NOVEMBER 9TH MARKS 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL

This Saturday will mark the 30th anniversary of the falling of the Berlin Wall.  This wall divided Germany on the basis of ideologies from 1961 until it came crashing down on November 9, 1989.

Thomas Kislat, a marketing professional at the Forum River Center in Rome, grew up in East Germany (on the communist side of the wall).  He attests that when the wall came down, it opened up many possibilities beyond his wildest dreams, including his eventual relocation to the United States.

Peaceful demonstrations eventually led the collapse of the wall, according to Kislat, who adds that it took ‘a lot of guts’ for the people of Germany to stand up for freedom.

A botched news report to German reporters basically led to the opening of the wall, says Kislat.

The fall of the wall was the fulfillment of a command two years earlier by US President Ronald Reagan to Mikhail Gorbachev (then General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union) at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin  to ‘tear down this wall’.