What remains of the famous Berlin Wall? On November 9, Germany is celebrating the 35th anniversary of the fall of this wall, symbol of the separation between East and West, which lasted 28 years, from 1961 to 1989. The disappearance of these 155 kilometers of wall represented a upheaval for residents. To collect the words and memories of witnesses of this era, the Berlin Wall Foundation has launched a unique initiative: one of its teams is traveling around the city, with a cargo bike transformed into a mini-studio, with microphone and camera .
In front of the camera, in a district in the south-east of the capital, Klaus Walter, 85, is the first to start. Sitting on a chair in front of the Neuköll social center, the former Berlin firefighter tells the story of his November 9: “We were watching television and there was this legendary speech by Günter Schabowski who said that the wall was open. It was a real surprise! Everyone was very happy. We really didn’t expect the wall to fall… It was a relief“, he remembers.
After about ten minutes, the old man stops, happy to have been able to share his memories. And to slide, not without emotion: “Even though it’s been a long time, it still moves me to talk about it. At home, I have piles of newspaper articles and photos. For me, it’s like it was yesterday, you won’t forget it. I’m already 85 years old and one day I won’t be able to tell the story anymore… So I find it good to do that, to leave a trace of being able to share your experiences and your feelings.”he slips.
The mobile laboratory and its cargo bike have already visited around twenty Berlin neighborhoods. Axel Klausmeier, director of the Berlin Wall Foundation, hopes to collect around a hundred testimonies: “We want to hear from very different people because there’s not just one story. Someone who was in the Stasi obviously didn’t experience history in the same way as someone in the opposition. Everything is not black or white. And that is part of our heritage. We may not like hearing certain opinions, but we have to live with it.“, he recalls.
With green hair cut short, Michaela, 72, has just finished recording.
She is about to get back on her bike. “It is a good thing to explain what happened to young people who did not experience this period. I am a witness to the time and I find it important to tell about this period because the school does not always have the means to do so.”.
“For them, it is perhaps obvious to see a united Germany with Berlin as its capital, but this has not always been the case…”
Michaela, a resident of Berlinat franceinfo
The videos will be presented on the website of the Berlin Wall Foundation. A selection of testimonies will also be projected onto the 1,316 meters of the East Side Gallery, the longest section of wall still visible today.
