31/05 George H.W. Bush in Germany
deutsch Let Berlin be next “But the passion for freedom cannot be denied forever. The world has waited long enough. The time is right. Let Europe be whole and free.” After a NATO summit two days earlier during which the alliance agreed on a new “comprehensive defense control strategy” US president George Bush visits…
07/05 Voter fraud/Wahlfälschung wird bekannt
deutsch A turning point for the opposition in the GDR 30 Years Later Foreign guest workers vote for the communal elections in the GDR 1989, where later the opposition found out about massive voter fraud. ADN-ZB Thieme 7.5.89 Karl-Marx-Stadt: Wahl- Im Wahllokal Wolgograder Allee in Karl-Marx-Stadt machten vietnamesische, kubanische und mocambiquische Werktätige von ihrem Wahlrecht…
02/05 The iron curtain becomes porous
deutsch Ungarn baut den Grenzzaun zu Österreich ab (Quelle: Kronenzeitung/AP) Hungary opens its border to Austria The iron curtain ran the whole length of Europe north to south, separating the members of the Warszaw Pact from those of the NATO in the West. Beginning in March ’89, Hungary’s government hinted at the possibility they would…
Sightseeing Berlin
Sightseeing und Stadtrundfahrten für alle Gelegenheiten Die Touren von Berlin on Bike sind mehr als reines Sightseeing. Wir glauben daran, dass Geschichte mehr ist als Jahreszahlen und Höhenangaben – und wir glauben daran, dass Stadtführungen unterhaltsam sein können und sollten. Unsere Stadtführer sind sorgfältig ausgebildet und versorgen Euch bei Bedarf mit allen relevanten Daten und…
(not so) New Berlin Street Art
Urban Nation and beyond We run Berlin Street Art bike tours every Friday at 3 pm in English. Deutsche Streetart Touren gibt es jeweils Freitag und Sonntag. We realized there’s still a ton of unpublished street art photos rotting away on our hard-drive, because something’s missing to complete a certain collection. Problem is, it will…
Mein 9. November – My personal Nov. 9th
Deutsch The Day the Berlin Wall fell I always thought, that saying the Wall “fell” sounds a bit like it crumbled and just died of old age, while in truth thousands and thousands risked their careers, their freedom and ultimately their life pushing against it. On Novemer 9th this pushing became quite literally what opened…
26/04/89: Honecker about Hungary/über Ungarn
Text auf deutsch Honecker loosing his grip on reality Erich Honecker (Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R0518-182 / CC-BY-SA) Just days before the border between Austria and Hungary is opened, Erich Honecker, chairman of the Zentralkomitee (Central Committee) of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) is worried about the situation with his neighbours. Using a language that’s equally stinted…
05/04/89 30 Years Later: Runder Tisch/Round Table in Polen
Text auf deutsch A new form of political dialogue At the end of the 1980s, a rather new approach was making its first appearances on the stage of international high-stakes policy-making: the Round Table. The basic idea today seems so simple, yet nobody really understood the terminology: get all stake-holders together and sit them at…
03/04/89 30 Years Later: No more shooting/Aufhebung des Schießbefehls
Text auf deutsch The order that never was The legal processing of the order to shoot at the Berlin Wall, has been a breaking test for the unified society that was just about to emerge. A lot has been left unsaid and buried deep in some archive. Bit by bit proof and details regarding the…
21/03/89 The soviet army shrinks/Truppenreduzierung der Sowjets
A step towards independence A key factor leading to the revolution in 1989 is Michail Gorbatschow’s doctrine, that the “brother states” of the Warzsaw Pact will be responsible for their own destiny. Mikhai Gorbachev (Yuryi Abramochkin,RIA Novosti archive, image #359290) This means that a) the Soviet Union won’t stand in the way of national reforms,…
Munich sightseeing Bike Tour
Bike tour in the Germany’s biggest village As a member of the CycleCities network we’re always looking forward to our annual meeting in February. The main thing of course is the exchange with fellow tour operators and making new friends, but of course it’s a great excuse to play the tourist in a different place…
08/03/89 Winfried Freudenberg the last victim/das letzte Opfer
Deutsch Flight and Crash with a DIY balloon The story of Winfried Freudenberg‘s life, flight and death is a tragic example of East-German ingenuity. Born in 1956 he later studies electrical engineering in Illmenau where he meets his future wife Sabine, a chemist. Even though thoroughly rooted in their community they had difficulties accepting, that…
