AXEL MARTENS: OK.
Let's get going.
Thank you everybody
for coming here.
Thank you very much for
giving me this opportunity
to talk about this.
Yesterday, 25 years of the
fall of the Berlin Wall,
is definitely an event
that has changed the world,
and most certainly
has changed my life
and the life of my wife.
We both lived in East Germany
at that point of time.
And it's finally a world
changing event by the Germans
which is happy.
[LAUGHTER]
So this is a really great thing.
And I want to talk
to you about this--
how it was to be there when the
Wall fell, how it was before,
and how it was after.
So the Berlin Wall was, in
contrast to all the other walls
that you see in the world--
starting by the Chinese
Wall, Hadrian's Wall, or even
going to modern day history,
the border fortification
of different countries--
not designed to
keep enemies out,
but designed to keep
their own people in.
And you have to imagine, it
went through the city of Berlin
on the length of 27 miles,
more than a marathon distance.
And it stood for 28 years, more
than a life sentence in prison.
And it was designed
to keep and kill
everybody who was trying to
overcome it from the East.
Although the Eastern propaganda
said it was against fascism,
it was not.
And we will see the
border fortification later
in greater detail that points
directly to the purpose.
It was built as canyon
through a big city.
It had 300 watchtowers.
It was manned by
over 15,000 soldiers
at each moment in time.
The overall border control
in Germany was 47,000 people.
Most of the soldiers were
not in the border strip.
They were in the back land.
They were scouting
the area ahead.
So they didn't want people
to get anywhere near that.
5,000 people alone in Berlin
tried to overcome that.
136 died-- confirmed.
There is a number of deaths
that might have occurred
while trying to
swim through rivers,
but the bodies were
never recovered.
The Wall fell on a Thursday
night at 25 past 11:00.
Still have the
wrong number there.
It was 25.
I just checked it the other day.
As the result of a series
of completely unprecedented
events, and a big mistake.
Or, a happy mistake,
let's put it that way.
And I want to share with
you how that came to being.
And I definitely don't
want to bother you
with a boring history lesson.
You can get all the facts.
There's even very good
documentaries on YouTube
I can point you to.
But I have to tell a little
bit about the background, why
the border was built, and
how did it came to being.
And then I want to stress
the reality of the Wall,
and want to show you how it felt
to be on the side behind it.
And then I want
to tell you how it
was to grow up in a
rural village, two
hours north of that,
being completely sheltered
and ignoring that
until you hit puberty
and finally realize
something is wrong.
Something is rotten in
the state of Denmark.
And how it has all got
a happy end in the end,
which could have gone
so easily the other way.
It could have gone so
easily the Chinese way.
And it didn't.
And that's one of the best
things that ever happened.
And yesterday I was talking
to a good friend of mine.
He's a former British
Royal Air Force pilot.
And he told me that the
fall of the Berlin Wall
was the biggest political
event in his life ever.
And if it's so important
even for a Brit,
you can imagine how important
it is for the Germans,
and especially for East Germans.
So thank you everybody
for coming here.
Let's dive a little
bit into the history.
Everything of course starts
with World War II and Germany
being divided by the
four occupying forces,
splitting Germany up as they
decided in Yalta up front.
And Berlin, as a
microcosm of Germany,
was divided the same way.
So you had four zones of
influence by the four forces.
And pretty soon
the Western forces
agreed to work to govern and
form a common economic area,
at some point even to
form a common state.
And the main reason
that the Wall was built
is that people left the
eastern parts in the millions.
From the end of World
War II until the building
of the Berlin Wall, 3.5
million East Germans
left their country, starting
at a population of 18 million.
So it's a 1/6 that
had left the country.
It was mostly young.
It was mostly educated.
It was mostly workforce.
And why did they leave?
Well, first of all, there
was the standard of living.
The Western zones had a way
better standard of living,
because first of all,
they had all the industry.
East Germany was very rural.
Secondly, they were profiting
from the Marshall Plan, where
the eastern part was still
bleeding out and paying
war reparations to Russia.
And thirdly, the
economics was built
on private entrepreneurship
in the west.
Within the east, it
was all centralized
and not really motivational.
But there were other reasons.
There was the hindrance
or the hostility
against private business.
There was the hostility
against private land owning.
There was political oppression.
There was hostilities
against religions.
There were hostilities
against people
that had too big
a mouth, and lived
too close to strategic areas,
and they were relocated.
So they tried to stop the
exodus that would have certainly
been the death of the hopes for
the Communist society in East
Germany.
So they built the Wall.
And this building of
the Wall was directly
ordered from Moscow.
So there was no doubt
in history that this
is-- the fear of East
Germany falling means
the entire Russian
empire falling in Europe.
But that was the
history before the Wall.
The Wall was just the last piece
of closing the Iron Curtain.
There was a lot before.
There was the Berlin blockage
and the famous airlift,
obviously.
There was the founding of
the two German states--
Western Germany
found itself first,
trying to represent the
entirety of Germany.
And then East Germans said no.
We are our own state.
And they formed a
little later-- they
formed on the 7th
of October, where
West Germany was found
in July, I guess.
And then you had a long,
long land border of I
think over 1,100 miles
between both Germanys.
And they were fortified
already in the '50s.
And already in the '50s,
in the Operation Vermin,
everybody who was suspicious and
lived too close to the border,
were forcefully relocated.
So the border strip, an
area of about 15 miles
of the actual
border, was cleansed
by everybody who was suspicious.
Western Berlin
was already ringed
by a border fortification.
The only open spot
was the city itself.
So people were going with
public transportation
into East Berlin, crossing
the border by foot,
and then being flown
out of West Berlin
to get to welcome camps
in the Western part,
until they got apartments
and jobs offered.
In the end, in one month
30,000 people alone
left East Germany
via East Berlin.
So they decided to build a wall.
And this-- you see the
English in bold down there,
is one of the famous quotes.
It's as famous as "there are
no Americans in Baghdad,"
or "I did not have
sex with that woman."
This is a quote everybody
in Germany knows, which
is two weeks-- no, actually
two months before the Wall was
built-- the head of state
and party in East Germany,
being asked whether they
have any plans, and he, as
innocent as a lamb
said, of course,
we don't have a plan
to build a wall.
We have so much
other things to do.
Yeah.
True.
So German proficiency at
its best, and at it's worst,
obviously.
In an operation on
a Sunday morning,
over 50,000 armed
forces were roused.
And Russian tanks were
surrounding Western Berlin.
And at midnight, all the
forces were deployed.
At 1 a.m.
Sunday morning, when
Berlin was sleeping,
the entire subway and transit
between the two cities
were cut.
The light was cut.
And then the Wall was built.
And five minutes, the
Brandenburg Gate was closed.
The first Wall that
stood in Berlin
was a wall of armored
soldiers, that
didn't let anybody
going through.
As the next step, 12 subway
lines were permanently severed.
13 stations were bricked off.
And in total, 193
streets were closed,
including bridges, rivers.
They closed sewers.
They closed windows
in buildings.
We will see that in a moment.
And when Berlin was waking
up, it was two cities.
We see two pictures here.
The upper is where
the French Quarter
was bordering the
Russian Quarter.
We see the subway is roped off.
And the other one is where
the hip area of Kreuzberg
is meeting [INAUDIBLE] Park on
the other side, where actually
the street belonged
to Eastern Germany.
The walkway to Western Germany.
And people had to live
with that ugly thing
of a wall for over 28 years.
Why do I say mostly
a German problem?
The West Berliners hoped for
the intervention of the Allied
forces, of America, as of
the English or the French.
But they didn't.
They didn't for a good reason.
At the end of the day--
and Kennedy's quote
brings it to a point-- a wall
is a lot damn better than a war.
And tearing down
that wall by force
with the American soldiers
would have brought a war.
And the soldiers weren't
even affected by it.
The Allied forces,
both the Russians
as the Western Allied forces
had complete free of roaming.
Germany-- the Wall
didn't exist for them.
They could go obviously
over border crossings.
It wasn't that easy anymore.
But they could go around
where they wanted.
There was the incident of
Checkpoint Charlie, where
the Russians were
pushing their luck
and trying to force border
controls of Western allies.
And suddenly tanks
rolled on both sides,
and they stood there
for a week or two.
And then both sides
decided that it's not
worth of killing each other
over a couple Germans.
So the Wall stood, and
the Wall became reality.
One of the most spectacular
last places where the Wall stood
was Bernauer Strasse, where
actually the buildings were
the East, but the walkway
was already the West.
So people were jumping
out of their windows.
Armed forces were going
from house to house,
closing the windows, starting to
brick them off, guarding them.
And you see a
77-year-old lady trying
to jump out the
window into a sheet.
The police ordered
the fire department
hold for her to land.
And down there is an East
German unofficial informant,
or civilian, trying
to pull her back in,
to prevent her from fleeing.
And on the other side, you see
a 19 year-old soldier-- one
of the most famous pictures
of the Berlin Wall,
which was taken a week after
the initial cut-off when
the border just consisted
of a roll of barbed wire.
When he was walking exactly
that barbed wire, and then when
nobody was looking, jumped
over, threw his rifle back
to East Germany, and
ran into a waiting car
the Western police provided.
So far about a year,
fleeing was still possible.
I mean, even with
German proficiency,
they couldn't close all
the loopholes in one.
But they tried very hard.
And one of the saddest
sections of that
is when they began to shoot.
And they began to
shoot about two weeks
after the initial
dividing the city.
And there were a lot of
victims before Peter Fechter.
But Peter Fechter is the
most horrid and the worst
demonstration of the
East German inhumanity.
Because he was fleeing
with his friends,
and they already crossed
the strip that then became
named Death Strip.
And they were
climbing the last wall
when the police opened fire.
Both were hit.
His friend crossed the border.
He fell back into the
eastern-controlled section,
and laid there for an hour, and
screamed, and bled, and died.
And nobody did anything.
On the Western side,
there was reporters.
There were hundreds of people.
There was even US military
with direct orders
not to interfere, because it
was East German territory.
And on the east side, the
East German border control
did nothing, because they
were afraid of the Westerners
interfering.
So they stood there
and waited for an hour
before they carried
his body away.
And this is the moment when
the hopes of a fast resolution
of that problem-- of an easy
way back to a unified Germany--
died, with Peter Fechter.
And the Wall grew.
The Wall became a reality.
For the Westerners, it became
a macabre tourist attraction,
with platforms where
they could look over.
And for the Eastern, it
became the end of the world.
A fortification even the
Romans would have dreamed on.
And we will go into
how thoroughly they
built this fortification
in a moment.
What you have to imagine is
that it is a 3.5 million city.
It is after the war.
Apartments are scarce.
Buildings are still destroyed.
People are living in
very cramped places.
And what East Germany did-- it
cleared a strip of-- between
on the narrowest point,
it's about 90 feet
on the widest point.
It was half a mile, where
they cleared everything.
Blew up churches.
Blew up houses.
Blew up whatever was standing
there to get them free
roam of shooting.
The actual border was a line on
the Western side of the Wall.
And Westerners could actually
step over the border,
because there was about a
yard or two of land that
was belonging to East Germany.
So whenever there were--
in especially in Kreuzberg,
in the later '60s, early '70s,
there were student riots.
And the Western police were
chasing the demonstrators,
they could actually
run on that strip.
And the Western
police wasn't allowed
to cross that line on the floor.
[LAUGHTER]
And from the east,
obviously, nobody could come.
Because that Wall was
about 12 feet high.
And then you had the defense.
And I'm showing you a video
in a moment about that.
But you see the signal fence,
the steeled-spike grid.
And finally, the
vehicle trench--
all designed to prevent
fleeing from East to West.
Doesn't make any sense if you
come the other way around.
And believe it or not, there
were successful escapes.
There were quite a few.
They were in the beginning, when
the Wall was just barbed wire,
or a small wall-- people
just jumping over, climbing.
Later when it got a
little more elaborate,
it was the big time
of the tunnels.
There were a total of, I
think, 57 tunnels [INAUDIBLE].
The biggest one got, I think,
75 people out into freedom.
Later they found other ways.
There was obviously
soldiers fleeing, such
that they changed the regime.
And you always went
with a different guy
each evening, on patrol.
You never could trust
the soldier next to you.
But that the most
famous story-- and I
don't have slides
to that, but I like
to tell that story--
is the three brothers.
It's the tale of the
three brothers, who
escaped in three
different decades.
The first one had to serve
in the East German army--
everybody had to serve
in the East German army.
But he was drafted
into border control,
not in Berlin but
in the countryside.
And he used that knowledge
to spy on the defenses.
And when he was relieved
from his army duty,
he went back there and swam
through the river into freedom.
And then he helped
his middle brother
to escape by shooting an arrow
over the Wall, tying a rope,
and then using it as a tight
rope-- not as a tightrope.
How do you call it?
AUDIENCE: Zipline.
AXEL MARTENS: Zipline, actually.
And he ziplined into freedom.
[LAUGHTER]
And then shortly before
the Wall came down,
the most daring escape
ever done-- those two guys
learned to fly
ultralight planes.
And they bought two ultralight
planes, shipped them on trucks
into Western Berlin,
via the transit route,
painted them in camouflage
and Russian emblems,
and then flew in the dawn over
the border, landed in a park
in Eastern Germany, picked up
their brother, and flew back.
[LAUGHTER]
And landed in
front of Reichstag.
And that was an escape
nobody believed.
But there were, as I told, a
lot of unlucky stories too.
When I was born, '72, and
as I said, the rural north,
about two hours
away from Berlin,
I didn't know anything of
that, even when I grew up.
I lived a real
nice-- you would here
small-town USA-- this was
small village, East Germany,
sheltered life.
We had about 30,000 people.
We had a couple ancient
landmarks, couple cathedrals,
and a castle.
We had a lot of woods
and lakes around.
It was really nice
to grow up there.
You could roam free
with your pals.
We had a lot of Russian
soldiers in the woods.
It was always fun to meet them.
And we brought them beer.
And we got their rank,
signatures, and stuff.
And we traded.
And had a smoke, with clove.
And so it was really fun.
[LAUGHTER]
But of course we also had
our typical headquarters
of the party, and
the headquarters
of the secret police in town.
And everybody knew kind of, we
are away from the big scare.
But still we are watched.
Right?
And if you wanted to describe
the life in East Germany,
and it wouldn't have
been such a naughty book,
I would call that
"Fifty Shades of Grey."
Because East Germany
was all about grey.
There was no color.
First of all, we didn't
have any advertisements,
so there was no flashy displays.
But then also we didn't have
too much paint, it seemed.
So everything was grey.
On the other side, it
was extremely peaceful.
Well, that's the benefit of
living in a police state.
It's kind of safe.
There was barely any
mugging or stuff.
And even if it happened, we
didn't have a free press.
So you didn't hear about it.
So at least you felt safe.
[LAUGHTER]
It was well cared for.
Everything was planned-- your
kindergarten, your pre-K,
your school, your whatever.
If you're good enough,
your university, your work,
your apartment.
They didn't plan
the spouses yet,
but I thought they
worked on that.
Maybe at some point they
would have gone that far.
There was, in contrast to some
other East Bloc countries,
we never had a shortage on food.
So it was always enough.
It was well prepared.
Obviously it was
very well organized.
Everybody had to be member.
For instance,
everybody who worked
had to be a member in the union.
We weren't allowed to strike,
or to demonstrate, or anything.
But we had to be a
member of a union.
I don't understand why.
Everybody went to
school obviously
had to be member of
the Communist youth
organization, which
gave me a scare.
When I first asked for
a visa here in the US,
and they asked
you, have you ever
been member of a
Communist organization.
And I had to say yes.
But I think that doesn't count.
And it was very uniform.
What it did in the end is-- the
old cities were falling apart.
There was no money
for investments.
But to relieve the
shortening of apartments,
they built these beautiful
concrete blocks everywhere.
Very nice.
But you could live quite
nicely if you followed the six
basic rules of East
German happiness.
The first is, do the best
with whatever you can get.
I mean, everything was scarce.
As I said, we had enough food.
But that means-- whatever,
bread, and butter, and salami.
It doesn't mean anything fancy.
It doesn't mean
fruits all the year,
or vegetables all the year.
We had cucumbers, I
think, all the time.
And cabbage, obviously.
Everything else was rare.
So what do you do?
You see something.
There's a line.
You get in line.
Because if you don't need
it, you can trade it.
But most of the time
you need it yourself.
And you do a lot
of things yourself.
There's crazy things.
People in Germany were
crazy about wallpaper.
So they wanted to have
structured wallpaper.
But you couldn't get
structured wallpaper.
So that was an
inventor that said,
well, you buy colored wallpaper.
And then you paint it white.
And then you use sawdust
and sprinkle it over it.
And then you have
structured wallpaper.
So instead of the companies
producing anything people need,
they produce stuff nobody needs.
But then we figured out
to make it into things
that actually people need.
Second thing is, money
was kind of worthless.
First of all, everybody
had about the same.
Like a regular
worker in a factory
got about 800 German marks.
An engineer got maybe
1,000 German marks.
A doctor maybe
1,150 or something.
It was all in the same range.
There was no big
difference in the money.
And you couldn't buy
anything with it.
I mean, food was dirt cheap.
Even liquor was cheap.
I mean everybody who
knows 1984 knows,
communism strives on strong
enemies and cheap liquor.
Those are the two
ingredients you need.
And everything else
wasn't to have.
So what you do is,
you trade favors.
So you say, OK, I fix your car.
You fix my roof, or whatever.
My mom in the later days
was a sales assistant
in an electric store.
She was selling meat slicers
and mixers and all that stuff.
And I never knew how many
of those things were scarce.
So what basically
those people did is,
they didn't sell it
to the general public.
They called up their
friends, and said, well,
we got a new shipment
of these devices.
Do you need anything?
And her friend in
the vegetable store
said, yeah, we got tomatoes.
I bring you some tomatoes,
and I get a mixer.
So it was all grey market
trade and stuff like that.
And then, of course at work.
I mean, people were using
most of the facilities
at work to do their
own private stuff.
I mean, if you had access
to steel and welding,
you were building your
fences or your swing sets,
or whatever you were
building at work.
Right?
You weren't paid for
performance anyhow.
So why perform?
[LAUGHTER]
Then one funny stuff
about East Germany
is, since we had no religious
freedom, freedom of speech,
freedom of travel,
the only thing
is we had personal freedom.
So people were way more
relaxed with their sexuality.
People were marrying often,
getting divorced often.
There was no-- I think
the concept of the lawyer
didn't exist.
I don't know.
But it was not a money issue.
You were going swimming
nude at the beaches.
You were having a lot of
freedom in your, whatever,
450 miles north, south,
that East Germany was.
I lived actually very
close to the beaches.
And they are really,
really beautiful.
The only downside is the
water is really cold.
[LAUGHTER]
Then there are the don'ts.
So these were the three do's.
Now we have three don'ts.
The first thing you learn
from a very early age--
don't speak your mind.
Especially, I grew up as
the fourth child of five.
My parents were not in
line of the politics.
So you learned
very early on that
there is something you
talk about at home, maybe.
But you never bring
it into school,
or you get into
deep, deep trouble.
Then there was also--
in most of East Germany
you could receive western TV.
There was this one area,
a little mountainous
in the south-- we called
the Valley of the Clueless.
[LAUGHTER]
But everything else you
could receive western TV.
Because the western
transponder stations
were right at the border
to have maximum reach.
And then right on the
other side of the border,
there were destroyers
of the signals,
to impede maximum reach.
And that was like an arms race.
But most of the time,
you get western TV.
So you get all these
views from the other side.
But you talk about it in
school, you end up immediately
in the principal's office.
And you get some
nasty talking to.
And then critical
discussions is very funny.
Every now and then you
got a party official
who talked straight.
He really said, no,
not everything is good.
Not everything is nice.
Let's talk about the
problems you see.
And then later you figure
out, he worked for the MFS
and was reporting your answers
directly to the secret police.
Nice.
[LAUGHTER]
And then end the end, don't
push the system too hard.
It is a dictatorship, after all.
It's a mostly
friendly-appearing dictatorship.
But it's a dictatorship.
I will recommend
a movie later that
is available in
English that really
shows what they could do.
And they could do everything.
There was no Supreme Court.
There was no free press.
Who would you complain to?
Santa Claus?
There was no
instance above them.
They could deny you
to go to high school.
They could kick you
out of university.
You end up shoveling
coal somewhere
in an ancient factory.
They could, as I told
you, relocate you
from where you live,
because either you
live too close to the
border, or you make trouble
where you live, or whatever.
Your apartment is
needed by somebody else.
And apparently they
could put you to prison.
What I did-- when I
was in high school,
we had to do mandatory military
service during summer breaks.
When you guys do
summer internship,
we had to play soldiers
and run through sand
and shoot and climb obstacles
and try invading West Germany.
Learn to.
And I told, I don't want to.
I was slightly religious,
Protestant at that the time.
But I just didn't
want this shit.
That was the main reason.
I don't have much of a
strong feeling about arms,
but I didn't want to do that.
So I engaged in a
discussion, because it
was a voluntary organization.
So they give you all
the spiel about you
are pampered by the state,
they invest so much,
you have to pay back, it's not
about what you can-- whatever,
ask the state to do for you.
It's what you can
do for the state.
And then, in the end you say,
yeah, it's all nice, but no.
Then they say, OK.
Let's speak frankly.
You go in this organization
and to this summer camp,
or you leave that school.
And this is not me
being charged with going
to prison or
something like that.
But it would have
ruined my whole career.
I couldn't have
gone to this school.
And there's no other school.
I mean, either you go to high
school, or you're kicked out.
And then you end
up shoveling coal
somewhere in an old factory.
So of course I caved in and did
this shit and learned to shoot.
And then, well the most
important rule is never
try to escape.
And trying has
very funny things.
I mean, I wanted
to become a sailor.
I thought that was my career.
I wanted to be a captain at
sea or something like that.
Unfortunately I had a--
well, very fortunately,
I had a grandma in the West.
So they told me no chance.
You're not getting on a boat.
You can steer that
boat to freedom.
No.
No.
No way.
You don't get that.
Become a cook or
something like that.
My brother wanted to
be in the flying club.
So they let him do-- all
winter, let him paint the shed
and do all the theory
work and everything.
And when it came to
flying in the spring,
two guys-- and it
was so comical.
They came to our
house in trench coats.
I mean, really, in trench
coats-- they came to our house
and said, well, no.
No flying for your son.
Sorry, grandma in the West.
Why not model trains?
It's a nice hobby as well.
So yes, it is funny.
But there were ugly sides too.
There was no money.
Germany in the end of the '80s
was on the brink of collapse.
We got a couple big
loans from the West.
We had no chance
to pay them back.
We had no industry
production to speak of.
We sold everything we had,
every cultural object.
There was a whole
department-- there was also
the secret police handling that,
selling off cultural artifacts
and art to get hard currency.
But in the end we
were really bankrupt.
So what happened is, there was
no investments in the cities.
The cities were falling apart.
Leipzig, a city not really
badly hit in World War II,
looked like they
were just attacked.
It looked horrible.
It was the worst city.
Dresden, in contrast, because
it was so badly damaged
in the war, had all these
beautiful concrete blocks
standing around.
But Leipzig was
an historic city--
was completely falling apart.
There was no sustaining
business model.
My other grandma owned a house.
The rent for an apartment
was seven marks.
How can you maintain
a house when
you have to rent it
out for seven marks?
And even if you had money,
you can't get material.
There is none to be had.
You can't hire labor.
There is none to be had.
And you don't get any support.
In contrast, you get
grieved by the city
because you're
sucking up resources
that could be used otherwise.
The industry was
running downhill.
Germany was-- in
1985, by a UN study--
named the most dirty
country in Europe.
We had a lot of coal
mining, open coal mining.
Whole neighborhoods
looked like the moon.
We had the chemical industry
that was mainly based on coal.
There was super high sulfate,
sulfur dioxide and ash
concentrations in the air.
We had asthma,
cancer, everything.
We had-- in the
photo production,
they had a lake they
called the Silver Lake.
And that was not
because it was so nice.
It was because it was silver.
They were actually
piping all the dirt
from the photo production
into that lake.
Sad story, but kind
of ironic story.
The granddaughter of the
lead of state and party,
the granddaughter
of Erich Honecker,
died of
pollution-induced asthma.
So not even those were safe.
It was really, really dirty.
And what did the
elite do about it?
Nothing.
They were a country of old men.
In the end of the day, the
leadership-- the inner circle
of the party-- were 22 men with
an average rate of 68 years.
They didn't want to
hear what's going on.
They didn't even know
what was going on.
They were living in a village
north of Berlin in the woods,
in their bungalows, completely
shielded from the world.
And what gave the people
in East Germany [INAUDIBLE]
is, when Soviet Union
started to open up
and Gorbachev started
to engage in discussion
and open for
change, East Germany
said no, we don't
need to do that.
For decades and
decades they told us,
the Soviet Union is the
leading example to victory.
And suddenly they did, for the
first thing, something good.
And then they said,
oh we don't have
to follow every whim they have.
So it was really, really
crazy at that time.
The time was ripe
for revolution.
Unfortunately, what happened
just before the Wall came down,
in summer of 1989, was
the massacre of Tiananmen.
So it could have easily
gone the other way.
The good fortune that
we had that it didn't go
is that Gorbachev
actually started
cutting down the Iron Curtain.
It was his
reform-oriented politics
that made it clear that the
Soviet Union is not willing any
more to intervene if
countries in their empire
decide to go a separate way.
It was made clear that there
will be no Prague Spring
or cutting down the
Hungarian revolution,
or even the German
uprising in '53, anymore.
Every country has the right
to design their own future.
And triggered by that, Hungary
started in June of 1989
to cut down the Iron
Curtain to Austria.
Which didn't mean that
immediately the border was
open, but at least
they said, well, this
is a border now that isn't
shoot-to-kill anymore.
This is a border like
between every country.
And you can cross it.
But you can't just run over
and smuggle or stuff like that.
Well what happened
is, Hungary was
one of the few countries
East Germans could travel.
They had to ask for permission.
It wasn't called a
visa, because visa
sounds like we are not brothers.
But it was a visa in fact.
And it could be denied.
But it was often granted.
So in summer of 1989,
hundreds and then thousands
went to Hungary and
crossed that border.
Then they closed Hungary.
And suddenly said, no, you
can't travel to Hungary anymore.
Well, what people did then,
they went into the embassies.
West Germany didn't have
an embassy in East Germany,
because West Germany
didn't recognize
East Germany as a state.
So they went into the
embassies in Warsaw,
in the West German
embassies in Warsaw,
and the West German
embassies in Prague.
And one of the moments
that still gives me
goosebumps is when they finally
negotiated that-- I think
at that point 7,000--
yeah, 5,000 is here.
People that were camping out
in the West German embassy--
the embassy wasn't built
to hold 5,000 people--
were allowed to leave
Prague towards the West.
And Genscher, the foreign
minister of West Germany,
gave that famous
speech on the balcony.
That was the last nail in
the coffin of East Germany,
kind of.
So what happened then is
people went to the streets.
They say, OK.
Everybody who wants
to leave the country
suddenly can leave the country.
Well, what about the people
that want to stay here?
We don't want to leave.
We want to change.
So they started
going on the streets.
And they started in Leipzig.
Every Monday they had
Protestant service.
And then they went out with
candles and walked the streets.
And the first
Monday was, I think,
September 3 or
something like that.
There was 500.
The next Monday it was 5,000.
The next Monday it was 20,000.
That was the Monday before the
40th anniversary of the East
German Republic.
So the police went in and
arrested quite a few of them
and showed brute force.
But it didn't stop them.
The next Monday, 70,000
were on the street.
East Germany had pulled
together everything
they had in terms of
mobile police, tanks.
The hospitals were
stacked up blood reserves.
Schools and camps were
cleared for internment camps.
Everything was done for
the Chinese solution.
And then, thanks to
the commander-in-chief
of the Leipzig police
force, he ordered retreat.
He ordered his men to
guard the armored vehicles,
but not to interceded.
And 70,000 were allowed to
walk through the entire street,
putting candles in front of
the secret police headquarter,
in front of the
party headquarter.
And then a week later,
Berlin had 500,000
to a million-- the numbers
are not finally determined.
But 500,000 to a million
went on the street
to demonstrate for free
elections, free travel,
and generally a bend in the
mandate of the Communist Party
and the tyranny of
the secret police.
So the leadership had already
dethroned Erich Honecker.
And they wanted to save
whatever there was to save.
So they decided,
well everybody's
fleeing the country.
Let's make it appear like
we are still in charge.
Let's make a law
that allows people
to leave the country lawfully.
Then at least we look
like we are in charge.
So they asked a poor guy
in the administration
of visas and
passports or whatever
to come up with a
draft for a law that
allows the permanent
relocation of East Germans,
in legal terms.
And this guy and
his two assistants,
for the first time in
their life, thought.
So they thought, people
don't want to leave.
They want to travel.
Most of them want to travel.
They want to have
freedom of travel,
not leaving their homes.
So they worked beyond their
mandate on a draft that says,
this is a draft for a law that
allows each German citizen
to travel, without any
prerequisites, freely.
Only thing you have to do is
they have to get a passport.
And then they can travel.
So he drafted that.
And this is the draft here, for
everybody who can speak German.
It reads, "Private
travels abroad
can be asked for, without any
preconditions like relations
or special occasions.
The papers should be handed
out on very short notice.
And only in very restricted
cases should be denied."
So they wrote this draft and
handed it to the channels
to be rejected.
They assumed it
will be rejected.
But nobody read it, actually.
[LAUGHTER]
They handed it through to
this poor guy, or whatever.
He was a member of
the inner circle,
responsive for
press communication.
He was kind of the
king's press reference.
And what he did is,
he got this paper,
and he read it out loud
in a press conference.
And so, I got this
draft here, and it
says we have a new law that
says that private travel abroad
can be asked for without
any prerequisites.
And then somebody asked, when?
When?
And he said, I don't know.
As far as I know,
effective immediately.
And that was 6:53 p.m.
in East Berlin.
And I was-- where's my?
Oh, it's there.
And I was, as usual, watching
the 8:00 o'clock West German
main news.
So it's an hour later, about,
watching the main newscast.
And they told, the Wall is open.
And this is like--
imagine you're
watching your favorite whatever,
football game, or "New Jersey
Housewives" or whatever
you're watching,
and suddenly there's
breaking news,
"Aliens landed on the
White House lawn."
That is about the
magnitude of this newscast.
So what happened is
West Germany already
declared victory--
the borders are open.
But they weren't.
So it was announced that they
will be, but they weren't.
So the Berliners-- not
shy in any circumstances--
went to the border like crazy.
And they stood there.
And they were yelling
for crossing over.
And first there were 100,
and then there were 1,000.
And [INAUDIBLE]
Bernauer Strasse,
one of the biggest
border crossings,
there were about 20,000 people
demanding to cross the border.
The border control at the
point was manned by 16 people.
They had about 25 AK47
rifles and a couple
small, whatever, grenades.
But nothing serious in getting
those numbers under control.
So what they did in
the first attempt is
they grabbed those people who
were shouting the loudest,
grabbed them, stamped
their documents "invalid"
and shoved them over
to West Germany.
The people didn't know that
it was stamped "invalid,"
they just know, oh, I can go.
But they had orders
to everybody who
has that stamp to never
let them in again.
So they got about 500
people out of this group--
they grabbed and pushed
over to the West.
And then they thought they
have handled this problem.
But they hadn't.
Because on the western
side, the West German TV
was filming, and said, well
the border is really open.
Now people are coming.
Now all the border
crossings in East Berlin
were flocked by-- I mean,
East Berlin had about 1.2
million people at this time.
I don't know how
many stayed in bed.
I don't think many.
So what those guys did in the
end is they declared defeat.
They said we can't do anything.
They had their 16
guys they still had,
and there's a very nice
German documentary I just saw.
I don't know whether there's
a translation available yet.
They had those 16 guys
arming their barracks,
their armory, their
document station.
And the rest completely open.
They opened all the
gates, stepped back,
and started crying.
There's pictures--
it's so funny-- there's
pictures of these-- most
of the border control
were actually Stazi, were
actually secret police.
And most of them
had built the wall
and believed in that system.
So you see all those people
yelling and being happy
and crossing the border, and
even hugging and kissing them
and drinking champagne.
And then you see
this border soldier
standing there and
actually crying.
And it was not tears
of happiness for them.
But who cares?
[LAUGHTER]
The fun part is this bridge
was called Bosebrucke,
which means Evil Bridge.
It is not really!
So the big party started.
Although the Brandenburg Gate
wasn't a border crossing,
people were gathering,
were jumping on the Wall.
All the police had gone away,
had hid in their barracks,
and cried.
Or got rid of their
uniform and crossed.
You see that East German car,
the Trabi, that went over,
and that was the symbol
of the reunification.
And people in West
Berlin came out
and handed out bananas and beer.
And there was a big party.
Until, I think, 6:00 in the
morning, the entire city was--
I unfortunately wasn't there.
I was, as I said, 200
kilometers-- 120 miles away.
So what I did in the
next day, instead
of going to Berlin which I
thought, it's way too crowded,
I jumped on the train
and went to Hamburg.
Because I had friends,
the summer before I met,
they lived in Hamburg.
So I thought I go there.
It was the same fun.
So what happened to the Wall?
There was people
hacking it down.
So you see these
two elderly ladies.
It's so funny.
[LAUGHTER]
Coming with a
chisel and a hammer.
I actually had a piece
of Wall-- illegitimate.
I hacked it myself,
but I lost it
when I moved to
the US [INAUDIBLE].
Now you can buy it everywhere.
Apparent to what is sold
in terms of mementos,
the Wall must have been
200 miles, because--
[LAUGHTER]
But you just see it everywhere.
I mean, there's pieces
of Wall in Berlin.
There's a very nice
new museum in D.C.,
to News Museum, that has
actually a watchtower
and a piece of Wall
and everything.
It's a very nice museum.
So what happened after
that is, if you have to be,
whatever-- there were
many East Germans going
to work in Russia
or Cuba, whatever.
They were on a year's
or two years' term.
So they were away.
The road from the first big
demonstration and the opening
of the Wall to the
reunification was 11 months.
Within those 11
months, happened--
the complete meltdown
of the government.
Everybody retired.
And government of a round table.
The first free election,
the negotiation
with the Allied forces.
The negotiation with
our European neighbors.
Finally, the green
light by Gorbachev
to allow a unified
Germany to stay
in NATO, which was the
condition for the British
to accept the reunification.
The complete regain of
sovereignty of Germany,
and then finally to
the reunification.
In the middle, there
was the monetary union.
Suddenly we got real money.
That was really,
really exciting.
So everything was in 11 months.
And that was quite a joyride.
That was really fun.
And why did it all happen?
Of course, because of him.
[LAUGHTER]
So what's left of the Wall?
Right now, we have
across Berlin,
in the center of
Berlin, this double row
of bricks, with a brass
plate every couple yards,
marking where the
actual Wall was.
Because otherwise,
you can't tell.
You have to imagine, this
was prime real estate.
This was really
the best of Berlin.
There is now huge corporations,
nice movie theaters,
and everything is built there.
Actually the US embassy is built
on the former border strip.
The Hotel Adlon,
everything is built there.
You have at Bernauer
Strasse where
the buildings, and finally
the church was torn down.
And you now have
600 yards free area.
They re-created a
little bit of Wall.
So that's typical German.
First they have to
tear everything down.
And they say, oh damn it.
Now we have no Wall left.
So now they recreated it--
[LAUGHTER]
--for a museum.
And then what you have
still-- and that's
where I lived in Berlin,
near the Eastside Gallery.
It's about 1.2 miles of border.
And that was the
East German side.
So it was never painted when
there Wall still was a wall.
But after the Wall
came down, you
had a lot of very renowned
artists come and paint that.
And that's, I think,
now a UNESCO World
Heritage or something like that.
Yeah, we saw him already.
Crazy.
It's the Germans [INAUDIBLE].
It's not just a hoax.
My sister went to concerts.
[LAUGHTER]
Two movies I want to recommend.
"The Lives of Others"
is the scary one.
That's really the one where
you see what the Stazi can do,
what they have access to, what
they can do with your life
if you don't play nicely.
The funny one is
"Good Bye Lenin,"
which is about a
communist-believing mother who
has an accident and
falls into a coma.
And then her country disappears
while she is in a coma.
And then she wakes
up again, and her son
has to fake that
the country is still
existing to soften the
shock of what had happened.
So he had to recreate all
these East German products that
had disappeared overnight.
So it's a really funny movie.
And when you are in space,
if you ever get the chance,
look down at Berlin at night.
You still see where the Wall
was, which is very funny.
You don't see here, because
the light is too bright.
But the East German is
yellow, and the West German
is white, because they used
different streetlights,
different bulbs.
So the color of
everything is yellow,
and everything is white.
So you can see exactly,
if you look at the slides
where the border was.
The slide deck is available
at GoBerlin-wall-2014.
And I am so proud of
my company because they
had yesterday such a
nice Google doodle.
I don't know if
anybody saw that.
And that's it.
I thank you very much
for your attention.
Maybe we have a
minute for questions.
[APPLAUSE]
Yeah.
AUDIENCE: So, how was the
life like the next 10 years
for the average East German
and how did that work?
AXEL MARTENS: So there's
funny sides to that.
Financially everything
went better.
But there were a lot of people
that lost their positions,
due to the industry being
run down and closed down.
And then also
university teachers
were relieved, because
in the old system
they had to collaborate
with the party,
or they had to be party members.
So there was a generation
of, I would say, 45, 50 plus,
at that point in time
who suffered for a while.
Not, as I said, not financially.
There was no real hardship.
We had a very well-roped
networked that caught you.
But for a time, there
was a little bit regret.
Not in general of the way,
but maybe everybody else.
Couldn't we have done it slower?
Couldn't we have saved
a little bit here?
Everybody in my
generation was so happy.
I mean, it was
absolutely unbelievable.
And there were so many
new opportunities.
I mean, you could
open your own pub,
or you could finally
do your own business.
And Berlin, for
the next 10 years,
was the most fun
place in the world.
I mean, you had that morbid
charm of a rundown city,
and nobody really
prohibiting anything anymore.
There was basically art
installations, or happenings.
Everything was allowed.
There was no zoning
laws at that time.
So you could basically
do what you want.
And you felt the vibe.
And you felt the change.
And was-- I moved.
I had to do my-- that was also
a side effect of the Wall.
I was dreading my
military service.
Everybody had to do
military service.
And after the Wall
came down, they
allowed to do
alternative service.
So instead of learning
to shoot people,
I learned how to change
diapers in a in a daycare.
Well, it was more fun.
[LAUGHTER]
When I did this, when
I was done in '91,
I actually moved to Berlin.
And then I lived and studied
and worked for my first years
in Berlin.
And yeah, it's an amazing place.
It's really, really fun.
Well, thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
