“I was happy at the time when the wall fell and to be at a conference in Berlin and to represent my university, where I then worked as a Ph.D. candidate. My university was the University of Stuttgart and I was in Berlin from 7th to 12th, November. On the evening of November 9th, we were invited to dinner, and since the conference came to an end late, we went to the hotel by minibus. While preparing for the conference dinner, I saw the message in ZDF and the celebrations in the German Parliament. I then went immediately to the place where the dinner was. I told my colleagues, from the conference, what had been shown on television, and a colleague said, ‘Well, what nonsense, something like that does not happen over here.’ Of course, I asked for directions to Friedrichstrasse and instructions on how to get there. Because much of the footage shown on television was about Friedrichstrasse and not about the Brandenburg Gate, and so that is where I wanted to go. A German colleague then told me ‘Marinos, you are a foreigner, you do not know your way here, if there is something going on here, and if it is true, what you just told us, then Friedrichstrasse is not the place, it’s Brandenburger Tor. Anyway, I’ll take you there.’ We then immediately went there when the People’s Police of the DDR begun firing water on some demonstrators that were on the wall. And once, they had stopped - because the first protesters who were there were hooligans - we climbed - we belonged to the first who went up there. We were on the wall at least four to five hours and we have seen the first moments, until even the first protesters from the Western side skipped over. Well, it was an experience, an unique experience in life and unforgettable. After that we went back to go to the hotel, from where we heard and saw many things, many East Germans from the road - Volks…I do not know now how the great avenue in Berlin is called Volksdum Damm, or something like that, and we met a few people, with whom we had a beer, and they told us about their experiences. I distinctly remember a young priest, a Protestant priest, with whom we spent the first hours, and around 5 o’clock in the morning, we went to bed for an hour or two. The next day we continued with the conference. And, it was normal, yet a conference, but somehow another conference this day - because everyone was so excited and happy about this event. The objects that I have here, are the proceedings of the conference, in which I took part - this is the list of all participants. A Special and unique object is the newspaper - a special print of the BZ, from the early hours of 10th November, where it was provided free of charge on the road. I took one and how you can see all participants of the conference signed as a memento. Especially, on the very first page in the first line a Greek quotation from a Greek professor who worked in Germany, says ‘With the hope that the wall in your home country may fall one day, too.’” || Europeana 1989 - Berlin, 12-13.09.2014

Europeana 1989 - Berlin, 12-13.09.2014

Europeana 1989 - Berlin, 12-13.09.2014