Remember remember, the 9th of November

It was the 9th of November 1989 , when Günter Schabowski, member of the central committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, (“SED”) unintentionally set motion to something, that is widely referred to as the reunification of Germany, when he announced at a press conference, that travelling from and to the hermetically sealed state will be possible without any restrictions. “Effective immediately, as far as I know” he stammered, answering a journalists question about the scheduling. Nobody in the room believed what the grey man just said. It seemed, not even Schabowski himself. Flipping his sheet of paper helplessly, reading the text again, mumbling it aloud, just to confirm. But it was too late. It was out there. The population raised massive expectations that day, forcing the Berlin Wall to be teared down by nighttime. The rest of the country followed soon after on october 3rd 1990.

Tomorrow, it is the 25th anniversary of that day. It is not a proper bank holiday like october 3, but the big 25 and the fact that, although many factors have led to this event beforehand, November 9 was key, thanks to the (lack of) improvisational skills of Herr Schabowski, makes it special.

While unification is celebrated in Berlin, a little less than 1.500km to the south, Catalunya and his capital Barcelona are in the midst of what they like to call a referendum to vote for the independence of Catalunya from Spain. "Ara és l'hora" is displayed on banners, t-shirts and hand-outs all over the city - "Now is the time". The only flaw being, that it is not going to be an actual referendum, since the spanish federal government already pulled the plug and declared the referendum as against the constitution and therefore illegal. So the catalans are left with not more than a public opinion poll, which they are still going to perform with all their passion. They chose 11/9 mirroring 9/11, since this is the most important catalan memorial day, the “Diada”. It commemorates the defeat of Catalonia during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714.

The stories of those cities couldn’t be more diverse. Still, as somebody who considers Berlin his home and is living in Barcelona, there is some subtle irony surrounding November 9, combining the strive to separation and the strive to unification. Nevertheless, they do have a major point in common: The struggle for independence.

Günter Schabowski and his 15 Minutes of fame, for everybody mastering the german language

LICHTGRENZE - Illuminated balloons along the trails of the Wall for the 25-year festivities

Post by Fall of the Wall.