Someone recently asked me what was my most memorable experience as a photographer.
Hands down it came early in my career some 20 years ago, the fall of the Berlin Wall, with it the border of East and West Germany and eventually the reunification of the two countries into one.
I moved to the West Germany as a nine-year-old to the town of Schweinfurt, which was located some 25 miles from the East German border. During World War II, Schweinfurt was bombed 22 times by the allies because of the nearby factories, which produced ball bearing for Hitler’s war machine. On several occasions my family and I or my Boy Scout troop visited Berlin (East and West), located 110 mile inside of East Germany.
I have always been a history buff, but Berlin was special. It was the seat of power for Germany prior to WWII and after which it was divided into four sectors — the eastern side controlled by the Soviet Union, the West by the U.S., Brits and French.
It was the western sector that was always a bone of contention for the Soviets. In 1948, they blockaded all land, water routes into the city, so the Allies airlifted supplies into Berlin. But it was in the dead of night on August 13, 1961 the world was shocked when workers sealed the border and began erecting fences and barbed wire, then eventually a wall.
In the end, the Berlin Wall was nearly 100 miles long with an average height of 11.8 feet. Over the course of the Wall’s existence, 133 people were confirmed killed trying to cross into West Berlin according to official sources, but 5,000 also escaped.
I knew it’s history and had seen the wall from both sides, so as I sat there watching the news on German television on the 9th of November 1989, I was as shocked as everyone.
East German television read the border opening almost as a mere footnote, announcing at 6:55 pm local time people could travel freely to the west.
By the time that announcement was read, I was 22 had gone to college and returned home where I got a job as a staff photographer at the European Stars and Stripes.
Over the next few weeks I went back and forth to Berlin and into East Germany doing stories for Stripes, including being the first U.S. photojournlist allowed to take photographs on an East German Army base.
Thousands poured through the border crossings in Berlin and elsewhere and they soon climbed on top of the wall that night and over the course of the next few days. And some, like the lady in the photo above, stopped as they crossed into the West to hand a flower to a West German policeman standing at the border.
That was the end. The end of the Wall, the end of the East Bloc. What followed the months was a whirlwind of change – real change and real hope.
Scott A. Miller is a commercial photographer in Central Florida specializing in portraits, editorial, sports and food photography.
Design by
Subscribe to entries
Subscribe to comments
All content © 2010 by Scott A. Miller Photography