The Berlin Wall vs. The Global Citizen

In my late teens and early 20’s. I was fortunate enough to be what I considered a global citizen.  Opening with a year in the USA when I was 16, for the next 10 years I found myself living, working or travelling overseas every year, sometimes for several months at a time.  It wasn't a lifestyle I set out to capture, the universe simply unfurled its magic carpet and took me away. Every adventure was memorable and in some way life changing.  A visit to the former West Germany was one such adventure.

Many younger people are unaware that Germany was ever once two separate countries. Time has a tendency to erase history in school books these days.  It was my first visit to Germany and I was staying with friends in Hamburg which is in the north of the country.  Unrest had been brewing surrounding the Berlin Wall and all it stood for.  The division of a nation, the separation of families, the gap between democracy, freedom and communism.  The Wall epitomised the politics of the past and offered little hope to those entombed behind.  When the world woke on 9th November 1989, it was a different place.  Overnight the borders had been opened allowing East Germans to cross freely into the west.  The destructive cracks in the facade of East Germany had begun.  People Power took over and used this weakness to physically tear down the wall.  In the smash of a hammer, families separated for decades were reunited and a new freedom was found.  Modern Germany had emerged.

Not one to miss a good party, I found myself on a train to Berlin crammed with others keen to salute the beginnings of a new nation and embrace the residents of the former East.  I experienced the throng of a reunited city and was exposed to the positively intoxicating vibes.   I grabbed a few handfuls of the crumbling wall as a memento of the greatest historical event I could imagine being part of.  In a swirl of rapture and surrealistic emotions I headed back to Hamburg.  I shared the carriage with some residents of the former East Berlin.  They being unable to speak a word of English, conversations were clearly enjoyed using gestures and expressions.  They marveled at the cars we passed, the flashing railway crossings, the petrol stations and more.  They saw everything that I didn't and thought it was brilliant.  If I had been able to copture the intense sense of delight in the rattling cabin that night, the world would never be a sad place again.

As a young person in such an intense environment, I left Germany with a new perspective.  It made me realise many things, the most basic being not to take things for granted.  Anything.  Appreciate that I can go anywhere at any time.  That I have money to do so.  That things can change in a second for the good, as well as the bad. That there is power in the common people to not just topple a government, but to build a nation. That I am lucky. Lucky to be a global citizen.