Sommer '89 [Er schnitt Löcher in den Zaun] [English translation]

It was in the summer of '89. August 12th.

It started in Hamburg

in his old, sky blue Ford Granada

Kasseler mountains, Würzburg, Nürnberg, Linz, Vienna

He turned his back on everything

The goal was the Burgenland, the Austrian-Hungarian border

In Mattersburg he bought himself "the best bolt cutter money can buy"

Almost 400 shilling

In Mörbisch am See he checked into the Guest House Peterhof

bought himself a döner and waited for night to fall

shortly after 1:00 there was a knock on the door

the go-between gave him a letter

and disappeared again without saying a word

He committed the letter to memory and set off on foot

Down Ödenburger Street, past the last lanterns

Just before the bend in the dirt road, turn right and go all the way to the end

The last 100 meters farther through the tall grass

into the small forest

Sat tight until the 3:30 border patrol

Flashlight out: 3 long, 2 short

and then in the clearing, he saw them

they came

running

It was in the summer of '89, an escape in the dawn

He was the guy who crept through the night

and cut holes in the fence

On the Hungarian border

in the first light of daybreak

only a bolt cutter was necessary

for holes in the fence

in the summer of '89

As soon as they were through the fence

they ran as fast as possible with the children

until the last lanterns

14 people, 3 families

no champagne corks, no confetti celebration

only enormous relief and even larger exhaustion

They went together to the bus station, sat down on the benches

and waited on the bus to Vienna at 6:22

they barely spoke due to fatige

just once one of the children asked him

what the phrase on his Dead Kennedys t-shirt meant

As the bus arrived on time, he gave one of the fathers his Vienna city map

with the German embassy's address circled

He split his last shillings across the 3 families

and wished them a good life

They thanked him with tears in their eyes over and over for everything

in a language and a dialect he could barely understand

He assumed at the time that it was Saxon 1

It was in the summer of '89, an escape in the dawn

He was the guy who crept through the night

and cut holes in the fence

On the Hungarian border

in the first light of daybreak

only a bolt cutter was necessary

for holes in the fence

in the summer of '89

Back in Hamburg, a "on the one hand, well, on the other" discussion

at the table of the flat share with his friends

On the one hand, the action was of course well-meaning

because of the families and such

But on the other hand a German reunification and the developments in the last few weeks, a huge mistake

Germany should never again be a power bloc in the middle of Europe

and this helping East German citizens escape

would only contribute to further destabilization of the relationship

So, like I said "the action was from a human perspective understandable

but still wrong."

He slammed his flat hand on the tabletop

and said as quietly as was still possible:

"You all know that that's bullshit

They leave everything behind and they flee and maybe..."

He paused briefly and deliberated

if he should say the last sentence

but not a single word more

A complete hush came over them

The others exchanged looks, some smiled gently

Someone even gingerly put a hand on his shoulder

Seconds passed

He got up, left the room

Jacket, door, stairwell, air

He took his old Ford Granada

and was never seen again

The rest is history

It was in the summer of '89, an escape in the dawn

It was in the summer of '89 and he cut holes in the fence

They came for kiwis and bananas

For the constitution and free elections

For real estate with no value

They came for Udo Lindenberg

For the VW with 7 seats

For the bad "East German jokes"

They came for trips around the world

For welfare and Begrüßungsgeld 2

They came for "know-it-all Western German phrases"

For the new built-in kitchen

and exactly for this dream

he cut holes in the fence

1. Saxon is a dialect of German from Saxony in the east2. Begrüßungsgeld was money paid by the German federal government (formerly West Germany) to the new citizens from the east after reunification. Literally "welcome money."