No fireworks for the German soul
Sooo, yesterday was once again our glorious national holiday, Unification Day. Now when you hear national holiday, you'll doubtlessly think of feasts and fireworks and some patriotic displays of joy, right
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And thinking of it I still feel goosebumps on my arms.
I remember the days before, the weeks before the opening of the Wall when refugees came to Cologne who left DDR via FDR-embassies. I worked in a bank that time and I remember two young men who came by to open an account. They owned nothing but the clothes on their backs and some money from the state.
Before evening came we had found flats for them and jobs.
I remember one was called Maik - it made me laugh and he said: that's how we had to spell it (Mike).
I remember the tension, I remember the fear, too. There was another "German Holiday" back then. A day to remember a revolution in the DDR that failed. People in 1989 feared that this peaceful revolution with the famous sunday-marches in Leipzig would end in a massacre (like in China a few months before).
And than came the 9th of November and they opened the transit points and people in Berlin could cross the border without written permission from the gouverment for the first time in over 45 years.
I remember well - for the 10th of November is my birthday and that day the headline was: Good Morning, Germany, this is a wonderful day.
Everything after, negotiations, peace treaty, formal unification ... that was nothing compared to that day in November. I still think they should have made 9th of November the Unification day.
But other than that - I thank you for your post, it made me think about it all again and about Germany.
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