35 Jahre Mauerfall: Meike, Bitter orange marmalade

Fever dream

The fever has risen. I finally have to take another tablet. I have restless dreams, sleep, sweat, flail my arms around, toss and turn in bed. Then I wake up again. Thirst torments me, I drag myself slowly into the kitchen and drink my cold, stale tea like a woman dying of thirst. Slowly I feel a little better.

I switch on the television. Another one of the countless political programs and press conferences is on. They are the only thing that has kept me awake in the last few days. This time it's Günter Schabowski, sitting at his table with his glasses half on his nose so that he can still see over them to the international audience of journalists. As always, he comes across to me as arrogant. But I concentrate on his words with interest. It's about the travel regulations that the SED Central Committee has just decided on. He talks about how it is considered untenable that so many GDR citizens are leaving via Hungary or the Czechoslovakia and turning their backs on our country - in huge numbers now.

Yes, even my girlfriend never came back from a vacation in Hungary. It made me sad, but I could understand it. She had relatives near Stuttgart. They immediately offered her a job as a teacher at the elementary school there, and an apartment would be no problem either. For me, as her friend, it meant that I might never see her again.

Press conference

Curious, I tried to follow the content of the press conference. He says: “And that's why we've decided to make a regulation today that makes it possible for every citizen of the GDR to leave the country via GDR border crossing points.”

While I ask myself how and when this is supposed to start, he continues: “Well, comrades, I've been told here that such a regulation has already been distributed today, it should actually already be in your possession; so private trips abroad can be applied for without the existence of prerequisites, reasons for travel and family relationships, the permits are issued at short notice.”

While I continue to wonder when this will come into force, a journalist asks exactly that, as eagerly as everyone in the room. It seems to me that Mr. Schabowski is completely unprepared for this question. “As far as I know ... it comes into force immediately, without delay ... !

Umm. Question marks in my head. No information about how? Do I need a passport, a visa? What about people like me who have no relatives in the West? How am I supposed to pay for a trip to the Alps if I have no relatives there? I can't afford a hotel, I don't have any Deutschmarks. Oh, that's nothing, I think. Somehow disappointed that it's only for people who have someone who can make their stay possible. I turn off the TV, my fever has risen again and I sleep restlessly.

Unbelievable!

The next morning, my apartment doorbell rings. My girlfriend is standing in front of it, beaming, smiling at me, she just looks happy. While she's still taking her shoes off, she asks me: “Meike, guess where I was last night until just now?” I have no idea and ask if she met anyone. She says: “NO! You won't believe it. I was partying with hundreds of people on Kurfürstendamm last night. We drank champagne and hugged complete strangers. It was incredible. I've never seen so many happy and excited people in my life. We really celebrated. UNBELIEVABLE!”

Yes, that is incredible. Stunned, I listen to what she experienced that night before turning on the TV and listening to the reports from East and West Berliners on SFB. I'm delighted and keep thinking: unbelievable!

100 D-Mark welcome money

About a week after this exciting day, I am actually on my way to West Berlin for the first time. My neighbor, who is my attending physician, has put me on sick leave for an extra day and shows me her old home, Berlin-Wilmersdorf. We walk over the Oberbaumbrücke and get on the U1 at Schlesisches Tor. She talks a lot and shows me everything. Everything is simply new to me. We travel through this strange part of the city, it smells different, the people are more colorful, it's more international. I'm really excited and excited.

My neighbor shows me her old school and her neighborhood near Uhlandstraße. And then she says: “And now I'll show you a department store.” A department store? Okaayy?

First we queue at a bank on Tauentzien to collect my 100 Deutschmarks in welcome money. Unbelievable. Then we arrive at the department store she wanted to show me. What does KaDeWe actually mean, I ask. She explains it to me and says that we're going to have a look now. We take the escalators up to the gourmet department. I felt like I was in another world, I saw fruit, fish, cakes, types of bread that I had never seen before. Everything was delicious, appetizing. I was completely overwhelmed by these impressions. I wanted to take something home for myself and decided on a mini jar of bitter orange marmalade. I have no idea why I chose it. But the taste of this jam still reminds me of that day and the fall of the Wall.

When I drive through Berlin today, I sometimes don't remember exactly where the Wall once ran. That's a good thing. I don't want it back.

Read the other personal Wall stories from our community here.