BS: The Checkpoint Charlie Reunion Book?

Subject: BS: The Checkpoint Charlie Reunion Book?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 05 Nov 19 - 05:14 PM

It is now 30 years since it came down, and 31 years since I passed "Through What Was" the Berlin Wall and signed a reunion book at Checkpoint Charlie.

"Google is your friend" some say, but I haven't managed to find what happened to this book.

Can anyone enlighten me, please?

Subject: RE: BS: The Checkpoint Charlie Reunion Book?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Nov 19 - 06:03 PM

Not about that but wow- 30 years? This morning's international news was showing amazing footage. US news- not so much, if any.
Still, wow.

Subject: RE: BS: The Checkpoint Charlie Reunion Book?
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Nov 19 - 12:07 PM

Wikipedia has an entire article on Das Mauermuseum, also known as
the Checkpoint Charlie Museum.
Could this reunion book have been located
within said museum? Or elsewhere?

Subject: RE: BS: The Checkpoint Charlie Reunion Book?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 07 Nov 19 - 05:23 PM

Thanks Keberoxu:

I quickly looked through both the wiki article and the website of that museum to no avail, but that is not to say that it isn't among their documents, as you suggest.

Thus, I sent an email to them worded similar to the above request, and added that I hope to visit Berlin again next year or the year after.

I will let you know if and when I get a reply.

Subject: RE: BS: The Checkpoint Charlie Reunion Book?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 09 Nov 19 - 12:48 PM

It seems capitalism very much won the day as the email reply I received only recommended buying 2 books from them:

“IT HAPPENED AT THE WALL” and "THE WALL - It happened at Checkpoint Charlie“.

(No mention of "The Da Vinci Code"!)

Subject: RE: BS: The Checkpoint Charlie Reunion Book?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 09 Nov 19 - 03:11 PM

I'd be fascinated to now a now free citizen of East Germany
MAKES OF THIS
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: The Checkpoint Charlie Reunion Book?
From: michaelr
Date: 09 Nov 19 - 07:25 PM

Today is the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, one of the more momentous occurrences of the post-WWII era. If you had asked me a year previous if such a thing was possible, I would have said, "Not in my lifetime."
The event was hailed as the end of the Cold War and led to the reunification of Germany after more that forty years of partition. But reunification did not heal the schism between Eastern and Western Germans.
Easterners, who had lived under a communist satellite regime since the Soviet Army occupation after WWII, had had guaranteed housing and guaranteed jobs, and were thrown into the deep end of West Germany's capitalist system without much support from Bonn. Many could not adjust to the change, and the former East is still noticeably poorer now - a situation that has led to the rise of nationalist, anti-immigrant political parties and neofascist groups.

Subject: RE: BS: The Checkpoint Charlie Reunion Book?
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Nov 19 - 06:35 AM

Its also an 80th anniversary of the German night of broken glass.

Subject: RE: BS: The Checkpoint Charlie Reunion Book?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 10 Nov 19 - 06:54 AM

"Easterners, who had lived under a communist satellite regime since the Soviet Army occupation after WWII, "
I'm sure they'll thrive under the gentle guidance of Trumnp's America (as long as you ignore the sharp rise in racism - particularly Antisemitism)
people need to remember that "free Russia" is, as well as being the most unequal State in Europe, now the greatest threat to world peace on the planet since WW2
During the existence of the DDR, the US spent fourteen years pouring burning pertol on Vietnamese peasants, bobbing Cambodia, forcing the North Korean people back to living in caves, backing despotic mass murderers like Pinochet, Papa Doc,.... and assasinating any progressive leader who got in the way of "Making America Great" - anything East Germany did was matched by the US a hundred times over
This 'Holier than though attitude doesn't beat up too well to close examination
Jim

Subject: RE: BS: The Checkpoint Charlie Reunion Book?
From: michaelr
Date: 10 Nov 19 - 07:51 PM

What "holier than thou attitude" are you referring to, Jim?

Subject: RE: BS: The Checkpoint Charlie Reunion Book?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 10 Nov 19 - 08:46 PM

I'm talking about the triumphalism about knocking down the wall
"Easterners, who had lived under a communist satellite regime since the Soviet Army occupation after WWII"
I have reservations about what happened in some of the Eastern Bloc Countries but I don't think the poorer of citizens of the West fared much better; the "freeing" of these countries has made the world a far more dangerous place and the greatest leap forward seems to have been made by the gap between haves and have-nots (go check out the Russian figures)
Racism was kept pretty well in check by the old regimes - now it appears to be on speed in teh "Former Communist States"
Woudn't you think there's a lesson to be learned there!!
Jim

Subject: RE: BS: The Checkpoint Charlie Reunion Book?
From: michaelr
Date: 10 Nov 19 - 09:39 PM

Fair point, Jim; I remember thinking at the time that the fall of the Wall and the Soviet Union wouldn't necessarily turn out to be the great leap forward for freedom and global peace that everyone was rhapsodizing about. Here is an interesting article about how Germany has fared since.

By the way, a Berlin-based citizens' group on Saturday tried to deliver a section of the Wall to the White House in Washington but were turned away. The move was conducted as a way of reminding US President Donald Trump a world without walls and a free society was desirable, the group said.
The 2.7-ton slab is an original from the barrier that divided to the two parts of the German capital, Initiative Open Society said. A group representative told news agency dpa that the approach was rejected. The piece of wall is inscribed with a letter to Trump saying that "no wall lasts forever."

Subject: RE: BS: The Checkpoint Charlie Reunion Book?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 11 Nov 19 - 03:08 AM

Michael
I was interested enough as a young man to go and visit these countries (on my 'thumb' sometimes) to see for myself rather than get my information from the media and the politicians - I found a very different situation than the one being painted at home
The most educational trip was when me an d a mate set out for a beer festival, couldn't get lifts and ended up on Prague on the day the Russians opened up the borders after the invasion
We were taken in by a group of students who found us accommodation and fed us for over a week
They took us with them on their trips to the local park where the Russians were billeted and we watched while they argued with the soldiers
We came away with the impression - not of a nation demanding a return to the good old days of Capitalism, but one demanding that the Government clean up their act and live up to the promises of their ideal - a 'Velvet Revolution'
That aim was never achieved and Czechoslovakia reverted to 'freedom'
I always wanted to fo back to the beautiful city of Prague, but was put off when a workmate described his visit when he was in Wenceslas Square and was approached by a young teenager who thrust her hand in his pocket, began fondling him and asked him for money - some freedom !

I went with friends to Yugoslavia and saw a reasonably comfortable, open society wheer hitch-hikers wrer encouraged by the Government who gave bonuses to truck drivers for giving lifts to hitchers
We all know what happened to Yugoslavia when the "yoke of communism" was lifted

I went to Russia - Moscow, Leningrad and Minsk - in Leningrad we were taken to the big central park and shown (with pride) the displays of photographs of the thousands of citizens who were hanged during "The Patriotic War" for opposing the Nazis
In Moscow, we were taken to an extermination camp that had been used to murder many thousands of Jews, trades Unionists, communists and Gypsies - the young fellers who took us there were as angry about what hasd happened as if it had happened last week
Can anyone truthfully say that 'Free Russia' is a better place for being allowed to open a McDonalds in Red Square ?

The Hungary I visited now has a neo-facist government now that it has been 'freed'

Sorry - I think those who talk about these places being 'freed' have some explaining to do
Their 'freedom seems to be based on introducing a class divided, unequal society with the former dreams and ideals removed
Jim

Subject: RE: BS: The Checkpoint Charlie Reunion Book?
From: michaelr
Date: 12 Nov 19 - 07:35 PM

Thousands of Russians hanged (by the Soviet government?) for opposing the Nazis? I've never heard of that, and neither has Google. Can you provide a link?