Tear down that wall

Borders have always impacted me significantly because I grew up behind one of the most unpenetrable ones: the iron curtain. I was born and raised in East Germany, and from a very young age, I knew that I was not allowed to go to most of the countries in this world.

Because I lived on the Baltic sea, we could watch the ferry to Denmark coming and going a couple of times each day. It was a constant reminder of our unfreedom. I never thought that I would be able to board that ferry one day and see what lies on the other side (to my massive disappointment, it is only a tiny fishing village with a train station). But it kept my fantasies running.

Recently I was in the capital of Cyprus. Since the Turkish invasion of the northern part of the Mediterranean island in 1974, the country and the city have been divided. Before travelling there, I had read a lot about the history of this conflict. But seeing the border with the barbed wire and the checkpoints raised a lot of unpleasant memories. Not only is there a border in the countryside with a neutral zone that is controlled by a UN peacekeeping mission, but there is a border in the middle of Nicosia (the state capital) as well. Right through a nice shopping street, it goes and divides the northern part of the city from the south.

For us here in Germany, the division of our country has been history for nearly 33…