and now..the TRUTH about how the Berlin Wall came down

[underpants]

Drunk Germans-that is the briefest synopsis of what follows if you don't feel like reading it- odd how drunk Germans started the whole ball rolling that ended up creating the wall in the first place.

This "story" was related to me by an American who married a German woman and stayed in Germany, he operated heavy machinery for the roads department. A friend of his who also worked for the department lived in Berlin. They knocked off work the day it all started and, as they do, left there equipment/tools were they were paving a street that ran along the wall. Just across the street were houses and.......bars. As they also tend to do they went into a bar, some of them closed the place down.

As the bars emptied that night one guy-ONE GUY- said those magic two words the are often the catalyst for sudden mass populace movements-"F**k it!". He picked up a pickaxe and started wailing on the wall, someone picked up a sledgehammer and started in with him. As the bars were emptying for the night anyway and as the noise caused people to stick their heads out their windows a crowd gathered. Other tools suddenly emerged and as "the kids" got wind of it one of them got on top of the wall and started bashing it as well.

On and on it went through out the night and the next morning, with news coverage and phone calls being made, more people showed up. Pretty much the powers that be realized that at this point there was nothing they could do about it and down came the wall.

At least that is the story as it was told to me.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

1. now that i believe!

[jmowreader]

2. This is about the truth

What really happened:

Remember that a lot of signs of democracy were showing up in East Germany in late October 1999. They ran off Erich Honecker, for one thing.

One evening, someone started a rumor that Checkpoint Charlie was going to be opened that night. You know how rumors start. Anyway, the rumor said that at 2200 the checkpoint would be opened.

At 2200, there were ten thousand East Berliners standing at Checkpoint Charlie waiting for it to open. It was a Thursday and Border Command Central didn't staff border crossings heavy on Thursdays...there were two privates and a major working there that night. If the citizens got restless enough, the two privates and the major would be killed.

"What do we do, Herr Major?"
"Let them through. If Herrn Krenz has a problem with it, I will answer for it."

I don't know the major's name, but that's why the Berlin Wall opened--because someone didn't want to get beaten to death.

[underpants]

3. Hmm could be both

The Checkpoint Charlie story could have been getting around and over some beers things started a-brewing in someone's mind somewhere down the wall............... F**K IT BAM BAM BAM

[Kellanved]

8. nope

Checkpoint Charlie wasn't opened at all that night, that's just an Urban Legend for the American Ego, sorry to say so.


The first checkpoint to be opened was "Bornholmer Strasse" - a few hundred meters from my current location. People went were, because during a Press Conference the GDR- speaker said something along the lines of "The wall is to be opened immediately". It was actually a gaffe, not the official plan, but the effect was just the same.

[moondust]

22. Is that in the French sector?

[Kellanved]

24. Yes

n/t

[jmowreader]

23. Really? How come the NCOIC of Checkpoint Charlie

told me about the 10K mitburgers coming through that night?

[Kellanved]

25. can't say

Maybe we're talking about different nights (November 9th 1989)?

Checkpoint Charlie was not for ordinary Germans- it was for citizens of the Allies and diplomats. Why would people gather there?

Anyway, it is possible that Charlie was opened later that night - as it all happened within a few hours, "history" is blurry.


Edit:
Bornholmer Strasse , November 9th 1989
http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,222316,00.jpg

[Kellanved]

4. yup, and that man was a Canadian,

named John Runnings.

[underpants]

7. John Runnings?

:shrug:

[Kellanved]

11. The Wall Walker

http://news.scotsman.com/obituaries.cfm?id=602692004
http://www.armourtech.com/~diduck/photos.htm

[underpants]

14. Very interesting

Balls!

[Blue-Jay]

5. I thought Gorby tore it down with his bare hands

after St Ronnie told him to.

[sniffa]

6. oh pLease

everyone knows it was david hasseLhoff who brought down the waLL. :P

[underpants]

13. East German lightbulbs

I have to throw this in here. The Hasselhoff thing is funny though.

I read in the Stars and Stripes back in the early 90's that two of the most wanted items by those formerly behind the wall were-toilet paper and lightbulbs. Government made/purchased toilet paper is probably as bad as you can imagine. The lightbulbs had also been government made and they didn't have the soft glow that we are used to. The problem was that East German lightbulbs weren't made to burn out- the story in the S&S was that there had been many calls to the electric department about lamps going out.............some of these people had never had to change a lightbulb as they pretty much were made to last forever. It was in the Stars and Stripes.

[Hamlette]

9. google it, some interesting accounts

none of them giving Ronnie credit. This one by a Dane said they arrived in the early morning hours of the 12th (before Reagan's speech) and the wall was already being torn down. They left to go to the wall on the 11th because the rumor was East Germany was collapsing.
http://www.andreas.com/berlin.html

another at http://www.camsoftpartners.co.uk/berlin.htm

and I'm sure several more. Which matches with my memory. My sis was living in Zurich, we talked on Friday the 10th. She and her friends were headed for the wall as soon as they got off work because it was coming down. They tried but the traffic was so bad they had to turn back. Reagan's "tear down this wall" happend on the 12th, after the tearing down had already started.

[theboss]

12. Reagan's speech was in 1987

The Wall came down in 1989.

What the hell are you talking about?

[theboss]

10. Nice story

But I am pretty sure he would have been shot dead if there was not some sort of official governement sanctioning of this.

[underpants]

15. The first cop on the scene

How would you like to have been the first cop on the scene?

As the story was told to me the cops did show up but a few of them agreed with it and the others didn't feel like taking on the mob. Again, this is how it was told to me.

[theboss]

16. I think posters are combining a bunch of different stories

First of all, Reagan gave his speech in 1987; the Wall came down in '89. Some posters seem to think they happened at the same time.

Secondly, the East German government announced the opening of some checkpoints. What then happened is what you described, the crowds descended and proceeded to tear the wall down piece by piece.

So, yes, your drunk German friend is correct in saying that one guy started the tearing down of the wall. But it's not like he single-handidly convinced the East German Politburo to do it. The gates were opened first (with no intent of tearing it down), then the crowds went bonkers (which was probably inevitable).

[TorchTheWitch]

18. I have a piece of the Wall

My "German brother" (loaned to my family for a year as part of a student exchange) was one of those drunks ripping out the wall. He sent us a postcard briefly describing the event and scotch-taped a bitsy pebble from the wall (about the size of the head of a pin) to it... and promised to send a larger piece when he had the money as he'd spent most of it getting hammered that night. I still have it in the attic somewhere.

[Kellanved]

19. better seal it

There was a lot asbestos in the Wall concrete- many pieces are considered a health hazard.

[Unperson 309]

20. I have a largish chunk of the Wall

Brought to me by a friend who was traveling in Germany. He told me "I'm going to be in Berlin, is there anything you would like?"

I said "How about a chunk of the Berlin Wall?"

He brought back three large hunks, all with painting on them. I took the middle piece, with red, yellow and black stripes on it. It's around 6 X 8 X 4 inches and has an indent in the concrete back that is a cast of the iron rebar supporting structure. It also has several large stones bound into the cement. Pretty poor quality concrete, all in all. I asked him "How much do I owe you?" and he shrugged.

"Naah, you don't owe me a cent! I picked these up by the Brandenburg Gate. They were just lying on the ground so I nabbed them."

Poor quality condrete, indeed! When my halfsister asked to see the piece, I snapped off a 3 inch chunk and gave it to her. It came off easily! The concrete had a lot of sand and gravel mixed into it.

309

[Kellanved]

17. The stone pecking was a western phenomenon,

far smaller chance to get shot there.

On the eastern side it was hard to even get to the wall, let alone with a sledgehammer.


Of course the whole "Stonepeckers" thing had little to nothing to do with the actual fall of the wall. Without the Billions of annual western aid the GDR would have collapsed years earlier.

[Karenina]

21. Kick!

Wir brauchen ein bißchen Wahrheit!