This is my celebration of today's significance in the history of the German nation. Germany, you've come far and we look forward to the promising future of both East and West. Prost.
PS. fail German is fail. don't hate me because of my terrible German D|
PSS. this just happend so it's like infinitely bad, but I felt I had to do SOMETHING. so here we are. NOW READ:
November 1989
Ludwig was one of the first to know. Being high up as he was in the government news got to him quick. This occasion brought particular haste. His secretary scurried into his office, out of breath, flustered and in four words she changed him, as a country. As a man.
"Die Wand sinkt."
"The Wall is falling."
He looked at her for a moment. One moment was all. He practically vaulted over his desk, speeding out the door without coat or cap, forgetting all military and political etiquette. The Wall is falling, the wall is falling. He didn't pause to consider the impossibility of the statement. Didn't pause to consider what a fool he'd appear to be tearing up to the beast only to find it as alive as ever. No. It was falling. It must be. It has to be.
God knows how long he ran in fatigues and all, through streets, over fences, across parks. The Wall is falling. The general collided with the massive crowd long before the wall was in sight. Gold, red and black flew proudly from every home, every street. DasDeutschlandlied echoed everywhere. Men. Women. Children. Dancing. Singing. Crying. And a collective voice of joy rose above all in powerful chorus. Freedom. Oh God, they were free.
He pushed through the crowd, through the women kissing his cheek and the men slapping him on the back and offering him beer. The Wall is falling. It's falling. Ludwig sprinted. He didn't stop upon reaching the wall but propelled himself up with all 180 pounds of his weight. His war-toned muscle hauled him upon the Wall only to collide head on into an East German attempting the same maneuver, nearly sending him back 12 feet down to the hard street. Ludwig flailed grasping at the Wall, finally managing to mount the top; the East German had not been so lucky. He hung from the East side feebly trying to regain his leverage. It was in this moment that West took East by the arm and took him from communism and oppression and a dehumanizing government to a new, unified Germany. Union. What a sweet word.
He pulled the gentleman up to be met by eyes. Eyes the queerest shade of brown. A brown that looked more red than brown. And the blondest hair he'd ever laid eyes on. Lord, it was almost white. A very memorable sight certainly, but one he'd seen before.
Lieutenant General Gilbert Weillschmidt.
Words wouldn't come. Should they have come, Ludwig certainly couldn't have put them into coherent German. They gaped, stared at each other, neither knowing where to start. What to do. What to say. What could one say? 20 years of separation didn't bring conversation easily.
Finally Gilbert smiled. "…Bruder."
The simplest word, permeated by a thick Russian accent. It was barely even German at all, almost as though the East German had forgotten what it was like to speak the language.
Ludwig smiled, a terse smile that betrayed hardship, loneliness. Tears came. Tears that a soldier shouldn't feel. Tears that the West German hadn't felt since centuries past. Tears that trembled and hesitated in the corners of his eyes. Bluest eyes.
The brothers embraced while the rhythmic sound of hammers and pickaxes resounded below them.
November 9, 1989
On this day in history, after over 20 years of separation, Communist East Germany threw open its borders, allowing citizens to travel freely to the West. Joyous Germans danced atop the Berlin Wall. Germany was once unified under the Bundesflagge.