Duluthian remembers Berlin Wall 20 years later

Posted by Boua Xiong

A couple little pieces of a big chunk of history sits in Earl Rogers' Duluth home. Twenty years ago Rogers was in Germany with his daughter.

"I said I'd never go back again I don't want to see that wall. But I went back at the possibility of helping to tear it down," Rogers said.

Rogers had not been in the country since he went through Check Point Charlie in the late 50's. However, Rogers said he needed to go back, needed to be there when the wall came down. He needed to see a free Germany. So he packed his bag, left Duluth, and landed in Germany.

"That night we helped 300 some odd people come over that wall and then the next morning the very first family to walk through I was there to greet them," Rogers said.

When Rogers got back from Germany he shared his story with the Northland. This year he's got one more person to share it with: his 15-year-old-exchange student from Germany. But Rogers' high school exchange student, Bernhard Strack, has a story of his own too.

"My dad and my mom were working there. And one evening there was on the radio like the wall was down and my dad was like that's a bad joke change the channel. Next channel, the wall is down. He changed the channel again, well, the wall is down. He was like okay, let's see, Strack said.

“He took the next hammer he could grab and my mom was still at work and he called and said maybe the wall is really down. I'm going there. She was like okay, see you tonight. And then he arrived and they were really tearing down the wall,” he said.

Strack said even though he was not there when it happened he understands full well the significance of what happened 20 years ago this November.

"I can go in Germany wherever I want to go. I also can visit friends in Poland or in the Czech Republic without going through a wall. That's freedom....you can do what you want to," Strack said.

Twenty years later it’s freedom that unites an American and a German right here in the Northland.

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