School children bring 'Berlin Wall' down - again

STUDENTS AT St Kilian’s Deutsche Schule in Dublin tore down the Berlin Wall yesterday, celebrating the 20th anniversary of German reunification.

In an annual demolition tradition, the pupils painted graffiti on polystyrene slabs, bisecting their gym with a replica of the wall that separated East and West Germany for 28 years.

Erected by East German authorities, the Berlin Wall divided families, train lines and the city of Berlin almost overnight. When the communist government resigned in November 1989, jubilant citizens tore down the wall and the East and West were reunified on October 3rd, the following year.

Yesterday, excited pupils of 40 nationalities took their places on either side of the wall, ready to charge on the signal of their teacher. But on a mere preliminary blast of Frau Browne’s whistle, they were off.

“It’s not supposed to be like this!” exclaimed parent Alexa Kemps. “There was supposed to be a whistle, a speech and then a whistle to destroy the wall.” But the tide of 250 seven- to 12-year-olds was unstoppable, flattening the edifice in seconds.

“It is just like history," joked a resigned Frau Browne. “No one told the people of Berlin when the wall should come down, they just went for it.” The Clonskeagh school traces its origins to the Save the German Children Society, founded in Dublin in 1945 to give homes to orphaned and homeless German children. When more than 400 children came to spend time with Irish families, the school was set up. “Children of all nationalities, language and denominations are now welcome,” said Sarah Finnegan, head of the primary school.

Berliner Alexa Kemps whose two children attend St Kilian’s was 16 when the wall came down. “We skipped school that day went to the wall. The soldiers didn’t know if they should let us climb over or not.” Mrs Kemps who had cousins in the East said: “They could visit our house for the first time.”

East German native Anette Kuechenmeister, a teacher at St Kilian’s, was 21 when the wall came down. “We couldn’t believe it, we thought it would close again.” She visited West Berlin for the first time that year. “Everything was so colourful, there was so much food. I couldn’t spend my money – I was too overwhelmed.” The teacher’s aunt, Inge Eulitz, made headlines when aged 17, she escaped tied underneath her then-boyfriend’s car. A year later, she moved to Ireland where she still lives and runs a travel agency. Parent Frank Heisterkamp, a student at the time, was at the Brandenburg Gate on the night the wall came down. “My brother and I walked across to the East and had a beer. The cars were different, the infrastructure was different but the people were just the same.”