“Enjoy in silence”: This was the motto that actress Katrin Sass used to celebrate the day the Wall came down in Germany.
When thousands of GDR citizens celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall on the evening of November 9, 1989, actress Katrin Sass preferred to sit down in her local bar. “When I realized that the door was actually opening, I didn’t want to go to the Ku’damm. I went down to my girlfriend’s bar and got drunk,” said Sass to the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”.
“I didn’t want to be thrown bananas at me in the crowd at the Ku’damm. I wanted to enjoy my big dream of freedom quietly and alone.” The 67-year-old only drove to the West three days later.
For the actress (“Good Bye, Lenin!”, “Weissensee”), the date of the fall of the Wall is a holiday, but Sass has nothing in common with October 3rd. “For me, there is only November 9th, which I remember very fondly. That is and remains my Day of German Unity,” said the native of Schwerin, who has lived on Berlin’s Müggelsee for many years.
The actress believes the differences between East and West are overestimated: “We all speak one language. One half is better at English, the other half at Russian. But Germans are Germans,” said Sass. “We’re all the same in our interactions: in the hotel we complain about the eggs for breakfast. And after 1 p.m. no one dares mow the lawn anymore.” She has now lived in the West for just as long as in the East: 33 years. “The first half shaped me more because it was childhood. You stay an Easterner forever. That’s how I feel – but it doesn’t feel like a disadvantage.”
Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
