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How The Hoff Saved the Berlin Wall

Over two decades ago one of the most monumen-tal events of the last 100 years took place. After nearly 40 years of segregation throughout the Ger-man capital. The wall that kept east and west apart costing what is thought to be 600 lives from 5000 attempts to escape the repression of the old USSR came crashing down.

All that’s left are a few remnants of this modern wonder dotted around the city, the longest of which is a 1.3 km section which can be found along the north bank of the river Spree. This piece of modern history at the heart of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg has stood there as a beacon of freedom of expression and a reminder of the 40 year strug-gle between the world’s two great super powers. This historic monument is now under threat from

human need to consume and build, even though in a city already full of towering high rise flats their still seems to be a need for luxury apartments to line the river Spree.

There have been a number of protests over the last few months to protect the East Side Gallery, which shows how truly important this is to the city. Recently David Hasslehoff has shown a great inter-est in the subject due his self-proclaimed “integral” part in uniting East and West Berlin, with his 1989 single “Looking for Freedom” which spent 8 weeks at the top of the German single charts, 6 months

before the eventual fall of the wall.

In fact the man himself, yes “The Hoff” travelled to Berlin. For a protest march scheduled for the 17th of March and to appear as a special guest, in an attempt to emulate his “integral” part in the events of November 1989.

With all the press this has been given, I wanted to be there and see how the people of Ber-lin truly feel about the proposed demolition and The Hoff. So I set off to find out for myself.

As my plane passed through the clouds, descending into a snow covered Berlin, as I walked down the stairs into the crisp march air and board-ed the bus to take me to the terminal. I was already

buzzing with excitement at the prospect of attending a protest one of the most monumental events of the last century took place. I overheard a couple of Irish guys discussing the possible effect on the Ber-lin the loss of even a small section of the wall, their heated exchange was a shape of things to come, as the opinions of people I met during my trip were as divided.

As I left the airport waiting for a my bus I just watched the world go by, as people all around me walked by in deep conversation, there was defiantly a sense that this is a city with a million opinions and every one of which was right.

So as I took the bus right into the heart of Berlin, I pondered how this city would have looked 15 years ago, at a time when a 96 mile stretch of wall split the city in two and more symbolically divided a world? I myself have always had romanticised view of Berlin in the 70’s and 80’s having read many articles about the punk movement in Kreuzberg, which gave host to the likes of David Bowie and Iggy Pop, never giving much thought to what it would have been like to live through years of tension or how life in East Berlin truly was. However after watching Wolfgang Becker’s 2003 film “Goodbye Lenin” my fascination with the east grew, because of this I am truly excited to speak to real Berliners about the wall and what it means to them.

Upon arriving at my hostel in the centre of Kreuzberg, I was greeted by its owner; a tall thin guy of a similar age to me, sporting a vintage Adidas sweatshirt reminiscent of one I had as a child in early 90’s. He introduced himself as Enrico. After dealing with the business of checking in, we chatted for a while about Berlin and how it is viewed by the world. He had lived there all his life but like myself was too young to remember the fall of the wall. However, he said that with all the stories he had been told by his father about living in East Berlin, the wall is a true symbol in his eyes of the endurance of the German people and how in 1989 they saw the fruits of the their labours. I went on to explain the reason for my visit to Berlin and how as well as attending the protest the following day, I was hoping to explore Berlin and find out what the current generation of Berliners really feel about the proposed de-molition of the East Side Gallery. With this Enrico explained how he himself views East Side Gallery as a monument to how much not only Berlin or Germany has evolved but how much the entire world has since tension of the Cold War. He went on to say that many of his friends don’t share this view and see it as something that still to this day divides a city. I asked for some recommendations of exciting social spots throughout the city I could explore and meet people. He then got a map out and excitingly begun to mark destinations on it. He explained what wonders the city had to offer, and how most Berliners would not hesitate to give their opinions on the imminent events at the East Side Gallery and the his-tory of Berlin in general.

With that I thanked Enrico for all his help and headed out to explore the city and hopefully meet some interesting people, which I did, all with very different views.

The People I Met.........Along the idyllic river bank of the River Spree flowing through Berlin sit a number of abandoned buildings, which have been occupied for many years since the unification of Berlin by groups of people wanting to live in a place where they can express themselves how they see fit. I was lucky enough to stumble upon one and got a resident to reluctantly give me his opinion on the plans to de-molish and redevelop the area. In such a closed committee cameras are not allowed, I simply sat with a bottle of Berliner Kindle in hand while 27 year old native Berliner Marco explained how he grew up in the eastern part of Berlin but was too young when the wall fell to really appreciate what a victory for freedom it was, but in his own words “even though I can’t remember the event I have lived through the evolution of the city and the explosion of creativity that was ignited by the fall of the wall”. As I sat there and drinking listening to Marco talk about all he’d seen growing up during this exciting era of change, the question I had on my mind was; as a native Berliner how did he feel about the proposed move to demolish part of the east side gallery. The response I got was that of anger, anger that I even had to ask. Marco ex-plained in his opinion the East Side Gallery in his words is “a modern wonder of the world” a con-stant reminder that without sacrifice Berlin would not be the cultural and liberal paradise that it has become today!

Marco

During a visit to a local wine bar, Weinerei I had the great pleasure of meeting a Bulgarian writer and mu-sician named Viz, who had lived in Berlin for nearly 20 years. After bonding over a number of glasses of red wine the subject turned to what had attracted him to Berlin in the first place. It was the explosion of culture that the collapse of the wall brought about in 1989, he went on to explain when he first arrived he was like many other creative immigrants just looking to flex his intellectual muscles in the most happening European city of the early 1990’s. The subject of the proposed demolition of the East Side Gallery was soon brought up, amusingly because of The Hoff’s imminent visit. As a creative individual, Viz explained that the wall to him is personal symbol of the move-ment which brought him north 2 decades previous and something he will always remember. Interest-ingly as we discussed the protest march to save the wall scheduled for the next day Viz made a good point which I hadn’t heard yet, a number his friends had expressed that the remnants of the wall are as much a reminder of segregation as they are of freedom, its demolition could be welcomed by some Berliners.

Viz

After speaking to Viz the previous night, I thought about how he had referenced that many Ger-mans who live through the years of tension may feel differently. That night I was lucky enough to be sat at the bar in an Irish pub in the centre of Kruezberg having the mandatory St Patricks day pint of Guinness when I got talking to fellow bar patron, Michael a 45 year old Civil Engineer living in Berlin. Originally from Cologne but was brought to the then West Berlin in 1985 for work. As we ordered our second pints of the evening we chat-ted about how bitterly cold it was at the moment and how this had made working in construction over the last week very difficult for Michael. In a strange turn of events, said construction site that he worked was situated next O2 world which was a stone’s throw from where I had marched with hundreds of others a mere 4 hours earlier. When I broached the subject of the protest Michael cut me off saying that “some people just don’t realise that the east side gallery, is simply a constant remember of the pain Germany felt for nearly 40 years”. It seemed I had found someone who was actually for the demolition. He went on to explain how in the early 90 he met a lot of East Berlin-ers, who he described as just wanting to part of a unified nation. Which over the past two decades Germany has become and in his mind this 1.3 km wall is the last thing dividing a nation and serving as constant reminder of such a painful time for millions of Germans. But it should be preserved in a museum as the peace of world history it is, not left stood in the exact place it divided a nation.

Michael

I had literally just reached the end of the East Side Gallery and the end of the protest march when a guy around my age approached me asking about my Brooklyn Brewery hat since he hailed from Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York and wanted a photograph to show people back home. He went on to introduce himself as Adam a 27 year old who had moved to Berlin simply because he wanted an ad-venture. He explained that he had the protest march partly for the comedy value of seeing The Hoff but mainly because he agreed with the idea such an im-portant piece of world history should be preserved. Being the same age I could relate to his stance that we were only around 4 so can’t really remem-ber the fall of the wall but know what a major world event it was and being able to come and see it and touch it 20 years later makes it somehow more real. This was probably the briefest encounter I had with someone expressing their views on the situation, but was the one I could relate to because similar rea-sons had brought us to the march that day.

Adam

So it was the morning of the protest march and there was a distinct chill in the air as I left the hostel. So I went to grab a coffee at a local coffee shop in Kreuzberg, among the patrons seated through-out were a hand full of Germans holding banners in tribute to The Hoff, my personal favourite be one which simply read #HOFFTASTIC. Amongst these banners was one guy holding close a 12 inch single of David Hasslehoffs classic tune “Looking for Freedom”. I ordered my coffee and waited patiently for my brew to be delivered. As I stood there waiting the guy who proudly held his copy of looking for freedom came to order, he came and stood next to me and asked me the question “You English?” to which replied simply “Yes”. Well the excitement on his face was incredible, he introduced himself as Oliver and asked if I was here for, as he called it “the David Hasslehoff Parade”. I explained that yes I was here for the protest at the East Side Gallery and that I wanted to get the views of real Germans on its destruction. Oliver described how he had travelled from Hamburg just to see The Hoff and really didn’t care if the wall stayed or not. With that our coffees arrived and Oliver re-joined his merry band of Hasslehoff enthusiasts and I took a stool by the window to enjoy my coffee. I sat and watched droves of people passing by, heading across the Oberbaum Bridge towards the East Side Gallery. As drank my coffee, I began to dwell on Oliver’s reaction to my question about the imminent demolition and whether David Hasslehoff had cheapened the march with his presence by enticing people from far and wide to see him, not the intended subject of this march the wall itself.

Enter The Hoff

I left the coffee shop and joined the crowd crossing the River Spree to where the East Side Gallery stood in all its glory. When I finally reached my destination it was just over an hour until the march was set to begin and there didn’t seem to be as many people along the wall as I’d expected after how many people passed me earlier. Since I had some time to kill, I explored new developments of the surround-ing area to try and understand what was so special that a historic monument needs to be destroyed to accommodate them. I first wandered around O2 World which just seemed to be a standard cathe-dral to consumerism, that can be seen the world over in pretty much every major city. Following this I turned my attention to the apartment blocks that had sprouted up all around like generic filing cabinets across the Berlin skyline. Even after looking at all the new development I couldn’t understand how it was considered more important than preserving a piece of history when buildings like these can be seen anywhere in the world. With a heavy heart I looked upon the many cranes that had been erected in the surrounding area, realising that if left unchecked the demolition here on banks of Spree could be just the beginning of a movement that could sap the character out of Berlin. With this I mind I headed out to find where everyone I had seen cross the Oberbaum Bridge were hiding pre-march.

I headed further down the gallery taking in all the magnificent works of art that covering this one time monolith of fear and oppression, which made me realise even more how this needs to be saved. As I reached the end of the wall there was a rela-tively small gathering of protesters in comparison to the amount I had seen heading to this way, but as I turned the corner into Yaam Bar I found my lost protesters. The bar looked like it had been plucked straight from Venice Beach in California, with a skate park and volley ball nets in one cor-ner, a trailer you’d expect to see in the deep south of America , as well as a border guard house that had been converted in to bar and steel drums on fire placed throughout. I grabbed a beer and waited in anticipation for it all to begin. As I waited a crowd had gathered around the guard house bar in the corner and suddenly he appeared, The Hoff! The whole place exploded with adrenaline and as he was escorted out the back exit everyone rushed out on to the street ready for it all to begin.

Out on Mühlenstraße there must have been well over a thousand people stood waiting for it all to begin. In the centre of the road was a small yellow van with a sound system on it which everyone seemed drawn towards, so I moved closer and as I did the air of excitement intensified. Then suddenly the crowd parted and a leather clad figure emerged to a chorus of cheers. It was him, it was The Hoff, the reason it seemed a lot of this crowd were here. With the cries of “We love you David” he clambered into the van and began to address the crowd. He offered his support to the protest to save this piece of history and to remember all the people who gave their lives, which was a very touching sentiment and then he went on to perform a rendition of his hit song “Looking for Freedom”. I was surrounded by many people singing along but for a lot of people it seemed like a comedy as he began screaming “Save the World”, regrettably I feel this took some credibility away from the protest as at one point I did feel like I was at as Oliver had described earlier as a “David Hasslehoff Parade”.

It seemed however as quickly as The Hoff had joined the march he had left it. I truly felt like it was just a publicity appearance for him to try and reju-venate his career. But with him gone, the protest truly got moving as we all walked down the centre of the road following the yellow van which now had a man giving an informative speech about the im-portance of the wall to not just Berlin but Germany. People were walking along the top of the wall much to the annoyance of the police who were watching everyone with a keen eye. It had many similari-ties to some of the “Occupy” protests I had seen in England with one protester who was wearing a horse mask stood on top of a parked car making his feelings clear. As the march reached the end of the wall many of the crowd dispersed, having done their part to save the wall or in some cases having seen their idol.

I sat on the u-bahn back to my hostel and I thought, would they pull the Big Ben down to build a new set of high rise flats? No, because it is monument that represents a nations past. Then why is the East Side Gallery any different? With all the support that this movement had, I couldn’t see how the officials couldn’t listen.

Sadly just over a week after this protest, in the middle of the night construction crews with the backing of 250 police set about removing the intended section. It does make me think, does public opinion matter or will we always be looking for freedom?