Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and end of the Iron Curtain, Germans celebrate. Travelers may explore old lives, chills, and fears 

Berlin, Germany

Nearly 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, I was back in the city again, timed to see what had changed since I watched a defining moment in the end of the Cold War, as a newspaper reporter on assignment for The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, Ohio. 

On Nov. 9, 1989,  joyous East Germans and West Germans poured over and through the hated wall in a dance of freedom that had been denied them for more than 40 years, during Soviet domination of East Germany. 

East Germans who had been trapped inside the Soviet bloc crossed the border like water through a dam that had sprung a leak — first a trickle, then a torrent of people. They  climbed over the cement wall and through holes they chipped from the concrete.

For my 2009 memory trip, I drove the perfect car for the occasion, a little two-cylinder 1988 Trabant 601, which was ubiquitous throughout East Germany during Soviet days.

The Trabi was a symbol of decrepit East Germany.

The car's hood, roof and fenders were made of cotton, cardboard and glue, powered with an engine like a lawnmower's. The car now is quite an attraction.

As I putt-putted through Berlin on a guided Trabi Safari,  other tourists grabbed their cameras for a souvenir picture of my pathetic little auto. 

On some of the Berlin streets of my guided tour, I was behind old enemy lines.

In 1989, I could have been shot by East German guards.

Today, the Trabi tour is a fun way to experience Berlin, seeing highlights of the modern city and lowlights of the days when Berlin was in turmoil.

Understanding the bad old days

Once upon a time, the world suffered a Cold War, a post-World War II standoff between the Soviet Union and countries of the West. After World War II, the Soviets occupied most of the European countries east of central Germany, and they built an armed border from the Baltic Sea south. 

Ostensibly, the barbed fences and cement walls built by the Soviets were for protection against armies of the West, but mostly they were used to trap their own citizens who wanted to escape from the East. 

This militarized Iron Curtain, as it was called,  ran through the middle of Germany, a total of 865 miles. 

For decades, West Germans chose jobs they wanted, talked freely on the telephone, exchanged private thoughts in letters. East Germans worked where they were told. Their  telephones were tapped, their letters steamed open by secret police. On one side of the border, Germans might worship; on the other, churches exploded. On one side, little girls played with Barbie dolls; on the other, no capitalist Barbies.   

Celebrating the new days

You can imagine the emotions in Berlin and across the unified country as Germans enjoy a year-long celebration of the two decades since the Berlin Wall was opened, and of the pivotal events that led to a reunification of Germany in 1990.

For travelers, 2009 and 2010 present a unique opportunity to join in Germany's festivities, to dabble in history, talk to folks who lived it, see where and how they lived before and after the borders opened. 

Celebrations  are throughout the country, leading  to a big party on Nov. 9.

Next blog: Poking about what's left of the Berlin Wall

To read the entire series:

Poking about pieces of the old Berlin Wall

Guns, dogs, and fear along the old Iron Curtain

When East met West on peaceful soil in 1989 

Lies and dreams east of the old Iron Curtain

Proof of the dreaded secret police of Leipzig

Revolution in Leipzig with candles and prayers

Information on Planning a trip to Germany