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We walked to the Brandenburg Gate and there was a fair.

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TV reporters and cameramen from all over the world.

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People were interviewed there who stood and danced on the wall.

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It was incredible and I can not put this feeling into words.

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I studied in Potsdam, lived on the eighth floor and whenever I looked out of the window, I looked exactly at the West Berlin radio tower,

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you knew it was so close, but you could not get over there. We always knew that: You will never be able to go there.

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And before the turnaround there were demonstrations and many people then went over the border over Hungary to West Germany in the summer.

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It was already a lot going on. But that was not such a big deal for us. We sat there 
and I prepared the English lessons together with my friend.

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And suddenly there was a knock on the door and another friend said: "Did you hear it, the wall is gone - we can go over there."

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"This can not be, where did you hear that?" "On the radio, really, really!"
And then there was a knock on the door all the time and everybody told the same thing.

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But that seemed so unreal to us that we could not believe it. The next day in school, I had the zeroth hour. I came to this school,

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that was in Potsdam-Nord, in a modern area, some students were at the door, the caretaker 
was not there, he drove the evening before with his family to West Berlin.

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Then we were let into the classroom and all the students asked
if we can watch the fall of the Wall on TV.

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As we had not seen anything due to our preparations for our lessons until late at night, we sat there and really could not believe it.

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Then we decided to drive immediately after class to West Berlin. We picked up our passports from the dorm - we had a passport because we studied in Russia for a year.

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We then drove to West Berlin. There were crowds who just came through. All you had to do was show your passport or identity card, without control.

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We were suddenly in West Berlin and then sat in the train and then got out at the Berlin Zoo 
and then stood at some point in front of the Memorial Church and thought wow.

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And then we decided that we go first to the wall, because I wanted to see the wall once from the other side.

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And then we walked to the Brandenburg Gate and it was so crowded.

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There were TV reporters, cameramen from all over the world, interviewing the people 
dancing on the wall and it was indescribable.

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Moderator: How did you feel, yourself and for your family?

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For me, the focus was on the fact that I can finally travel and visit my letter-friends.

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I found it positive because my family has never been politically active. I even had a grandfather who did not like the communists and called them "packs."

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So I got educated quite openly even though I did it all so far - Poineer organization, FDJ - because my dad was not allowed to do it and of course had many drawbacks.

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He was very good at school and was not allowed to study because he was not in the FDJ because my grandfather had not allowed him.

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But it is not that we cursed the DDR, I had a good time, our education was great and I do not regret that I was allowed to get to know both systems, it also had its advantages.

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Moderator: What effect had this revolution, or change on your grandfather? To your family who stayed in Gentin?

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Was that more likely to have been seen as a liberation or was the DDR rather longed for?

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It was already seen as a liberation somewhere, but of course there were fears of what would happen now? Can I keep my work?

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Many companies were then closed. Of course, everyone had to carry their own package, some were more, some less hit.

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We were fortunate enough to see West TV. So we have always seen the other side 
and thus we had an more objective view of the whole.

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Therefore, we did not see this change as something negative, but were attentive to what is coming.

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For me, my hopes and wishes have been fulfilled in any case.

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For many people certainly not who have lost their jobs. I had a school friend who was a 
chemical scientist and lost her job.

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She never got on her feet again, that is, she never had a decent job again and was partially overqualified.

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She often had very little money, and so does many other people. But I was lucky.

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Moderator: Now, after 30 years of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the voices are getting louder - we have been let down, we have been forgotten. What are your assessments about this?

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Yes, maybe that was partly the case. If you now look very far to the east, to the Polish border, there was really much that was forgotten. I know this from friends, who lived there for a while.

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Yes, not much happened and that's why many National Socialist groups could strike roots there. As I said, my family and I were very lucky:

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My parents could keep their jobs, we could travel, my brother had found a good job again.

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It stands and falls with a good job and of course you can be happy and satisfied again, of course, if you are healthy too.

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Moderator: In the European elections, it has just been seen that the citizens of the new federal states have also elected the AFD,

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which have made headlines with anti-Semitic comments from their party.

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How do you perceive these movements, these parties, personally for our country and for Europe?

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I find them quite dangerous and I always wonder why these people choose these parties, probably out of dissatisfaction.

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One reason might also be that we lived in the DDR more or less shielded and had no contact with the outside world

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except for a few guest workers from Algeria, Mozambique, Cuba or Vietnam

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which have been trained and worked then in a few big companies but mostly they returned to their home countries afterwards.

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The least part of the population of the DDR had contact with foreigners.

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I sometimes ask people who scold the foreigners like Syrians, whether they've ever met anyone. And they don't. So I wonder how the even think they can judge.

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The same with Jews. Their answer is no, so they can not form a judgment at all. 
I really don't understand this.

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Moderator: If you would have one wish free, what would you wish the citizens of this country 
with regard to the current xenophobic tendencies?

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And what would you wish for Europe?

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Well, I would wish myself that one really starts communicating and getting to know more about each other. I think then many fears would disappear out of a sudden.

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That the people just try to be more tolerant and more open-minded.

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I know, it will be hard for some and some people may live in a small village and don’t come to 
see the world and have their own problems or are unemployed.

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But it is a shame because other cultures enrich our lives.

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To conclude I can say, that I am happy to get to know both systems, the DDR with both the disadvantages but also the advantages.

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As I said before, I was from the cradle ideologised with the Red Party, Communism and Socialism.

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The school books did prove this.

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One did not know something different. But I don’t regret any of it because I had in sum also a good education.

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I am an English teacher and I have known back then as I started to study, that I would never be able to go to England or the USA.

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But from one day to another after the turnaround I was in London and two years later I was 
for a whole year in the USA

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and in general I travelled a lot.

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So it really had advantages and disadvantages.