A performance for Germany's Reunification Day

It was 11 months after the fall of the wall. Many people cried, but for everyone it was a different reason for tears.

Traditionally, bits and pieces of stories from the performance:

😱 When the wall fell, we were working, and we didn't believe it. They said: the wall fell! And we had to finish our shift at work. I came home and fell asleep and it wasn't until the next day that I realized what had happened. I was able to see my relatives again, who had gone to the west.

🗿 I ran to a square in Berlin. There were many unusual cars from the GDR standing there. I knocked on their windows and asked: where are you from? I cried and kept asking.

✈️ I was driving here today for a performance and heard so many different accents. I realized that this is incredibly valuable, that Germany is not just for me, but for different people. It's very scary to lose that with radical right-wing sentiment.

😵‍💫 I fanatically believed in socialism back then, believed it was for the good of us all. But then it all crashed and I realized that I had only seen a small part of how things really were. Now I don't believe any ideology, no matter what part of my country that ideology is from.

🏠 And I remember the propaganda leaflets: in the west you can smoke wherever you want, and there is a lot of dancing and sex. And women don't work there. I dreamed of going there. And when I got there, I realized that many things are not as I imagined.

🫠 We were all given 100 euro vouchers when we crossed the border from the GDR into the FRG. It was a gift, but it was a bit humiliating.....

🥺 I stuttered and my parents wanted to send me to a boarding school for retarded children. In the GDR they didn't know how to handle it any other way. It was a terrible time for me. Then I went to a public school, I was not allowed to speak and was only told to write so as not to take up the teachers' time. When the wall fell, I had a chance at a different kind of life. Back then in the west this was treated and it was normal. Now I tell this story and I don't even stutter, you see. I stopped being afraid when I moved and the stuttering went away.

🤬 It's been so many years and pensions are still different in the east and west.

💯 We wanted to be free and respect differences, really wish we didn't lose that.

And lastly a story told behind the curtains:

I lived in the GDR and from childhood I dreamed of becoming an engineer, but I ended up being put as a forester. And when I tried to go after my dream again - I was promoted to protect the Communist Party.
The Berlin Wall came down, and people with trunks full of guns started coming into our forests to shoot animals from the FRG. It was that moment when there was chaos and the laws were not clear. Their guns cost more than my car. I was asking them to stop, saying you can't shoot animals here, what are you doing? And they accused me of defending a country that never existed, the GDR.
No, I was just protecting our forest.

Fireflies... Or my Claudio.

The first night standing at the door of the room, we shouted in a whisper: Look how many there are! There, there's two more...three...dozens!
In many beliefs and cultures fireflies are the souls of the dead or a symbol of life's impermanence, inviting us to appreciate fleeting moments.
Playback event was dedicated to circularity. For us it’s about circle of life and vitality.

❤️‍? My name is Claudio. I lived my whole life with my beloved wife, over 40 years. She passed away. I am left alone and I can't explain how much it hurts. But recently I saw the roses in my garden and realized that they are over 60 years old and have seen a lot, birth and death, the way we humans rotate. They smell so good those roses, and so does my wife. Also walking among the roses right now is my niece, a princess of three years old. I was sitting by the window and looking at her astonished. She was smelling the roses in the garden and laughing loudly.

? I met my husband when I was eight years old and he was sixteen. He gave me a ride home on his moped. And at the end I told him that I wanted to marry him when I grew up. Six years went by and we met by chance. He recognized me and that's when I blushed so much I was like a red rose. "By the way, you can marry me now," he joked. And guess what, we lived the rest of our lives together. He died last autumn. His name was Claudio.

❤️”And I really miss my aunt, she left me," says a girl of ten. 'She played with me all my childhood while daddy and mommy worked.

"Where do you think she is now?" - Nastya asks.

"She's probably riding on the Pink Bus right now with all our toys and waving at me from the window" replies the girl, smiling.

We'd so like to think that all of our precious people are rolling around on the pink bus between the most gorgeous views and smiling with a wink as if wishing us a good day/year/decade.

Who would you tell a story about?
And do you have any fantasies of what's out there after death?

Today I took part in an incredibly important event. It was the Berlin Friedenslauf, a run for peace.

3,600 schoolchildren of all ages received numbers like professional runners and, starting at the Brandenburg Gate, ran a course in the heart of Berlin. On the way, there were points where they received a mark, and put down a small donation, which they had previously collected from their parents, relatives, friends, and neighbors.

The phrase "Drops make a sea" is clearly manifested here, because by making a small contribution, we ended up with a big sum of donations that will go to organizations that help people in situations of military conflict.

But the most important thing is that the children not just ran, they knew for what they were doing this, because before that, these organizations held special educational events in schools, telling children what was happening in the world and where. Even if these children are first graders! Each at their own level of understanding, but conveying the importance of peacebuilding and everyone's personal contribution to this cause. It's incredible! As a person with many years of experience working with children, I was delighted!

Thanks to the ZFDforum, I was able to join this event as a speaker alongside other activists and even a Berlin senator. I spoke about the importance of stopping Russian aggression, the importance of contextual awareness, and the importance of small steps from everyone. I am still impressed.

Sometimes my faith in the light disappears, and sometimes it is actively revived. Weiter so!

Сьогодні я брала участь в неймовірно важливому заході. Це був "Berlin Friedenslauf" - забіг заради миру.

3600 школярів різного віку отримали номери накшталт професійних бігунів і, стартувавши біля Брандунбурзьких воріт, бігли дистанцію в самому центрі Берліна. На шляху були точки, пробігаючи які вони отримували позначку, натомість кладучи маленький донат, який попередньо зібрали зі своїх батьків, родичів, знайомих, сусідів.

Тут яскраво проявляється фраза "З краплин складається море", адже роблячи маленький внесок, в результаті ми отримали кругленьку суму донатів, яка піде в організації, що допомагають людям, які опинилися в ситуації воєнних конфліктів.

Але найголовніше, що діти бігли не просто так, а розуміючи, що вони роблять, адже до цього ці організації проводили спеціальні освітні акції в школах, розповідючи дітям, що і де в світі зараз відбувається. Навіть якщо ці діти - першокласники! Кожному на своєму рівні розуміння, але доносячи важливість розбудови миру і особистого вкладу в цю справу кожного. Неймовірно! Я, як людина з багатолітнім стажем роботи з дітьми, була в захваті!

Дякуючи ZFDforum я змогла долучитися до цієї події як спікерка на ряду з іншими активістами і навіть сенаторкою Берліна. Я говорила про важливість запинки російської агресії, важливість обізнаності в контекстах, і важливість маленьких кроків від кожного. Я досі знаходжуся під враженням.

Іноді у мене віра в світле зникає, а іноді активно відроджується. Weiter so!