level I have two requirements:
First, that the European Parliament is finally strengthened and gets a right of initiative,
so that they can propose laws by themselves, not just submitted to them.
And second, that finally this unspeakable unanimity of the decision is abolished, and replaced by the majority principle.
For example, we could then put an end to the problems such as the distribution of refugees in a relatively short time.
In order to have any weight in the world in the US, China, not only for the economy,
but also for values - I mean the US has no more - Europe must stick together.
There is now also the trend that now more people are interested in it again,
in the European elections there was a larger turnout - many younger - so I am not pessimistic.