* This is part of a series on the 20th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall – and my attempt to document the events of the weekend, where 20 years before, a peaceful revolution brought about a big change which helped to end the cold war, and bring about a new Europe. Many more of the events are in the full flickr set here. *
Time for Change
Saturday, November 7. 2009. The best day of the weekend. Clear and cold, but so sunny that it made me happy to be outside. The perfect November day – and our photo group set out from Potsdamer Platz (where, believe it or not the Christmas market has already been set up). Amidst the “Christmas” revelers eating their fish sandwiches and shopping for gifts, it was a bit eerie to realize that all of this – the ENTIRE of Potsdamer Platz was once plowed under – flat – stuck between two walls, a guard tower, tank stops and barbed wire – a no-man’s land.
Potsdamer Platz in 1986 courtesy of Wikipedia.
It really hit home as you crossed from the Christmas market and started to walk down Ebertstrasse toward the Brandenburg Gate. Here, the street was closed to traffic, with a huge sign:
Marking the beginning of the 1000 domino route covering 1.1 kilometers between Potsdamer Platz,
past the Brandenburg Gate,
Around the back of the Reichstag (on the left – river at the end),
Up over the bridge over the River Spree, and back down in front of the two modern buildings of the Library of the German Congress.
Standing about 6 foot high, about 18 inches thick and about 2 foot across all the “dominos” were surrounded by metal gateing and security guards who let you know if you got too close.
Each domino was painted (or decorated) by school children, artists and businesses from around the world in various themes including (Click for larger images):
Freedom (Frieden in German)
The Falling of the Wall /memories of the GDR / DDR:
Bringing down the “still current” walls / no restrictions:
People who were/are “change makers”,
(left to right – An San Su Kii, the jailed democratic leader in Burma; a collage of Mandela, MLK, and 2 I don’t know)
Peace
Unity,
Hope & Inspiration:
and other themes that we can all learn from.
While this “wall” wasn’t exactly the same as the one that had stood here previously, it was still a wall. At one Point, Paul noted that we couldn’t get across the street – and he wanted a starbucks coffee. I noted that there was plenty of other places to get coffee that weren’t starbucks, but you know – it’s not the same, because he wanted “that” coffee. Luckily we were able to walk around the wall – or through one of the “checkpoint” style openings – to then back track to where ever you wanted to go. Naturally, these openings were bottlenecks, and you had to fight the flow in whichever direction you wanted – but we still could travel freely – something many people still can’t do. And while this particular “wall” was only up for 3 days to celebrate a time of happiness born out of a time of tears – it gave me pause to think.
Am I glad that the Berlin Wall is gone? Yes. I guess, however, that the world should use it as an example – and work on removing ones that exist in many other ways — walls of the mind (religion, race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.) — physical walls (North and South Korea, China, the one being built between the USA and Mexico, to name a couple) — and try to avoid building new ones. Finally, for those walls that we can’t avoid – I propose we build a bridge…to reach the other side and find a way to reach a common ground – in the middle.
Bridge over the River Spree, with Domino wall illuminated in the background.
That’s it from me -where I hope that your “rose” grows, wherever you may plant it.
