In December, 1988 I sat with my friend Tibor in his parlor in Budapest, fascinated by his account of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. On the train to Vienna a few days later I contemplated Tibor’s warning that Hungarians were at the end of their rope regarding Soviet occupation. Tibor insisted Soviet rule would end soon. He predicted another revolution that would succeed where 1956 had failed. When I returned to Munich after spending Christmas in Salzburg, I couldn’t wait to share Tibor’s secret with my German friends. My Bavarian friend Erich seemed angry at the suggestion that the Berlin Wall could ever be penetrated, let alone destroyed.

Rob and Tibor

Me in Tibor's Parlor

On November 9, 1989 Erich sat beside me on the couch in my San Francisco flat as we watched CNN broadcast the fall of the Berlin wall! There was a feeling of wonder, excitement, jubilation and tears of joy from everyone but Erich! Erich mumbled Bavarian obscenities as he predicted the ruin of West Germany. Suddenly I understood Erich’s anger from the year before. Ossies will bring nothing but trouble, he said as he walked away from the TV.

The following summer Rob called me from a pay phone on the Berlin Ku' Damm. He had returned to Berlin from a Yoga retreat in the Greek Islands. Rob was unable to complete any sentence without breaking into tears. “You can’t imagine the energy here!” He paused, as if trying to find words to describe something so new and unfamiliar he couldn’t express it properly. “Listen to me!” Rob spoke with unusual urgency. “This is the center of the universe!” “Anyone who has the possibility to come here and doesn’t is a fool!”

Rob at the dismantling of The Wall

In the next few months we had sold all of our possesions and moved into a Wohngemeinschaft in the Kreuzberg neighborhood in Berlin.

Climbing The Wall

Me cleaning the star after a neo-Nazi egg attack

To be continued...