Postwall history. Washington journal is next. East berlin tonight, tens of thousands of people crossing into west tens of thousands of crossing into west portland, pouring into the berlin wall, not waiting for official visits or even daybreak, they are still coming. Those are the words and images that nbc knee used to open its report on november 9th, 1989. 30 years later we have remembering that they, live from the museums berlin wall calgary, just on pennsylvania avenue, u. S. Capital here in washington d. C. , its our home for the next three hours on the washington journal on c span, and an American History on cspan 3. As we talk about the history of the wall, were talking about your own memories. Let us know what the fall of the berlin wall meant to you. Four lines are spent relate this morning. If you live in the eastern or central time zones, the phone number to call 2027488000 if you live in a specific timelines, then call 2027488001. If you are in germany, please call 2027488002. On twitter, its at cnn history and on facebook its facebook. Com slash cspan. A very good saturday morning to you, can start calling in now as we welcome you to the berlin wall gallery here at the museum. Our set on washington journal today, just steps away from eight concrete blocks, the largest unaltered portions of the berlin wall outside of germany. One small part of a network of barriers at one separated west of berlin from east of violent, and communist west berlin. It wraparound for 96, miles including said 27 miles to the heart of the sitting. By 1980, nine the wall consisted of 45,000 concrete blocks, 259 pathways, and 30 bunkers. During the wall, at least hundred 40 people were killed trying to escape the communist bloc for the freedoms of the west. And now, the berlin wall has been gone for longer than it stood, but we are asking you to join in this morning to give us your thoughts and memories of that day and what you watched that day 30 years ago, 1989. Lets start with todd from brentwood, california. Good morning to you. Your memories from that day . I remember it well. It was a great day. I remember reagan, the anticommunist warrior champion, mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall i hope a oc and the rest of the squad is watching this, Bernie Sanders socialism was such a devastating failure. Cuba, venezuela, china, russia even the scandinavians are running away from it tremendously. We have such a generational divide here in america concerning socialism. They seem to be predisposed in favor of it. They do not know mao or stalin. Socialism is a lucre. On an anniversary like this, is this a day that can bridge the generational divide that you are worried about . If they are watching, but they are not. Socialism is such a loser worldwide and i forgot what i was going to say because you interrupted me. I appreciate the call this morning, todd from brentwood, california. Brent out of houston, texas. Good morning. Good morning. Yeah, germany, world war ii and the sherman tate, we won world war ii basically because we had the system of the expressed our tanks and we had better tanks men. The germans today, they invest. They treat their schools as repositories and they invest in their people. In america, we dropped the ball. We do not invest and use our institutions, especially our high schools, elementary schools, and even prek as repositories. Repositories are institutions of knowledge. We do not have welltrained teachers who have National Full certification. Germany has done that. Germany invests in their people, in their institutions, they produced some of the best instruments and machinery in the world, and this is a country that people demonize so much. Yet they came together. The east germans have always been accused of steroids and performance enhancement drugs at the time, the east germans were always some of the best athletes but they were for that. Today, we deal with the same issue of performance enhancement drugs and testing. We have to look at germany as a world prayer. And they have a female world leader. They are very progressive, people who use the word socialist and all of these other stigmatizing phrases to neutralize peoples innovation, but america, we are not just about classical education, we do not just need to know about plato and socrates, but we need to know about the innovators of the world, the albert einsteins and educators who taught people to think. Got your point, don in houston. You started talking about going back to world war ii and the history there. We want to take viewers back to postworld war ii europe, this film from the nato Information Services back in 1962 talked about how germany and specifically berlin were divided after world war ii. Heres that clip. Until such time germany could reshape her own destiny, she would be divided into separate sounds of occupation, each controlled by an allied power american, british, french, russian. Economically, she would be treated as a whole. This the victors had agreed when they met to decide the future of germany. Even then, some had reservations about mutual trust. With a world war just over, they had to trust one another, or else begin another war. For berlin, it was to be each power with its sector, but the city would be open to all the powers until germany once again berlin once again resumed its role as head of the german state. Access to the city for other powers was agreed on through roads, railways, and corridors. Makeshift, perhaps, but it was never meant to be permanent. In berlin, they set up a headquarters where, day by day, officers of the four Occupying Powers would administer berlin by cooperation, joint agreement as to what was to be done and how. And frankly, what was to be done in starting again from scratch. The birthplace of the berlin wall, august 12, 1961. It stood for over 28 years. Today it has been gone longer than it stood. We are talking about the 30th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall. Getting your thoughts and memories of that day, november 9, 19 89, and your thoughts about the legacy of the wall. This is rich out of hickory hills, illinois. Good morning. Good morning. I remember with the berlin wall, there was always a very dramatic scene of people escaping and the east berlin, the east German Police shooting, killing them. It was designed to keep the people from escaping and from the ideas getting into change the country. That whole kind of lifestyle that existed over there at that time, you know, thats the way it was projected to the rest of the world. Every time there was somebody escaped out of east germany, there was the stories of horrific conditions that they endured, you know, and it was a different kind of mentality and how to change that, you know, mentality to take down the wall, Ronald Reagan, you know, telling them to take down the wall and the political ideas and Lifestyle Changes that were the issues at the time, unlike the issues of our time here. These issues are significantly different for the cause and effect of our wall and what it is supposed to do, what are we trying to accomplish . Those ideas have to be looked at, what works and what doesnt work, do you know what i mean . Host rich, we appreciate the call from illinois this morning. The president visiting the wall, the escape attempts from east berlin to west berlin, topics we will be talking about over the course of the next three hours on washington journal on cspan, on American History tv on cspan3. We are live from the berlin wall gallery, just down the road from capitol hill, where our studio usually is. Most importantly, we want to hear from you, your memories of that day, november 9, 19 89, and what you think the legacy of the wall has been over the past 30 years. This is carl over providence, rhode island. Good morning. Yeah, hi. Im a germanamerican and at that time, i was 38 years old. I remember it vividly, actually. Credit has to be given primarily to Ronald Reagan and the reagan, because his administration, starting in 1981, if i remember correctly, was the only administration that went on the offensive against the soviet union, moving up their Missile Forces there and western europe there in western europe, germany with the pershing one, pershing ttwo, and ballistic missiles. They were nuts, because the pershings could have hit moscow in five minutes. You talked about over their postworld war ii. I am going to give you real history and fake history. Fake history is when they were brave men, they said dday was the turning point in world war ii. Baloney. The turning point in world war ii was the battles of kursk and the battles of stalingrad. Those battles were larger than the entire western front of world war ii. The russians lost over 20 Million People and the germans, my people, lost about five to 6 Million People 5 million to 6 Million People. The loss was the largest in the history of military warfare. That is fake history. You see these people going on tv, talking about dday, dday, dday, in particular, is very nice lady, martha maccallum, reading all the text. I am quite sure she did not know anything about military history. I could be wrong, but i know you know, i have seen you on tv. And we have talked before, you called and made that point before as well. I appreciate you calling in this morning on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall. Carl calling in on that line we set aside for germanamericans this morning. It is 202 7488002, is that number. Phone lines are split regionally. 202 7488000 if you live in the eastern or central time zones. 202 7488001 if you live in the mountain or pacific time zones. Hope you joins you join us throughout the morning, until 10 00 a. M. Eastern we will be talking about the 30th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall. Chuck from west babylon, new york. Do you remember where you were when you heard about the fall of the wall . Well, i was actually watching it on tv at the time, but two years prior i had taken a trip to germany and berlin and had visited east and west, and it was such a stark difference between the two sides. It was very depressing going into the ddr and watching how they had to live over there under that rule. I was forced to change my money to ddr money, which was not exchangeable back to the currency, so you can see how they were struggling to survive back then, just because they were pulling in any kind of tourism they could, forcing them to change the money, and it was such a solemn, sad place to be at the time, 1988, compared to west berlin, which was such a bustling, hustling, beautiful city with all of these cultures and artwork and freedom going on. Watching it come down a few years later, i have pictures of myself reaching up to the top of the wall, which i never expected to years later for that wall to come down. It was very emotional for me because actually after being there, seeing the differences in the way of life, it was really wonderful to see it actually come down and for there to be freedom once again. For berlin to be connected. Talk about reaching up to the top of the wall. Why you wanted to do that when you did that. There is so much history of people wanting to touch the wall and be at the wall, both when it was up and to have pieces of it when it came down. Why did you want to do that when the wall was still up . It was just very an comprehensible, how something could just divide a nation in half, and to look up to it and try to reach up to it and say wow, this is incredible. This is crazy. Then you see the memorials of people and crosses, people who were shot because they tried to get out, and they have landmines there, and it is mind blowing because it is nothing like you see in america. Chuck, thank you. Walter out of penrose, colorado. Chuck said he watched the fall of the berlin wall live. We have a poll on our twitter page at cspanwj and our American History twitter page. 65 of our respondents said they have watched it live, 9 heard about it by reading the newspaper or the radio the next day. 22 learned about it after the fact. You can join in at cspanwj, call us this morning, plenty of ways to join us the conversation. You can also send us a text, it is 202 7488003. We will look for those texts as well as we hear from walter in colorado. Good morning. Yes, born and raised in germany, a german mother, my father was an american g. I. I grew up over there, saw the fall of the wall on tv, of course, living in america now i want to reiterate, of course, that the soviets did take that wall down not because they wanted to and released the Eastern Europe and eastern germans, but because they had to. For us not to forget that it was Ronald Reagan that actually pushed the issue, to have all that stuff disbanded. We still dont give enough credit you see on the tv, there are the tanks pointing weapons that one another so i wanted to reiterate that. We will show you more from president reagans famous speech at the wall a little later this morning in the washington journal. We want to keep hearing from you, your memories from that day how you learned about it. It was a bit out of norfolk, virginia. Good morning. Elizabeth out of norfolk, virginia. Good morning. Elizabeth, are you with us this morning . We will try elizabeth one more time. Go ahead. Can you hear me . Yes, go ahead. I am thinking about how many people died in the cold war and how in the grand scheme of history, that wall was up for such a short period of time, but how much misery it caused and how many people died because of it, and i just member feeling very sad, sad for all the pointless deaths and misery that that thing inflicted. Is there one that you are member you watch the history of the wall . Plenty of news reports and attempts to have the media there when some of these escapes happened. Is there one in particular you remember . I agree with the gentleman a couple callers back, saying the people who are getting shot when they tried to escape i was thinking about those people and thinking, i guess they didnt die for nothing, but man. If they had only waited, you know . Maybe in the natural course of things it would have ended for them, but when you are that desperate, you do not wait. 30 years ago, the beginning of the followed the wall. Your member where you were that day . Absolutely. I was sitting on my couch in san diego, california, waiting for the birth of my second son and watching cnn. I used to get really emotional at the news back then and i was crying. It was a momentous occasion and i felt so bad for all those lives who had been lost. Elizabeth, thank you for the call this morning, from norfolk, virginia. Our caller from flushing, new york. Good morning. I was in berlin in 1987, so i had a chance to see the wall and the crossings from the westside to east, and one thing we are missing from this discussion is people are praising Ronald Reagan. Without gorbachev, this would not have happened. Of course, reagan said bring down the wall, but we should not ignore the other side who was extending his hand, gorbachev. He agreed with him. Without that, that would have never have happened. The same historical incident we might have applied here, but there are no leaders on both sides who said ok, if china will agree now to be united, that is what we have to think. What is happening in berlin 30 years ago is not happening right now. It should be leaders, it should be compromising. That is what we learned from reagan and gorbachev. I want to give credit to gorbachev, because without him this never would have happened. Believe it or not. Thanks for the call. Elizabeth, two calls back, and some other colors this morning talking about those who died in the escape attempts over the berlin wall. We showed you an excerpt from the nbc news special report that ran on november 9, 1989, that evening as part of the coverage. They put together a compilation of some of the east berlin a attempts. We want to show our viewers that now. For the past 28 years when it was not possible to prosper just or skate cross bridges or scale that wall, people try to escape any way they could. Their attempts were a testament to their bravery, ingenuity, and desperation. At first it was literally a tugofwar between the long arm of the oppressor and the desire for freedom. This woman made it. Many more did not. Almost 200 east germans have died trying to cross the wall, or the long border between east and west germany. For each person fleeing, there was that moment of terror when he or she was a target or the Border Guards. But still, they came. Sometimes well laid plans worked, the escape was successful. But we should not forget those who tried and failed. That from the nbc special report that aired today, the 11 30 broadcast that evening, eastern time. This morning on the washington journal, we are live in the newseums berlin wall gallery, taking your calls and getting your memories of 30 years ago. We divided the lines regionally, 202 7488000 for eastern or central time zones. 202 7488001 if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones. 202 7488002 for the special line we have set aside for germanamericans on this day, and tim is in california, and has been waiting period good morning. Waiting. Good morning. Good morning. I consider the fall of the berlin wall the greatest single world events during my lifetime. I was five years old when the berlin wall went up, and i remember even at that very early age, it made a very profound impression on me, and i think that is why i developed such an intense hatred of communism. I thought, what kind of people would do this . And i really feel like jfk should have called the russians on the hotline and told them, you terror that wall down or we will send our tanks and to tear it down send our tanks in to tear it down. Later on in life i became very active in conservative politics and a large part of the reason was my intense hatred for communism, and also i mean, i think i learned about the fall of the wall on television and i was just thrilled to death. I was probably jumping up and down in my living room i was so happy. I am at least partially of german ancestry, so for me, that holds a particular resonancet importance for me. My ancestors came over, came to the United States a very long time ago and i believe they came from what later became western germany, but it still meant a tremendous deal to me. I was so appalled by what was done and so thrilled to death, i think i was so happy i was jumping up and down in the living room of my house. I am going to be 64 only from now, and i consider that the greatest event, world event during my lifetime, the fall of the berlin wall. Jim, happy early birthday to you, thank you for your call this morn