THS German Students Celebrate Fall of Berlin Wall Anniversary

German students at Teutopolis High School celebrated the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9. Each class researched two or three former Communist countries in Eastern Europe in the media center for three days prior to the event. The countries included: Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, and the Soviet Union. Students had to find: (1) name of the country in German in 1989, (2) flag, (3) currency, (4) last leader, (5) national anthem, (6) population, (7) state motto, (8) capital, (9) main language(s), (10) government, (11) legislature, (12) land area, and (12) any wars or conflicts 1945-89.  They printed off pictures, histories, and interesting facts about their countries for future use.

I bought a 4 X 8 X 2 sheet of Styrofoam to cut into twelve equal pieces to represent slabs of the Berlin Wall. I also purchased twelve sheets of poster board. The students put half sheets of poster board on both sides of the pieces to decorate with their printed material. On November 6, students attached their pictures, histories, etc. to their projects.

On Monday November 9, students put finishing touches on their projects. They lined the pieces up in domino fashion in the German room. Beginning with Poland, where the early 1989 dissension and demonstrations took place, students toppled the row of wall pieces. I took pictures of each class toppling the wall event and explained the domino effect in the fall of Communism.  Some countries received their freedom as late as 1993.

On Tuesday, I allowed students to write graffiti on their projects similar to things on the original wall. They wrote such sayings as Ich war hier (I was here), Freiheit (Freedom), Deutsch ist ubercool (German is way cool), and Frei zuletzt (Free at last).

To help set the mood of the event, I printed off historic photos of soldiers putting up the Wall in 1961, pictures of the Brandenburg Gate in 1945 and 1989, people sitting and standing on the Wall in 1989, an aerial view of the path of the Wall through Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie, and an East German car, the Trabant (Trabi), similar to the ones that drove through the opening on Nov. 9, 1989. I also cut out the front page of the Herald and Review with the headline "Germany celebrates the Wall's fall." I created a bulletin board display of the photos and article in the back of the room. I used them as teaching tools to inform students about the series of events that led to the wall coming down. Students had already watched the 1989 ABC report from Berlin with Peter Jennings on "YouTube" called "Fall of Berlin Wall."

Thousands of students in Germany and across Europe created 4 X 8 slabs of the wall to display in Berlin on the path of the original wall for the twentieth anniversary. I showed students the festivities in Berlin on "YouTube" when they toppled 1,000 slabs of the new wall. Even though it was a rainy night, 200,000 people turned out for the momentous occasion. The student artists had a great time being involved in this activity. There were dozens of politicians and other dignitaries at the event. There was one glitch when the toppling wall reached a point where one panel was too far from the next one and stopped the action. Spectators resumed the toppling of the rest of the panels.

Today in eastern Berlin is the East Side Gallery portion of the Wall for artists to decorate. It is nearly a half-mile long and has been refurbished and redecorated in time for the celebration. One panel depicts a Trabi car driving through the wall. Another shows two doves of peace. Other artists went wild with color and fanciful drawings. The new murals have already had graffiti written on the panels.

Some U.S. cities had their own celebrations. Los Angeles had a "Wall Across Wilshire (Boulevard)" near the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It separated East L.A. from West L.A., a symbolic recreation of the wall that once separated Berlin, its sister city for 43 years. L.A. artists Kent Twitchell, Shepard Farley, Berlin artist Thierry Noir, as well as others, decorated the wall. The idea for The Wall Project was the idea of Justinian Jampol, executive director and founder of the Wende Museum, an archival repository for Cold War artifacts 1949-89, in Culver City, California. The wall was 80 feet long and 10 feet high. The theme for Los Angeles' celebration was Freedom Without Walls. Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit sent a pre-recorded 16- minute message that thanked Americans for their support in the Berlin Airlift and the Cold War. At midnight on November 9 the L.A. wall, made of Styrofoam, wood, and cardboard, was toppled by local officials and artists. People in the streets experienced the same exhilarating feeling as the people of Berlin did in 1989 and at this year's celebration. Ten segments of the original wall were also on display at 5900 Wilshire Boulevard.

Since all current THS students were born after 1989, it was an excellent opportunity for students to learn about this event, which helped topple Communism in Eastern Europe. The event helped foster similar movements in South Africa with the dismantling of the apartheid regime of racial segregation. The students enjoyed the activity as an historic event related to their study of German.