Yeah, That Happened: Topics in History

[chonies]

I took German for a few years about two years after the wall opened, so our textbooks had some mild factual inaccuracies. I thought it was charming when we came to little geopolitical lessons--every time we did, my teacher would say, "happily, because of reunification, blah blah blah," or similar.

So, are Germans and Germany better off? What's been unexpectedly difficult? I've read about Ostalgie (and loved Goodbye, Lenin!), but I can't get a grasp on its depth.

[Sunnyhorse]

You might find this helpful, Chonies.

ETA a book recommendation for anyone interested in WWII history: Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under Nazi Occupation is a great read.

[Baby Fish Mouth]

Nov 10, 2014 0:46:06 GMT -4 @roisin54 said:

I was only seven years old when the wall went down. I remember when it happened and that it was a big deal, but I had no idea why it was such a big deal. I still remember all the news footage of people celebrating as they pulled down pieces of the wall. Even though I didn't know what it meant the image still stuck with me.

I feel bad that my most enduring memory of the wall coming down was David Hasselhoff wearing his leather jacket and keyboard scarf. In my defense, I was only 11.

[Mugsy]

It's been 100 years since the beginning of the First World War. Today, the 11th day of the 11th month, we celebrate the end of that war at the 11th hour.

Turnout at Remembrance Day ceremonies has been really high this year, partly because of the 100th commemoration, partly because the east half of Canada is having pleasant weather, and partly because of what happened at our national war memorial a couple weeks ago.

I wear my poppy today with pride, and remember that without our veterans, I probably wouldn't be here.

[Deleted]

Nov 9, 2014 19:02:38 GMT -4 magazinewhore said:

It is weird that it was 25 years ago. It almost seems like we've gone backward (in some ways) in that time. I don't know; things seemed more optimistic then.

I forgot it was also Kristallnacht. I was wondering how the protests actually started (even though I was around) and I found this: "In 1989, a series of radical political changes occurred in the Eastern Bloc, associated with the liberalization of the Eastern Bloc's authoritarian systems and the erosion of political power in the pro-Soviet governments in nearby Poland and Hungary. After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere."

I was in high school, and what I remember during this time is being fascinated by the way it started. Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania all broke loose, and I was expecting tanks and soldiers to start rolling in from Moscow, but nothing happened. Then Iron Curtain country borders started opening - Hungary was like "We don't care, come on through! Fuck Moscow!" And I was all "" And the next thing I knew, Hasselhoff was on the Wall, and people were climbing over it and crying and hugging and the Cold War was pretty much over.

[chonies]

weekender, you describe it very well. I'd buried a lot of the omg omg omg breath-holding moments.

[Libelle]

From a German perspective alone the fall of the Berlin Wall was the culmination of months of events. It's hard to pinpoint the start of it all, but I'd say the immediate chain of events began with Hungary demolishing its border fence with Austria. That opened up a relatively easy route for East Germans who wanted to flee to the west. More and more East Germans started travelling to Hungary to try and cross the border to Austria. Some managed it, others were caught and taken to Budapest to be sent back to the GDR.

Some of those fled to the West German embassy in Budapest. Others went to Czechoslovakia and fled to the West German embassy there.

Then when Hungary opened the border, and the number of East Germany fleeing to the West that way increased.

All that was raising the tension, everyone was worried how the GDR leadership and of course the Soviets would react to that.

At the same time, the situation in the embassy in Prague became more and more strained as new East German refugees arrived every day. Towards the end, there were more than 4000 people living on the embassy grounds.

Then on September 30, they got permission to leave the embassy and travel to West Germany, on the condition that the trains would go through the GDR. There had been a lot of high tension diplomatic negotiations necessary to achieve that peaceful result.

After that, it was clear that the stream of East Germans leaving their country would not stop, but nobody expected the GDR leadership to actually accept that and open the border. I don't know what people where expecting to happen, because looking back it seems clear that the situation could not have gone on like that. Probably that the GDR would close its borders towards Czechoslovakia and generally make it harder for its citizens to travel.

There definitely was a lot of worry about what would happen, and fear that the situation would escalate into violence. After all, this was the same year as the Tiananmen Square Massacre,which happened on June 4.

[kateln]

I remember the Tiananmen Square Massacre. I must've been about 11 or so, and was home sick. It was a Saturday, and I had the TV in my room--and all of a sudden Peter Jennings was on.

The wall coming down was huge. I remember sitting around in class discussing it the next day.

[chonies]

This is more of a "fun with historical resources" post, but a friend sent me this: Design your dress to suit your dog.

[Smilla]

A little OT, but I just started volume one of Shelby Foote's book, The Civil War. It is an absolute tome, but ever since I heard him say (in Ken Burns' documentary) that any serious study of American history has to be based in the civil war, I've wanted to make time to read his stuff. Because I really believe it's true--virtually all the social and cultural (not to mention governmental) problems we still live with in the U.S. can be traced back to the civil war and our nation's incomplete Reconstruction.