Leaping Over Walls of Separation

Katharina (Germany)

Born in 1964, three years after the Wall was built, I grew up with the Wall. It was something normal for me. When I visited my grandma on the metro, I traveled a long way through the border area. Walls on both sides. On the left, the wall to the East. The streets and the lower windows of the houses were walled up. On the right, the wall to the West. It was so high that you could only see single houses in the far distance. We were not just separated from West Berlin; Western Europe and the rest of the world were closed to us.

In May 1989 something totally unexpected happened for me. I was part of an official delegation which went to the Protestant Church Assembly in West Berlin. Friends from Taizé made it possible. That single week in West Berlin was a total exception for me. What shocked me the most was that life in West Berlin was not so different from my own life. The people there lived in a normal way, with their cares and joys.

The fall of the Wall was a miracle for me. It came as something totally unexpected. If someone had said to me the previous day that the Wall would fall, I would not have believed him. Since the fall of the Wall my life has completely changed. Now it became possible for me to begin studies. I was lucky. Compared to many others, it was not yet too late for me to attain my professional goals.