"Note to the GDR-Regime: Been a Real Trip – Have a Nice Fall!"
(The pay-off after having defended the Federal Republic of Germany against the standing threat from the German 'Democratic' Republic, both being Republics)
I'm still often asked what it was like, being around and close up during the course of events leading up to and following the Berlin Wall Fall. At the time I had my nose to the window, as my Desk handled every daily detail of the developments without let-up, a fence here, a border there, a trek over three Satellite countries to reach the Western half of your own city, the non-violent but chaotic and sometimes desperate storming of Embassies, the mass demos in East Germany... I had to update stuff before the news even left the public presses, and brief the Big Shots and look smart. Well, the smartest Intel-product I came up with in that windowless vault I called home, was this popular little number as Christmas neared, covering the period of Nov. 9th to just up to Christmas, and I remember that well, since my prediction toward the end on Ceausescu bore out on Christmas day. The Tianenman Square incident was also still fresh in most minds, although already about six months old, as it formed a counter-balance for the events here.
To Stateside outsiders, or for those whose memory is shy of a few names from '89, the Hans mentioned here was Modrow, the moderate who looked like a hopeful if the East Germans actually were to come up with an entirely new concept and still remain “East“; the Erich mentioned is not Honecker the half-senile Party Chairman but rather Mielke, the shrewd and butt-ugly head of the Stasi, their version of CIA/FBI/Gestapo in one animal. (U-Bahn is the subway system; Tor is gate.) Krenz was a colorless Party functionary who wound up having the entire leadership decision foisted on his lap, and clueless and floundering with the rest of them he dropped the last veneer of anti-Perestroika Attitude and opted for (d-uhh) opening the checkpoints.
So this was composed over a cold one at the corner bar outside my barracks at 1 a.m., and is best sung in the same condition as when it was composed. (The content is all dead-accurate and may be used as reference material in any high school project. In fact, all those Big Shots I mentioned earlier, from the American Commander of Berlin on down, every man of them, was moved to tears and if there'd ever been a medal they gave out for this kind of meddling I'd be wearing it.)
Since the Ninth of November
On the ninth of November, my true love gave to me:
champagne at the Berlin Wall-party.
On the following Monday, my true love gave to me:
twenty thousand marching, calling for reforms,
and champagne at the Berlin Wall-party.
By the end of November, my true love handed me:
ten crossing-points!...Hans as a hopeful, twenty thousand marching souls,
and champagne at the Berlin Wall-party.
On the eighth of December, my true love traded me:
Gysi for Gerlach, Krenz out of work – more crossing-points, Hans as a hopeful, twenty thousand marching, and champagne at the Berlin Wall-party.
On the tenth of December, my true love promised me:
no more blasted Stasi, Gysi for Gerlach, Krenz out of work – more crossing-points, Hans as a hopeful, twenty thousand marching, and champagne at the Berlin Wall-party.
By the middle of December, my true love opened up:
further disclosures, May 6 elections, no more blasted Stasi, Gysi for Gerlach, Krenz out of work, more crossing-points, Hans as a hopeful, twenty thousand marching, and champagne at the Berlin Wall-party.
By the twentieth of December, my true love added on:
every East Bloc country, further disclosures, May 6 elections, no more blasted Stasi, Gysi for Gerlach, Krenz out of work, more crossing-points, Hans as a hopeful, twenty thousand marching, and champagne at the Berlin Wall-party.
On December twenty-second, my true love gave to me:
one more U-Bahn, Brandenburger Tor, every East Bloc country, further disclosures, May 6 elections, no more blasted Stasi, Gysi for Gerlach, Krenz out of work, more crossing-points, Hans as a hopeful, twenty thousand marching, and champagne at the Berlin Wall-party.
On the very eve of Christmas, my true love granted me:
no need for West visas, one more U-Bahn, Brandenburger Tor, every East Bloc country, further disclosures, May 6 elections, no more blasted Stasi, Gysi for Gerlach, Krenz out of work, more crossing-points, Hans as a hopeful, twenty thousand marching, and champagne at the Berlin Wall-party.
In the past three or four months, my true love's given me:
drastic Party changes, Erich behind bars, Ceausescu on the run, no need for West visas, one more U-Bahn, Brandenburger Tor, every East Bloc country, further disclosures, May 6 elections, no more blasted Stasi, Gysi for Gerlach, Krenz out of work, more crossing-points, Hans as a hopeful, twenty thousand marching, and champagne at the Berlin Wall-party.
By the end of the year, we would surely like to see:
China get the message, drastic Party changes, Erich behind bars, Ceausescu to the wall, no need for West visas, one more U-Bahn, Brandenburger Tor, every East Bloc country, further disclosures, May 6 elections, no more blasted Stasi, Gysi for Gerlach, Krenz out of work, more crossing-points, Hans as a hopeful, twenty thousand marching souls, - - and - cham-pagne - at the - Ber-lin Wall-party.
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