Beate and Martin started their love story separated by the Berlin Wall. On 9 November 1989, the fall of the wall reunited the couple and allowed two different Europes to become one. See in our video how union – and love – triumphed over division.
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Of course, I knew that it was not a completely normal relationship and that there were difficulties tied in with it. We couldn’t simply visit one another. I was not allowed to go to Western Germany under any circumstances.
In 1961, construction of the Berlin Wall separated millions of Germans for years.
Martin met Beate through a student community in 1987.
And the communication was also difficult, we could not phone one another and there was no Internet either - apart from the visits - it was a traditional letter-writing relationship, meaning that I wrote a letter every day.
Yes, I had to be creative. For Beate to get to know my family, I had made preparations by way of a photo album where I had represented myself, my family and where I come from.
The only question my grandmother had at the time was whether she's catholic at least, then it would make everything else alright.
I was afraid, that we would have to break up or that I would have to leave the GRD and would no longer be able to see my family.
My main fear was that my ability to stay in contact by travelling to the GRD would be stopped. I did know my letters were being read and often the visas were on time, but it was the only option I had of seeing my then girlfriend, and if the border was closed off, then we would not have been able to see one another again.
The fears were all there of course. Not long before, there had been the suppression of student protests in Peking, and in discussions with friends it was also the case that many people had expected there to be a violent end to the first demonstrations and that the border would be closed off.
On 9 November 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and reunification began.
I was in the communal kitchen of our student house and followed the news item together with the other students and can remember well that only one of my house-mates, a student, actually grasped that the situation was of historical importance, that this also meant the fall of the whole border between the East and the West.
For me it was a very freeing experience because the German unification, the opening of the borders, was simultaneous with our chance to live together.
I don’t think today’s generation can imagine what it is like to live apart and have to meet by travelling like we had to.
Two of our children did a year's exchange in the USA after year 10. Our eldest son completed an Erasmus semester in Spain.
Travel and studying are considered essential in Europe, and that is what our children are doing.
