Area residents reflect on fall of Berlin Wall

Today marks 20 years since a sprawling symbol of fear, distrust and Cold War tension toppled, ushering in an era of both joy and turmoil in newly reunified Germany.

The fall of the Berlin Wall provoked powerful feelings for observers worldwide. But for South Sound residents who were born in Germany or lived there on that historic day, today’s anniversary carries added importance.

Mathias Eichler of Olympia lived near Stuttgart, in West Germany, when the wall came down. He was 12 at the time and recalls the sense of relief that reunification brought.

“In the months leading up to it, there was so much unrest in the East,” he said. “We were still worried about atomic bombs dropping.”

Eichler, who moved to Washington nine years ago and owns the einmaleins shop downtown, said his mother grew up in Dresden, in eastern Germany.

“She fled with her parents before the wall was built through Berlin,” he said. “Of course for her, it was great to have the ability to visit and reconnect with some of her friends” after the wall fell.

Jens Stahmer of Olympia married a U.S. citizen in Germany and moved to South Sound a year before the wall fell. Although some travel restrictions for East Germans had been lifted in the months before reunification, he still felt “disbelief” picking up the newspaper and seeing images of the crumbled wall.

Twenty years later, he says the experience has offered a powerful lesson.

“I think this day is a reflection of, don’t take all the liberties and responsibilities as a citizen for granted,” said Stahmer, 54.

Eichler said reunification gave Germans a sense of pride at a time when the nation’s image had lost considerable luster.

“Germans deal very different with history,” he said, adding that in the United States, “you have this greatest generation that’s heralded as the saviors of the world, and they were. In Germany, we were stupid enough to start two world wars and lose both of them. You don’t think of those things in a fond way.”

Since the wall fell, Germans have realized that it’s OK to be proud of themselves and their country, he said.

VISITING THE EAST

Eric Harvey of Roy was stationed in the Army in Frankfurt from 1984 to 1994, doing logistics work and serving as an interpreter after learning the basics of the language. He visited East Germany three months before reunification and encountered a landscape starkly different from what he was used to.

“It was night and day,” he said. “The biggest difference between East and West Germany was like you went into a time warp, and you went back 40 years.”

He was warned against leaving the highway in East Germany, and there were restrictions on how long he could take to drive from one checkpoint to the next.

“It was intimidating,” said Harvey, now 44.

Stahmer, who served as a platoon leader in the German Federal Armed Forces, visited the East multiple times and said the differences between the countries even were visible when flying over Berlin. “You had neon lights in the west and gas lights in the east.”

ECONOMIC FALLOUT

Eichler said that for East Germans, the arrival of capitalism was a sometimes-unpleasant jolt. Thousands of people in the East were laid off because the factories that employed them were deemed “underperforming” by Western standards.

“All of a sudden, you had to fight for your job; you had to work hard,” he said, adding that previously, everybody in East Germany had been employed.

The opening of the border created a feeding frenzy for businesses, delaying a recession that was being felt elsewhere in Europe.

“A lot of West German businesses were able to inexpensively expand into the East. It was essentially a white spot on the map that was ready to be conquered,” he said. “Look at American retail corporations. Imagine if they weren’t allowed into one part of the United States, and all of a sudden, the floodgates opened. The currency is the same, they’d get tax incentives to actually do it ... it was like heaven for business.”

Harvey said that for many West Germans, reunification was an example of “Be careful for what you wish for, because you may just get it.”

“Once that euphoria was over, people realized there was a true cost,” he said.

That cost came in the form of a reunification tax that Germans still pay, Harvey said.

“All of the infrastructure in East Germany had basically been neglected when compared with the West German standard,” he said. “There was a realization that it was going to be more expensive than anybody imagined.”

Harvey said he wasn’t pleased to learn that property that had belonged to West Germans before the country was divided would revert to their ownership.

“One thing that has torn me up is, What happens to the East German guy who has lived on the same plat of land for 40 years?” he said. “There were people getting ousted.”

Some East Germans also went too far in embracing materialism, a previously foreign concept, Harvey said.

“When the capitalist way of thinking jumped into their brains, a lot of them went off the deep end,” he said. “They wanted everything, and they wanted it now.”

LESSONS FROM HISTORY

Harvey said reunification was most similar to the period following the Civil War in the United States. The obvious difference: No one here recalls that era of the nation’s history, but reunification is fresh in the minds of many Germans.

He said that if Cuba and the U.S. ever return to friendly terms, events similar to what happened in eastern Germany after reunification could unfold.

“Everything there looks like it stopped in the 1950s,” he said of Cuba.

Stahmer acknowledged that when the wall fell, there was concern about East Germans flooding the West – concerns not unlike those shared by people displeased about illegal immigration across the southern U.S. border.

“I would wish we would find ways to also recognize the history, and use the history as a backpack – what I’m saying is, Texas was Mexican. California was Mexican. New Mexico was Mexican,” he said. “A lot of blood was spoiled on those areas. That brings shared heritage, and this shared heritage should be translated into policies that benefit both nations. A wall, in my personal opinion, does not help to do that.”

Eichler said Germany still bears the scars of war, scars that serve as a warning.

“We grew up with our cities being destroyed by war – war that we started, but we always had a very visual image in front of us,” he said. “In the forest where we’d play (as children), we had big holes where bombs were dropped. In Dresden, that city was basically 80 percent destroyed.”

That’s in sharp contrast with the U.S., which is relatively isolated, he said.

“I find that Americans in general are more leaning positive toward war because they’ve never actually seen the devastation in their own country,” Eichler said.

He added that the fall of the Berlin Wall taught the world a lasting lesson.

“It was a big sign for the world that you can resolve conflict in a peaceful way,” he said.

Brian Sandford: 360-754-5425

bsandford@theolympian.com

IF YOU GO

The Timberline High School German Club will mark the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall from 7 to 9 p.m. today at Timberline High School, 6120 Mullen Road S.E., Lacey. Panelists will share their experiences of living in Germany or being stationed there when the wall fell. Speakers include Dan Perich of Intel Corp.; Kathy Stuart, retired from the U.S. Army; Eric Harvey, U.S. Army inspector general; and Mathias Eichler, the owner of einmaleins. The presentation is free, and the public is invited to attend. TIME LINE

Nov. 4, 1989: A demonstration against the German Democratic Republic draws about 1 million people in East Berlin.

Nov. 7, 1989: The German Democractic Republic government resigns.

Nov. 9, 1989: The Berlin Wall is opened, and additional crossing points into West Germany are created.

Dec. 22, 1989: The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin is opened in the presence of Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Prime Minister Hans Modrow.

Dec. 24, 1989: Visa requirements are abolished for people entering East Germany from the West.

Jan. 17, 1991: The German Bundestag elects Kohl the chancellor of united Germany.

Source: Inter Nationes Bonn