Happy and amazed at the same time

On the morning of November 9, 1989, I went to my 6th grade classes at the Nikolai Ostrowski Polytechnic High School in Magdeburg. That evening, the world changed.

I was happy and amazed, like many others, to watch it all unfold on TV. Happy, because the fall of the Wall meant that we could now see family members again who had “crossed over” via different routes over the years. Amazed, because the consequences of the events were intangible.

Thirty years on, I can say that hardly anything of what I have experienced since then would have been conceivable if the events of November 9, 1989, hadn’t taken place: my years abroad in the USA and France, my free choice of studies and profession, and the friendship and collaboration with so many people from all over Germany, Europe, and the world.

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