from the how-many-of-us-remember-it-now? dept.
The Berlin wall was erected on 13 August 1961. It was breached on 9 November 1989, after 28 years, 2 months and 27 days (10315 days, to be exact). Counting forward another 28 years, 2 months and 27 days (or just 10315 days, you get the same answer) takes us to tomorrow, 5 February 2018.
Below is the blog entry I posted on the twentieth anniversary of the Fall of the Wall, in 2009. Since then, I have continued to enjoy visiting Berlin; and I always pay my respects to the Wall and its memories, for me and for many others.
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2959427.html
[Editor's Comment: I too had the pleasure of serving in Berlin on 2 separate tours of duty, alongside US and French colleagues. The city was vibrant and full of places to see and things to do. However, I never lost the feeling that we lived in a very restricted environment. I was one of the fortunate ones in that my military duties meant I also had the opportunity to work in what was then East Germany. I'm glad that those days are long gone.]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday February 05 2018, @10:34PM (1 child)
Weren't they supposed to consult their physician if it was up for more than four hours? Or is this where we figured that out?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 5, Funny) by bob_super on Monday February 05 2018, @10:46PM
The wall was a lesbian. The place between the two barriers was called "no man's land", and much blood was spilled there.
[ducks]
On-topic: dang, we're getting old fast!
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Monday February 05 2018, @10:35PM (2 children)
I was just saying recently (to a voice coach), "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @12:10AM
Now start: "Mr Trump tear down this wall!"
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Tuesday February 06 2018, @12:12AM
Did your Russian immigrant neighbour disregard the boundaries when he put his fence up?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @10:48PM (2 children)
Build a wall !
(Score: 1) by Sulla on Monday February 05 2018, @11:27PM
Stupid Russian shills, its "Build That Wall!". With that kind of ability you will never be able to pull off altering the results of the midterm elections!
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @02:05AM
Trump: "Can I have the Berlin wall? Putin told me he's not using it right now."
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Monday February 05 2018, @10:57PM (7 children)
Well, yes, that was always true.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 3, Funny) by Thexalon on Monday February 05 2018, @11:09PM (6 children)
Actually, it was down for much much much longer than it was up. As in, 4 billion+ years versus less than 30 years.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 4, Interesting) by NewNic on Monday February 05 2018, @11:15PM (4 children)
An interesting philosophical point. Before it was up, was it down? It's a reasonable argument to suggest that something that had never existed was not in fact down. You can't ascribe properties ("up", "down") to something that doesn't exist.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 3, Touché) by maxwell demon on Monday February 05 2018, @11:31PM (3 children)
But did it still exist after it was torn down? And if so, will it ever cease to exist?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday February 06 2018, @12:03AM (2 children)
I think it's reasonable to say "No" here. But the previous poster had allowed for "down" to be a property of a wall that had previously existed.
(Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Tuesday February 06 2018, @02:28AM (1 child)
Actually, segments of it are still standing [google.com]
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Informative) by Geotti on Tuesday February 06 2018, @01:01PM
Yes, but at the place you linked to not it's not standing at the proper location. There are [berliner-mauer-gedenkstaette.de] other [wikipedia.org] places [tagesspiegel.de] in Berlin, though, where you it's standing in it's historic place..
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Tuesday February 06 2018, @01:08AM
I doubt you can claim that. Berlin has not existed for billions of years, and it would seem highly illogical for something to be named as the "Berlin" wall before there is even a "Berlin".
We're splitting hairs though. Which I guess it's nicer than splitting atoms.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Monday February 05 2018, @11:31PM (1 child)
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/02/05/newly-discovered-berlin-wall-segment-to-get-protected-status.html [foxnews.com]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Tuesday February 06 2018, @11:42AM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @11:58PM
Whose dumb idea was it to put West Berlin inside East Germany anyway.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday February 06 2018, @12:45AM
I was an exchange student in West Germany when the Wall came down. It was an incredible moment. I was in Cologne with my host family but my friend's parents were Berliners, so a week after the first moment when people climbed over the section at the Brandenburg Gate we drove out to stay with his friend's aunt in West Berlin.
The drive itself was memorable, because my friend's father was an executive recruiter who had placed most of Citroen's leadership; they lent him an experimental Citroen that could do 250mph so we rode that on the Autobahn until we hit the East German border where we had to choke it back to 50mph because that was as fast as the Ossies' Trabant police cruisers could go.
Berlin then was giddy. There were still people partying. The Ossies walked around agape at what the Wessies had. "Wahnsinn" (crazy cool) was the word on everyone's lips, the Ossies because of the opulence, the Wessies because of their joy at the liberationof their countrymen who had been so cruelly imprisoned for so long.
We went to the Wall that stood between the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate. Everyone had hammers and chisels and was busily chipping away, so we joined in. It was difficult because the section there was hardened concrete to frustrate fugitives tunneling through. Eventually we filled a bag with pieces, most of which i gave away as souvenirs to friends back home but some of which i still have.
There were also east german soldiers selling their uniforms and medals, so i bought a hat and some medals. I gave the hat to my best friend in college, a red-headed Jew from Philadelphia who fetishized communism as a gag. I kept a medal with the east german flag on it that i pinned to the front of a greek fisherman's cap.
The one picture i wish i could have taken that day was of the west german flag flying over the Reichstag, the east german flag over the Brandenburg Gate, the Wall crumbling between, and the streams of people filing through the gaps carrying bags with everything they owned (it was almost as though they didn't trust the openness to last.)
we finished the visit at Checkpoint Charlie, where we toured the museum. the ways people smuggled others through the checkpoints or flew or swam or tunneled under the border were a powerful testament to man's hunger to be free.
The experience, the exhiliration, the tears of joy, the looks on my friend's parents' faces, is as fresh to me now as it was then. I have always considered myself very lucky to have witnessed history in the making. Hard to believe it was 28 years ago.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @06:48AM (1 child)
Now, this is something to work for. I doubt though that it will be as easy as German reunification had been.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday February 06 2018, @09:50AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 06 2018, @12:13PM
At the end of the WWII around 1945 the allied forced occupied Nazi Germany. The Soviet area [1] later became East Germany. The little grey blip inside the Soviet zone is West Berlin, which was further divided among the WWII winners [2]. East Germany built a wall around the non-Soviet zones of Berlin, aka West Berlin [2].
1 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deutschland_Besatzungszonen_8_Jun_1947_-_22_Apr_1949_sowjetisch.svg [wikimedia.org]
2 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Berlin_Blockade-map.svg [wikimedia.org]
3 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Karte_berliner_mauer_en.jpg [wikimedia.org]