8 ★ FTWeekend 9 November/10 November 2019W
hat is it like to live
where one of the most
militarised borders in
history once stood? The
Berlin Wall was torn
down 30 years ago this week. Today just
three sections of the original 43km-long
edifice, which for 28 years divided com-
munities and fractured the city, are still
standing. Here, four Berliners whose
homes are right next to what remains
describetheirlivestoday.NorwegerStrasse
Joerg Malchow, 39, is an actor and
speech therapist originally from
Pankow in East Berlin. Since 2018, he
has lived with his wife and daughter
in an apartment on Norweger Strasse
on the former east side. From his
window he can see the rail and road
crossing where the wall was first
breached at Bornholmer Bridge.“Do I rememberNovember 9 1989?
I really do. My parents worked for the
East German embassy in Belgrade. We
watched the wall coming down on TV,
and my parents were sitting in the living
room, saying ‘The Wall is coming down.
Thisisanearthquake!’
“I was in fourth grade in school, and
there were sometimes earthquakes, so
we were trained to run and stand inside
door frames for protection. I got up and
stood in the doorway. Only afterwards I
realiseditwasapoliticalearthquake.
“Here on the third floor, from my bal-
cony you see the Bornholmer Bridge,
where the wall first opened up. Before
1989 some of the apartments on the
lower floors had their windows coveredwith bricks, so you could not even look
atthewest.
“There are things I miss about the old
DDR. When I was a kid, everyone in the
apartment block knew each other. We
had partiesin the yard. Once reunifica-
tion came, thisstopped. Everyone just
cared for themselves. Slowly, that’s
starting to change again. In the DDR
people didn’t have that much; there
were notmany ways to withdraw from
social interaction — we only had two TV
channels. So it was either watch those ro
talktoyourneighbours.
“We were better at repairing things
and making do, because there were no
new things. That is coming back,
because we need to start reusing and
recycling.JustlikeinEastGermany.
“Every time I look out of the window,
I am so happy that it has gone. When
I look out and see where there was a
wall, now there are trains connecting
these two parts of the city, and that
is a real accomplishment. It was a
friendly revolution and I feel blessed to
havebeenawitness.”BernauerStrasse
Helle Schroeder, 52, is an architect.
Originally from Schleswig-Holstein
in West Germany, since 2012 she has
livedon Bernauer Strasse near the
wall memorial in a house she
designed on the former site of No
Man’s Land, with a viewof the
Chapel of Reconciliation.“IwasonadateonNovember91989.We
heard on the radio that something was
going on and we decided to go and
check, so we went to BornholmerStrasse, and it was really open. And so
we went over. From west to east —we
went against the traffic because most of
thepeoplewerecomingtheotherway.It
was my first time in East Berlin without
mypassport.
“My house, which I designed with my
then husband, is part of a terrace of 16
houses. My view every day is directly on
to the former death strip. The man who
originally owned the land wanted to
make it possible for families to stay in
the city [by selling to developers build-
ing family homes, rather than luxury
apartments]. Planning rules meant
showing sensitivity. We couldn’t use
wood and some other materials, and no
balconieswereallowedlookingoutonto
the site. The architecture is playful but
strict, all dark colours. The authorities
were not that forward-thinking in the
early days. They wanted to build houses(Above) Helle Schroeder with her
children, Dan (17) and Liva (19);
(right) Schroeder’s houseThe Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse —Photographs by Robert Rieger for the FTGetting over
the wall
CitiesThe Berlin landmark has all but disappeared
yet the memory of it still looms large for residents
along its former footprint, writesMatthew Tempest
House Home
NOVEMBER 9 2019 Section:Weekend Time: 11/20196/ - 17:32 User:elizabeth.robinson Page Name:RES8, Part,Page,Edition:RES, 8, 1