What do Leonard Bernstein, Pink Floyd and David Hasselhoff have in common? They all rocked a common cause—having performed concerts celebrating the reunification of Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall over 20 years ago. With hundreds of thousands of attendees plus enraptured television audiences around the world, Berlin went from dismally divided to the official party capital of Europe. What a radical change from the previous thirty years.
When the wall came down in 1989 following a non-violent revolution, a lot of adjustments had to be made. East Germans and West Germans had led very different lives during their 30-year separation. East Germany was poorer. Children were taught communist principles in school. And people lived in a police state under constant surveillance. In contrast, West Germany had more wealth and freedom, but dirtier streets and higher rates of homelessness.
Because the wall didn’t follow any natural geographical line, once bustling places, such as Potsdamer Platz in the middle of Berlin, became desolate after the concrete wall went up. Permits were required to pass from one side to the other. And there were only nine places where you could cross—the most famous being Checkpoint Charlie, a crossing reserved for people from the Allied countries. (You can visit Checkpoint Charlie in the outdoor Allied Museum in Berlin where it has been preserved for historic reasons.) If you tried to cross illegally, you risked getting shot and killed. But that didn’t stop many daring East Germans. There are records of people digging tunnels under the wall and even flying a hot air balloon from the East to the West. At least 5,000 people managed to get across.
Today, cities such as Leipzig and Dresden in eastern Germany are thriving, and the economic differences between west and east are slowly closing. Visit Berlin and take tours along the route of the former Berlin Wall. You’ll find Potsdamer Platz is once again a hub of commerce, nightlife and shopping. Notice the Christmas Train that crosses both sides is back up and running. And at the end of Berlin’s principle street, Unter den Linden, you’ll also see the Brandenburger Gate that Emperor Wilhelm II ordered built in the late 18th century. This great monument, designed after the Acropolis in Athens, once stood as a symbol of peace—then division, when the wall went up—then became the hotspot for freedom festivities on the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall.
You’ll find one section of the wall still standing, converted into an outdoor art exhibition. Called The East Side Gallery, this one-mile section displays artist responses to the reunification of Germany. Here, the infamous picture of “The Kiss” between East German leader, Erich Honecker, and the Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev, made its world debut. The Gallery holds unique significance for residents of former East Germany since artwork on the eastern side was forbidden, leaving it bare and gray. In contrast, the wall on the western side was bright and colorful—at least since the 1980s when graffiti and political art exploded. So vibrant, the work brought attention to a place that no one cared to see before. (Perhaps, it’s no coincidence that the wall came down that decade.)
Memory of Germany’s split past lives on in big monuments, such as the Brandenburger Gate, to the small ones, like bronze rabbits set in the black asphalt of Chaussee Street reflecting the days only wild animals could cross freely. But Germany is also filled with a constant reminder of hope. As the country where east meets west, party lines are free to cross. And no Germany “party” is complete without David Hasselhoff. After all, he did sing his biggest hit of the era, Looking for Freedom, on top of the Berlin Wall.