Fallen wall remembered

Tuesday, Nov. 9, 1999 | 11:09 a.m.

On Nov. 10, 1989, Anja Vogel, a 15-year-old East Berliner, awoke to an announcer on a West Berlin radio station talking about "the celebration, the champagne, the people dancing on the wall."

She turned the radio off, got dressed and thought little of it.

When she got to school that day she realized the importance of that announcement she had sleepily dismissed.

The wall that had separated East and West in Germany for nearly 30 years had opened up the night before, reuniting the country.

She and a group of friends later joined thousands who were greeted by West Berliners as they jammed their way through crowded checkpoints.

"At first we didn't know where to go," Vogel said, "then we followed the crowd. I don't think anyone who was in the city at that time did not go."

Although she was ecstatic as she crossed the yellow line marking the East and West border, Vogel said that outwardly she didn't want to appear "too excited."

"I was still skeptical," she said. "I never thought I would be able to cross that border."

Vogel, now 25, not only crossed that border, she used her newfound freedom to cross the ocean. She lives in Las Vegas and is working toward a master's degree at UNLV in cultural anthropology and sociolinguistics.

She moved here after meeting Las Vegan Bo Bernhard, who was in Berlin working for Major League Baseball International in 1996. They began dating, and she followed him to Nevada.

Before the reunification Vogel never imagined she would live in Las Vegas or anywhere outside East Berlin. Before the wall's fall she had planned to become a teacher or tradesperson like her father so she could travel.

As the world celebrates the 10-year anniversary today of the wall coming down, Vogel will lecture to one of her classes at UNLV on the changes that have occurred.

Her lecture will focus on the social divisions between those from East and West Berlin, mainly the linguistic differences.

In Berlin, people from the East are still being judged by their dialect, Vogel said. "They are being perceived by Westerners as lower class and less educated."

"It has a negative connotation in the West," she added. "If you go to a job interview and speak a Berlin dialect most likely you're not going to get the job. "Therefore many people unconsciously and consciously adjust their dialect in formal situations."

So conscious was Vogel of appearing "lower class" to the West Berliners as she crossed the border that she kept her zeal to herself.

To be seen experiencing freedom for the first time seemed demeaning. Especially for Vogel, who said she never really felt a lack of freedom.

"I personally never felt encaged or entrapped because I saw that my dad was able to travel and because I was only 15 and didn't have the longing yet to go out there."

Before the wall came down people were applying in masses to leave the country officially, she said. "I saw several of my friends leave. I, at that point, didn't know why they would want that.

"I knew the reasons, but I really liked my country."

Her brother, who was seven years older, had a much stronger opinion, she said. He fled East Berlin just before the reunification and watched the wall crumble from the West side.

Once across the border Vogel said she noticed little difference from East Berlin until she spotted graffiti on a bus stop saying "Turks out."

Being raised in an ideology in which everyone was equal, she found it shocking to see such an expression, she said.

"But when I really noticed I was in the West was when I went into a shopping center.

"All the glitter, all the colors -- it was very impressive," she said. "Materialism, consumerism, we didn't have that.

"We had everything (in East Berlin), but it was very plain."

Then as she got in the heart of West Berlin she saw the other side of the coin: people begging in the streets and homeless people. "We didn't have that in East Berlin."

Since the wall has come down Vogel has traveled all over Europe, to South Africa, Ecuador, Mexico and studied for one year at the University of Toronto in Canada.

"Quite a few people in my age group took their chances and went abroad," she said.

But while she and others in her generation saw the reunification as an opportunity, others who were older saw it as a disadvantage.

"I think it really depends on your generation," she said. "The older you get the more you value security."

"People (in East Berlin) weren't rich, but they always had a place to live. They were taken care of."

The changes brought by reunification caused East Germans to suddenly give up their values, Vogel said.

"Back then you had more community, more togetherness, more strength. That you don't have anymore. Before you had 'kollektiv,' which meant team. Now it's every person for himself."

"It's difficult to get over these prejudices," she said. "It's going to take awhile. But I will never forget that day."