“All Walls Will Eventually Come Down”

{http://soundcloud.com/soundslikerstin/freedom-rocks-fragmented}

Immediately after the Berlin Wall was opened people started chipping away at the formerly intimidating symbol of supression and separation with hammers, chisels - really with any tools they could get their hands on. The Wall fragments have since travelled the world. Two Canadian artists follow the stories of pieces which came from Berlin to North America.

At the Goethe Institut in Los Angeles they recorded some of these stories as told by owners of the fragments for their project Freedom Rocks. Meeting them reminded me of my own Berlin Wall story

My carreer as radio journalist began shorty after the Wall came down in Berlin as intern at the station RIAS - Radio in the American sector. I was sure it would just be the first step into a life of hosting Top Ten Hit programs and fulfilling listeners' music requests. But then I got the chance to report on history: the last meeting of the GDR parliament, the Volkskammer, the first outdoor Rolling Stones concert in East Berlin, Secret Service spys as well as the spouses, friends and colleagues they had spyed on ...!

I knew then: I wanted to become a reporter, ask strangers about their stories and go places most don't, won't or can't go!

While reporting about history in the making it never occured to me to chip away some pieces of the Wall. I guess I thought there would always be time for that. I had my stories and memories as souvenirs.

I did get some fragments though - when I came to Los Angeles in 2003:

Reporting about the Wende Museum, a totally unique museum and archive of the Cold War for research and education I attended one of their events. I had never heard of this treasure trove of artefacts and was surprised to hear how many documents, pieces, films, books etc. were collected in a place so far away from Europe. At the end of this evening all attendees received a little bag with Wall fragments including a certificate of authenticity. (Gift bags were at that time also a completely new and curiuous concept to me, didn't these people do enough inviting everybody to their event?) 

Back to the "Freedom Rocks" project - Recording heartbreaking, funny, hopeful and gripping stories of the Wall, I was reminded of my little bag of fragements I had received more than ten years ago and went home looking for it.

It has disappeared, meaning I can't find it. I just seem to not care that much for keeping fragments of the Wall. Probably it is just one more confirmation of the artists' observations that each fragment has its' own story and our way to memorialize history is different for each one of us and never fixed.

They also found that for some people segments of the Wall symbolize freedom and power of the people, for others victory over Communism. Koreans see it as beacon of hope for reunification of their own country and Mexicans as example of overcoming a border that separates freedom. Big segments seem to be frozen in history with plaques mentioning important dates of the Cold War. "Small fragments are more alive in the sense that people remember stories realted to them" explains Vid Ingelevics - like personal connections and family history. "It is ironic in a sad way," says Blake Fitzpatrick "that we celebrate the importance of destroying walls at the same time and in the same state - California - as we are building new ones."

The most encouraging fact for me is that this once threatening monument has become as the artists say "a mobile ruin" split into millions of pieces. As long as those segments and fragments keep moving their stories will forever change.

[my story for KCRW]

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