The Berlin Wall

[bluethrunthru]

I was less than a month old when it went up.......it seemed to be a fixture forever. I was sat in my Citroen AXGT listening to it fall outside Leigh RLFC ...... it seemed to precedent a better future - what a cock I was for thinking that

Fall of Berlin Wall: How 1989 reshaped the modern world

The wave of revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe helped shape the continent for decades to come.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[NPBlue]

I remember years ago reading an article in the Sunday Times from a British journalist taking a Rolls Royce into the eastern block. It shocked him there were watch towers timing his progress along the roads measuring his average speed. and he was championing the freedoms we had in the west that didn't have that sort of oppression, because if he had exceeded the speed limit, he would have been fined.

 

[KS55]

I have just read the full wiki page on the Berlin Wall, and wow what a messed up world we live in.

I'm 29 so I don't really remember it coming down but what a period of history that represents.

It's scary how one man (Stalin) could effect so many people in a country that he had no affiliation with, not to dissimilar from Putin in the Ukraine!

Hopefully someone can post the link to the wiki page as I don't know how to do I to the iPad, it's a fascinating read!

JSB, I remember the day the Russians started building the wall. The world was in shock. There is a famous foto of a 17 year old border guard throwing away his rifle and leaping to freedom over the temporary wire. I went through Checkpoint Charlie when the wall was still there. E.Berlin was a scary place. I met a stateless guy there who had been trapped in the city since the wall was built. Of course the East Germans shot anybody trying to get beyond the wall. Some made it, and for those that didn’t there were shrines on the Western side.
A terrible episode in European history.

 

[KS55]

The best thing about Checkpoint Charlie is that the toilets are clean in the Mc Donalds

McDonalds? Jeez, there was a lovely stube there when I went, and no McDs.

 

[KS55]

Can we have the Carlisle wall if Scotland vote for independence?

Er… it’s already there.

 

[NZBlue]

Can we have the Carlisle wall if Scotland vote for independence?

Er… it’s already there.

Yeah, but what have the Romans ever done for us?