By Heidi Trautmann

It is not just one day, it is the day, November 9, 2009. The wall is down for 20 years. I have spent many hours in front of the TV screen in order to follow the ceremonies, the interviews with people who have witnessed the fall, the talks with politicians who still remember, the talks of politicians of the four guarantor states after WW II, and it made a very good impression, the talks I mean. We also saw good old friends Gorbatschov and Lech Walensa who made this day possible. We all sincerely hope that it will make an impact on all countries still with walls in their lives.

My interest in the event organized by the German Government and the Goethe Institute was first initiated many months ago by a worldwide call for artists in such countries where there is still a wall. I was present during the workshop in Nicosia and on the evening when the “symbolic stones” were sent on their way to Berlin.

My keen interest was kept alive by my correspondence with the editor of website www.cre-aktiv.com who was in close contact with the organizers, visited press conferences and regularly sent me photos on her walks through the scene around the Brandenburg Gate, the centre of the festivities on November 9. These were her last photos she took one day before the event, when it was still not raining and she was always on the lookout for the Cypriot stones. She found them and said: ’I feel very close to the Cypriot artists and I would like to greet them from where I stand.’