For most U.S. high school students the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall is something something they read about in history books. On Friday, however, some Alcoa students had an opportunity to talk with people who were living in East Germany, formally the German Democratic Republic, at that time.
The teens heard about a country where training after high school was free, but not necessarily the choice of what to study. A place where there was enough to eat, but not a wide variety. A culture where everyone had health care coverage but after a 15-year wait only two car models were available.
Alcoa High School's connection to Germany has been forged through a student exchange program, one that will bring 16 German teens to Tennessee in October. The German-American Partnership Program is sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the Goethe-Institut, Germany’s cultural institute.
Last week's visitors were adults who had hosted some AHS teachers when they traveled to Germany. Blount County is one stop on a trip that has included Washington, D.C., Colonial Williamsburg, Monticello, Gatlinburg and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and which will include a beach trip before their return to Europe.
Friday morning they played language games with teens studying German in teacher Ken Brown's class, and in the afternoon they talked about their experiences and answered questions from students in English and human geography classes.
Brown explained that in the English class students study President Ronald Reagan's 1987 speech at the Brandenburg Gate with the challenge to the leader of the Soviet Union, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" The human geography class covers topics such as cultural, economic and political systems.
"When we in the United States study this part of history, it's always us versus them, communism versus capitalism," Brown told the students.
"They've got some stories to tell you all from the other side," he said, before introducing Wolfgang Kurzmann and Elke Kurzmann from Henninsdorf, and Heidi Berger from Freudenberg, both north of Berlin.
All were young children when the Berlin Wall was built in 1961 and in their early 30s when the wall "opened" as the Germans say.
Growing up
When Wolfgang Kurzmann was growing up, in an area with a lot of lakes, the sport he competed in was sailing. Sometimes he even won, he told the Alcoa Tornadoes with a laugh.
In East Germany daycare was available for children even younger than 1 year old, and the women always worked, Elke Kurzmann explained. Children attended kindergarten and after 10th grade began apprenticeships.
She studied business economics and worked in production, while Berger became an architect. Training was free, but they were directed in what do do by the state.
Wolfgang Kurzmann had to serve in the army for three years and decided to stay in for 15 years, until the wall came down, when he became a private security guard.
Growing up, they said, they didn't feel that they missed anything.
Berger said they were taught from an early age that everyone was equal and they all had to support the weaker ones. Later she explained that pay was kept close to equal, but workers and farmers earned more than people in fields such as she worked.
Answering a student's questions about what they had to eat, they explained that they had basics such as flour and meat and foods grown in the garden, but might not have, for example, bananas.
Brown told the students that even in the United States the market wasn't always as diverse as they experience now.
"I was in college before I ever saw an avocado," he told the Alcoa teens. "If we close the borders and don't allow trade, then you won't have things that you can't make yourself."
Change
As Germany was reunified, many people in the former GDR lost their jobs as the former state-owned factories were sold and closed, they explained to the students.
Rent on the Kurtzmanns' three-bedroom apartment in East Berlin rose from 80 East German marks to 500 after reunification, without any increase in pay.
When the East Germans' currency was converted to West German, only the first 5,000 marks were converted at a rate of 1:1, with amounts after that converted at 2:1, meaning they lost half their savings.
After that, the first time they went into the west they received 200 deutsche marks for shopping.
When an Alcoa student asked if they missed anything about their former life, Berger responded the security of having a job and knowing they would have enough money to take care of their children's needs.
When another student asked about media restrictions under East Germany, they confessed that while they weren't supposed to watch western television or listen to western radio, almost everyone did.
As the Kurzmanns and Berger spoke the students waited for their answers to be translated into English. Two answers came quickly.
Was it hard to trust people when the wall was up? Ja.
A lot of people were spying on each other and giving information to the government. Brown explained that after reunification Germany grappled with what to do with those files. "In a society that's built upon distrust, how much do you really want to know what was going on," he said, whether friends or family members were spying on you.
Did they ever think of escaping to the West? Nein. But they knew of people who had.
While they have traveled to several countries, this was their first visit to the United States, and they said they were enjoying the warm welcome they received.
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