More Than a Wall, 35 Years Ago the Masks Fell in Berlin

What collapsed that day in Germany was the need to express political opinions quietly and to sing, without conviction, the praises of communism.

14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, Generation y, 9 November 2024 — Every November the assessments and reminders arrive, and the images of Berliners pounding on the wall that divided their city and split the world into two opposing parts are republished. Every anniversary, the minutes before the hammers and chisels sounded are reviewed, testimonies are heard and the media interviews the protagonists of those days. The physical and symbolic end of a structure is celebrated, but also the moment when the masks fall.

How many of those people we see in the photos pounding the concrete 35 years ago went to work in the days leading up to 9 November 1989, and nodded in agreement with the ideological demands of their superiors? How many obediently went to a meeting of their party core, reported a neighbor to the feared Stasi, or participated in some political event where they sang victory songs and shouted slogans predicting the eternal superiority of communism? How many pretended to obey the system until the last moment, fearful of punishment or eager to obtain some prebend?

The covers of magazines and newspapers will remain full of smiling workers.

Understanding the mechanisms that make simulation a form of social survival in authoritarian models is vital to deciphering the duration of these systems and predicting the date of their downfall. As long as pretending to adhere to the regime is safer and more beneficial than opposing it, the dictatorship can show hundreds of thousands or millions of individuals who appear to live in the best of all possible models. The covers of magazines and newspapers will remain full of smiling workers, soldiers willing to give their last drop of blood for “the beloved leader” and foreign delegations who come to the country to applaud the achievements. That is, until one day.

An old joke about the Soviet Union depicted the communist system as a train at a standstill, with no railway line in front of it, but with passengers jolting, jumping and looking in amazement at the supposed scenery passing before their eyes, when in fact the carriages had not moved an inch. Under the Communist Party of the USSR (CPSU), pretending was more important than being. Putting on a mask meant staying alive or walking the streets instead of living in a dark cell. Playing the role of conformity also helped one achieve a few privileges.

That is why that November in Germany not only did the wall collapse, but also the need to express political opinions in a low voice, to conceal criticism of leaders and to sing, without conviction, the praises of communism. What they struck was not just a barrier that separated Berliners from their own compatriots on the other side, it was much more. That is why today, in front of microphones and cameras, they can applaud or complain about how things turned out after those days of euphoria. They are free to point out the achievements and disappointments, the benefits and the setbacks in these more than three decades. They earned the right to do so, without wearing any masks, with the blows of hammer and chisel.