When I came home from school on September 11, 1989, my grandmother told me to do a few things
Pack, we're flying to Hungary for vacation. What I didn't know at the age of 10 was that I wouldn't be coming home, because my parents hadn't told me their escape plans for security reasons, out of fear of the Stasi. For me
It was all so exciting, flying for the first time. When we arrived in Budapest, my sister told me we weren't coming home. I didn't know what was going on, I was totally confused, I couldn't say goodbye to anyone on the way to a life
which I only knew from television and magazines. We then spent a few more days in Hungary and were then taken by friends by car to a reception camp in Passau, where we were given something to eat. My parents had organized everything, and we were then driven to our new temporary accommodation. That was where my new life was to begin. So it was all the more wonderful a year later when the borders and the wall came down. I thought I would never see my grandma, grandparents, the rest of my family and my friends again. We also went to Berlin and celebrated. It was an indescribable feeling, finally no more borders, to be able to go anywhere without these boundaries. I associate this feeling with freedom, the freedom to decide for yourself what you are allowed to do and where you want to go.
