"At the beginning of November 1989, we went on a school trip to Berlin from Dresden. And on 10 November, we were so-to-speak free to do whatever we liked with our morning. Feeling a little bored and with no particular destination in mind, four of us strolled down Unter den Linden. An older man approached us. He asked if we had ever been to the West and said he could take us there. We thought he was a little 'confused'. He claimed that the border had opened during the night. We couldn't believe what he was saying. We had no idea about the fall of the Wall.
The amiable gentleman took us to Friedrichstraße S-Bahn station. It was ten in the morning and it was total mayhem at the station. We quickly got in the queue and followed one another through border control. There, each one of us was on her own with the border guard until he turned the door handle to open the door to the 'West'. That was a very strange moment for me. I thought that they perhaps wouldn't let the others through, or that we wouldn't be allowed back – was it a trap? After all, not even our parents or classmates knew where we were.
When all four of us were through, we took the S-Bahn train and went to Bahnhof Zoo. The name of the station was somehow familiar to us. When we got there, we followed a crowd of people until we eventually reached a trailer where 'welcome money' was being handed out. The queue was really long. We would soon need to get back to meet our group at the arranged time. But the people queuing in front of us let us through. We got our money and a pink-coloured cross stamped on our ID cards.
We quickly took some photos and then got the S-Bahn train back to the East where our totally unsuspecting classmates were waiting. And needless to say, we celebrated in style that evening. It was one of the best days of my life, and one I'll never forget."
Anja Eulitz (Dresden)
