Eva Mahn Berlin . reunion

I sat in front of the TV like magnetised. I did not go to work when the wall came down, I waited until my daughter came from school and put her in my Trabi and drove with her to Berlin. Near Oberbaumbrücke we parked the car on an overcrowded car park and that means a lot in view of the few cars in the GDR. While we slowly advanced to the check point in queues, the fence at the border crossing was pushed down by the crowd and the avalanche regorged undampedly toward the West.

The reunion with Mira’s father was heart-breaking but the basic trust in our togetherness was marred. I had known that he would go. In order to discuss everything, we had driven onto the free field for fear of being listened in to. But we could not tell our daughter anything, she would have blurted it out. She was deeply hurt that he had not said good-bye to her. We stayed overnight and celebrated with friends, not on the street. When we wanted to drive back our tires were pricked all over. We were not the only ones. A final demonstration of power?