Year of Germany: The Fall of the Berlin Wall

While my knowledge on German history is up to the standard, a few details on this important event in German history I was unaware of.  This event about the fall of the Berlin wall was thrown to remember the effect it had both regionally and globally on massive amounts of people.  The event was staged in a large enough open space so that it could be divided into two separate parts, to represent the two different sides of Germany.  There were smaller activities ranging from tasting different parts of German food, to a soccer ball and play brick knocking down the wall game.  One activity that seemed particularly poignant was the large roll of paper that was put up for people to graffiti, but only on the West side.  The East side of the wall was apparently completely graffiti free, perhaps showing an even bigger difference that the two sides had.

The fall of the wall represented more than just a barrier being demolished, but a unity between a people that had been too often pitted against each other.  East and West Germany, separated by the wall was an unfair dividing line between a country that, after the fall of the wall, could become the Germany we have come to know today.  This could be used as a metaphor for what we can only hope to see happening today.  The breaking down of barriers not for domination or for violence, but for the unity of a people which should all share some very human and basic values.  The border of the Berlin wall was unfair to the rights of the people of Germany, and the fall represented something great for their nation that we would all do well to remember.  There is a famous saying that goes somewhere along the lines of this, those who do not pay attention to history are doomed to repeat it.  I can only hope that walls like this continue to fall around the world, decades later, breaking down the barriers that separate people from unity and a better tomorrow.

Different stars of the 1980's were very involved in voicing their opinion about the separation of people in Germany by way of the Berlin wall.  Even stars that had no relation to Germany at all had a basic desire for the human rights of these people to be respected.  An event halfway around the world can now effect people everywhere, if that is not a great testament to how globalized this world was and is, I do not know what is.