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To notify us of inappropriate comments, or to express other complaints or concerns, send an e-mail to the site’s proprietor, specifically to the e-mail account “bill” at the domain name of this site.
Bill Dawson is an American citizen who, having married an Austrian, lives and works in Vienna, Austria. A programmer by trade, he studied history as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley. 
Test comment.
Found your site via http://cityofnewalbany.blogspot.com
What a very well thought out and informative site you have, absolutely love it. Keep up the grand work!
Edward
Thank you, Edward. And those are some great photos at your site! I particularly liked the Dusk photo from 7/21.
Thanks again,
Bill
I’ll get involved! What do I need to do?
Hi Ben,
Nice to know there’s life out there! Just signup for the newsletter (right side navigation area here). Be sure to put your twitter account name in parentheses after your name so I can identify you later (although I see already that you’re the historypress tweeter, so in your case it’s not so important.)
Then, if you’re one of the first 4, you’ll get a gift certificate to whichever Amazon you shop at: .com, .co.uk, .ca or .de.
Fire away!
Hello Bill, found you when you left your link on World Magazine Blog. Nice site! Having lived in Germany for 8 years, I’m interested in this site.
About the berlin Wall, I just wanted to share a piece of artwork with you. I wrote about it on the Regerts thread on WMB. It was drawn by a retires Special Forces artist named Vaclev Havel. He drew it in 1987/88 and the plaque on the wall in the picture puts the end of the wall at 199 with the last digit left off. He was close in his prophetic prediction. I have a signed print framed in my house. As far as I know, no such Berlin Wall Memorial exists.
Here’s the link:
https://www.sfa4-24.org/~sfafoutw/quartermaster/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=15
Hello Klasko, thank you for stopping by! I’ve just taken several minutes to familiarize myself with the SFA 4-24 chapter. Very, very interesting. Were you stationed at Flint? The Havel drawing also looks fantastic.
There is a memorial at the Wall in Berlin, as shown here at their official site:
http://www.berliner-mauer-gedenkstaette.de/eng/index_gedenk.html
A lot of private persons have also shared photos at Flickr.com:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=berlin+wall+memorial
I hope you come back often to enjoy this site!
Thank you,
Bill
Yes Bill, we were at Flint from 1987-1991 when it drew down.
We moved with 1/10th SF to Stuttgart and left in 1992. Our housing area was actually in Ludwigsburg. We drew that down too. 
Interesting post. You might also be interested in the blog Stephen Brown and i are running over at Holy Disorder http://holy-disorder.blogspot.com/. I was a theology student in the GDR at the time the wall fell and kept a diary during those extraordinary times. Stephen has spent much of the last 15 years researching the role of the churches in the peaceful revolution. He’s been using the blog to report on some of the 20th anniversary events which began earlier in the year.
Anyway as both of us are very interested in German history I’m sure we’ll be coming back here
Dear Jane,
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. “Holy Disorder” looks very, very interesting indeed. I’m a big fan of reading original material from the actual time, such as your journal entries.
I hope to see you and Stephen Brown stop by more!
Thank you,
Bill
I spent about 6 months in the East as a child (1960) and can recall quite vividly what life was like from the standpoint of a 7-year-old boy. I went from a posh life in one of Canada’s richest neighbourhoods to something rather spartan. No fruit, for example, or at least very little of it. I also recall being mistaken for a Russian, since the only non-German-speaking kids in the East at that time probably were Russian. There were, in fact, Russian soldiers everywhere. They were not welcome, but I do recall that they seemed (to me at least) very friendly. My German classmates were a pretty tough bunch, as I recall. I also remember bullet holes in every building. Many build still had significant bomb damage. I returned to Canada completely fluent in German, which fluency I have completely lost!
I’m looking forward to reading this book. My vague recollection of the place was that there were, in fact, quite a few Germans who were committed to the socialist model. That, of course, would have changed significantly in the years prior to unification.
Thank you for a very interesting comment. I love these kind of personal memories of westerners who were in East Germany at one time or another.
I’m not sure if you noticed, but I posted the second part of my overview of this book right at about the same time you were leaving this comment. Have a look if you are interested.
Thanks a lot for stopping by and taking the time to leave a comment.
Best,
Bill
One Berlin, One Germany, One Europe, One World
My recollection of the late summer of 1988 was one of endless wonders for at a young age I made my very first trip to a great foreign country. I visited a country in Europe that left a lasting legacy in me and for which I came to know quite fondly as my second home. It all began with a very memorable letter of acceptance informing me of my participation in the 2nd International Training Program in Biotechnology (ITP). The letter came from GBF, Germany’s National Research Center for Biotechnology. GBF and the state of Lower Saxony funded generously my trip and stay in Germany. It brought me to the charming cities of Braunschweig, where GBF is located, as well as to Hannover, and Berlin. I consider this unforgettable six-week sojourn in Germany as the best thing that ever happened to me. Reminiscing on my arrival in Braunschweig, brings back fond memories of a cool beautiful sunny Sunday morning and a venerable city crisscrossed by clean streets of cobbled stone though almost devoid of people and vehicles. Since I come from a densely populated city like Manila, the difference for me becomes starkly conspicuous. Attendance in the trade fair known as Biotechnica 88 in Hannover and the cultural trip to Berlin was part of the ITP training course. The training course enriched me not only scientifically but culturally as well. It gave me a deep and profound standpoint as to Germany’s identity, culture, and role in the modern world. History tells us that it was just in the last century that Germany went through periods of revolutions, redemption, and resurrection. The mighty German Empire ruled by Prussia disintegrated after the First World War. A fleeting bright moment followed the collapse of the empire with the birth of the “Weimar Republic”. This beautiful republic, bearing the promise of freedom, peace, and prosperity for all Germans and Europeans, unfortunately died in its infancy. What followed was the darkest and most chilling period in world history: the rise to power of Hiltler’s National Socialist Party. Because of the NAZI, Germany suffered widespread destruction and utter defeat in the Second World War that left the whole of Europe in shamble. Though it seemed that everything was lost, Germany made acts of contrition and contrite reparation for his mortal misgivings. Soon the “Heart of Europe” underwent an immensely remarkable transformation marked by sincere reconciliation and rapid socio-economic development. Germany literally became the engine of peace and prosperity for Western Europe. In just a few years, the Fatherland rebuilds himself from the smoldering cauldron of the last world war to rise meteorically into today’s proud global economic power as a free, united, and flourishing German nation. Germany’s city of the world Berlin, once separated into two rival ways of life, has assumed a truly cosmopolitan personality breathing a sophisticated culture and a cheerful urbanity uniquely its own. When Pres. John F. Kennedy bravely visited Berlin and spoke the famous words “Ich bin ein Berliner”, a city instantly captured the hearts and minds of people all over the world. Suddenly everyone was a Berliner who knew fully well to which side of the divided city he belongs. It highlighted the great divide of “Us against Them”; of a world partitioned by the “iron curtain” living precariously on détente. When I visited Berlin for the first time in 1988 as part of my ITP course, I cannot help but ponder and marvel at the character of an occupied city; a city torn between west and east, democracy and communism, freedom and tyranny, heaven and hell. A city sanctified by the Nordic gods with beauty, power, and nobility. I experienced what it was like to cross into East Germany and to enter into West Berlin. As I toured the city striding along the wide sidewalks of the famous KuDam and visiting the partly destroyed Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, I saw American, British, French and Russian soldiers and an imposing wall dividing the city. This wall of shame stood arrogantly between the famed “Gate of Brandenburg” and me. All I can do was to stare at the Brandenburg Gate protruding behind the wall from my place of security within West Berlin. In 1990, I made my second trip to Germany to attend Biotechnica 90. Funding for this trip came through the kindness of the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft (CDG). After attending Biotechnica 90, I went to straight to Berlin on my own initiative for it was something that I would not miss for the world. Something wonderful has happened in Berlin and I simply had to be a part of it. It was an afternoon of warm sunny blue skies when I arrived in Berlin and made a bee-line to the Brandenburg Gate. This time something remarkably wonderful was readily apparent unlike my previous visit in 1988. From afar, lo and behold, I saw the gate standing majestically free! The wall of shame that put us asunder in 1988, was nowhere to be found. I was able to enter without hindrance through the monumental colonnades bearing aloft the victorious chariot of Aurora, the goddess of dawn. Indeed, a new age of peace and prosperity has dawned on Germany and the world in 1989. As I gazed around me, I went through the gate slowly with much trepidation but with overwhelming sentiments of joy and thanksgiving. So thankful, that the mighty “Westerly Winds of Freedom” knocked down decisively like tumbling dominoes the Wall of Berlin followed by the Iron Curtain of Eastern Europe and finally the fortress of the powerful Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). What was once thought to be impossible, the unification of two German nations divided by conflicting global powers, happened overnight so miraculously without the loss of life? Not since the fall of the walls of Jericho has another wall in history received the ire of the free world to be torn down as the Berlin Wall. “Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall” were the words of Pres. Ronald Reagan that reverberated like the loud trumpet sounds of Joshua’s army that soon brought down the Berlin Wall. In its wake, not only was a nation unified but a continent as well. Demarcation of East and West in Europe became a thing of the past and for the rest of the world as well. I strode happily behind the Brandenburg Gate all the way through the famous and spacious boulevard called “Unter den Linden Strasse” extending into the very heart of East Berlin. My triumphant march, full of fervor, took me all the way to the imposing monumental bronze statue of Emperor Frederick the Great. I was in East Berlin till evening as I enjoyed and treasured every moment of that historical day in September of 1990 as a year had not even passed since the dreaded wall still stood and divided the city. Indeed, it was fortunate for me to have the rare chance of being in divided Berlin in 1988 and in unified Berlin in 1990, the years between the historical events of 1989. If Tony Bennet left his heart in San Francisco, in Berlin I left not only my heart but my soul as well. I will never forget my Berlin experiences of 1988 and 1990 for it was indeed so great to be young then in Germany and to be caught up in a turning point in world history. Let us also not forget the major role played by our beloved Pope John Paul II in ending communism that actually started in his home country of Poland. In closing, on the occasion of the 20 years of anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, I am one with the free world in celebrating an event marking the birth of a new world of peace and prosperity.
Wow, Edward, thank you for your putting your memories here! I really appreciate it.
It’s a great day today!
Hey The Letter has a Stamp that Represents Isreal. Can you Tell me if that Symbol is Also Part of Germany Stamp ? Thanks !
I actually find the Symbol on the Stamp most interesting indeed.. on 2nd look I can see DDR on the right hand side ! Thanks
Hi Andy,
That’s right, it’s a Jewish symbol because the stamp commemorates the 50th anniversary of the 1938 November Pogrom against Jews in Germany and Austria, the so-called “Kristallnacht“.
Thank you for stopping by and commenting.
Regards,
Bill
Hey Bill Dawson,
I just discovered your blog and I really appreciate the fact that there are more history bloggers in middle Europe. I hope that there will be a great number of good history blogs in the next future in the german speaking countries like Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
king regards,
JoBluemel
Bill, why is Anne Frank’s Diary a German book, as opposed to a Dutch one?
Hi Al,
Great question! I would’ve taken whatever Amazon listed in their “German History” section, even if it was originally written in Chinese!
(Unless I thought Amazon had merely miscategorized it.)
We could characterize Anne Frank’s diary in many ways… A work of Dutch literature (or dutch non-fiction), a Dutch memoir, Dutch history, Jewish history, Holocaust history and certainly also German history. Since Anne Frank was a born German (I think, anyway… though I should probably check that again) and her family moved from Frankfurt to Holland in order to escape persecution, and since she died as a result of her original country’s actions, I can certainly see why Amazon or someone else would categorize it as German history. Hopefully they also categorized it as Dutch history, though I didn’t check that.
For similar reasons, I could see emigre memoirs being categorized as German history as well.
Thank you for taking the time to comment!
Bill
According to Wikipedia, her nationality was German until 1941 when she was stripped off it. It’s always bothered me as a bit tasteless that Germans take credit for her writing despite the fact that Dutch was her main language, making her refugee and stateless person, and eventually murdering her. Anyway, technically, I suppose, it’s OK, and I’m definitely not the one to decide.
Right. In fact, I’m going to edit this post and point out that Anne Frank wrote in Dutch. I think there is indeed a danger that people just assume she wrote in German.