Here are links for 23 October 2009 concerning that very important moment in German History (and world history), the fall of the Berlin Wall. The 20th anniversary of that momentous event is coming up on 09 November 2009.
If you missed them, consider reviewing other recent entries containing links regarding the anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. And don’t forget our special page dedicated wholly to Fall of the Berlin Wall Resources.
And now to today’s links:
- Today, the 23rd of October 2009, is itself an anniversary of some significance. In 1989, the 23rd of October fell on a Monday, which means the special and now famous Monday prayer service was taking place at the Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas’s Church) in Leipzig. As had already become tradition, a peaceful protest followed the prayer services. The Wall Street Journal Online reminds us that over 300,000 took part in those Leipzig demonstrations on 23 October 1989.
- At Guardian.co.uk, Will Buckley remembers the DDR-Oberliga, the top football (soccer) league in communist East Germany. His tagline: “When the Berlin Wall came down 20 years ago this month, it took with it one of the world’s weirder football leagues.” He describes the four types of teams in the league, starting with the first:
The Dynamos: Connected to the secret police. Every club with the Dynamo prefix (eg Berlin, Dresden) was directly answerable to the head of the Stasi, Erich Mielke, who had little difficulty jumping the “fit and proper person” hurdle.
It’s a fine article to remind us how utterly bizarre dictatorships sometimes are.
Today’s video is a bit humorous. It’s a segment from Intrepid Berkeley Explorer’s “Septemberfest” series. Watch those tourists hammer away at The Wall!
That’s it for this week. Come back next week for more links concerning the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Bill Dawson is an American citizen who, having married an Austrian, lives and works in Vienna, Austria. A programmer by trade, he studied history as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley. 
Interesting post. You might also be interested in the blog Stephen Brown and i are running over at Holy Disorder http://holy-disorder.blogspot.com/. I was a theology student in the GDR at the time the wall fell and kept a diary during those extraordinary times. Stephen has spent much of the last 15 years researching the role of the churches in the peaceful revolution. He’s been using the blog to report on some of the 20th anniversary events which began earlier in the year.
Anyway as both of us are very interested in German history I’m sure we’ll be coming back here
Dear Jane,
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. “Holy Disorder” looks very, very interesting indeed. I’m a big fan of reading original material from the actual time, such as your journal entries.
I hope to see you and Stephen Brown stop by more!
Thank you,
Bill