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Reading about Gorby takes me back to my high school and college years when it seemed like the Cold War was permanent.
Then everything changed. To watch the changes documented on the evening news and in the morning newspaper was an experience of never ending astonishment. To be alive when history changes that dramatically, and in a positive way (at least on the surface) was a rare experience. The time was even called “the end of history.”
But with change and opening came conflicts and problems underneath the surface and Vergangenheitsbewältigung, facing and coming to terms with the past.
In the summer of 1988, I visited my relatives in what was then West Germany. I remember warm Bavarian summer, the walks in field and forest, having fun in Munich, riding the S-Bahn around town and into the suburbs… and I remember then finally having those awkward conversations about what happened during *that* time in German history.
Without the pressure of the Cold War, it was time to process the memories of what came before. The 90s then saw the release of memoirs, movies, and testimonies of survivors, veterans, and eyewitnesses, as the wounds of the past sought recognition and justice.