#remember1989 and the Fall of the Iron Curtain by joining our blog parade

black and white photograph from above of a crowd of people, one man is facing the other way from all the others

This year sees the 30th anniversary of an extraordinary year – 1989 – when walls crumbled and people of Central and Eastern Europe were united again.

hand-drawn map of Europe showing countries and their borders, the countries are filled in with the colours of their flags
Map of Europe “as it should look”, 1986 / 1987, Waco Spolitis via Europeana 1989, CC BY-SA

To remember 1989 and its events, we are inviting you to share your memories and impressions in our ‘blog parade’. Join us as we commemorate the political and social changes in 1989, the year of the Fall of the Iron Curtain.

People who lived through that year and the following years have diverse and vivid personal memories of that time. 

Join our blog parade

7 adults stand in a row, holding hands high, one man holds a child in his arms
Dramas family on Baltic Way outside Vilnius, Linas Drėma via Europeana 1989, CC BY-SA

A blog parade is a call out to people interested in this topic who are active bloggers and / or on social media to write about, photograph or share ideas or memories on their blogs / profiles. Our blog parade introduces the topic of 1989: the Fall of the Iron Curtain, and we invite you to share your ideas on your own blog or profiles.

Your posts will contribute to a greater understanding of 1989 and its events, which we will summarise here below and promote through our profiles. 

Everybody can participate in #remember1989. We welcome blogs, tweets, Facebook updates, Instagram posts, personal research, online exhibitions – we look forward to seeing your posts with the hashtag #remember1989

Some questions you might like to think about for your post:

  • What do the events of 1989 mean to you?
  • How do you remember 1989 – were you a participant, an observer?
  • Do / did you live in a country which saw communism fall? What did that mean for you?
  • How did 1989 affect you? Your economic situation, education, political views, social life, holidays? 
  • What effects from 1989 do we still feel today?
  • What role did arts and culture play in 1989?
  • From your perspective, what must we remember about 1989? How do we do that today?

We’d love to see your #remember1989 posts any time from now until the end of the year. Don’t forget to tag us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or you can also email editorial@europeana.eu.

1989 memories on Europeana Collections

Large crowd of people with two banners - one says 'Gdansk' the other 'Solidarnosc'
Photograph from the Pope’s pilgrimage, Andrzej Zajdel via Europeana 1989, CC BY-SA

#remember1989 builds on Europeana 1989, a collaborative project between 11 partner institutions, Historypin and Europeana in 2014, for which members of the public in countries that underwent changes in 1989 shared personal memorabilia and stories from this period.

Among the items shared were underground press (independent newspapers), election leaflets, food stamps, old bank notes, documents and family photos, clothes and toys. 

black and red landline telephone
OF’s first phone in Pilsen, Ladislav Vyskočil via Europeana 1989, Public Domain
blue, black and white ceramic badge in shape of a ribbon knot
Ceramic badge, Ülle Rajasalu, Irja Kändler via Europeana 1989, CC BY-SA
5000 dinar bank note showing a man's face
Yugoslav banknote via Europena 1989, Public Domain
small white cap pinned with approximately 20 political badges
Cap with pins via Europeana 1989, Public Domain
bright yellow dress on a hanger
Hand knit dress, Joanna Adamczewska via Europeana 1989, Public Domain

The diversity of the memories captured by the project is amazing – feel free to explore these objects and be inspired for your own posts.

Feel free to use the image below if you write about the blog parade.

Baltic Way, Vitas Volungevicius via Europeana 1989, CC BY-SA

Feature image: Sąjūdis rally, Vladimir Grazulis via Europeana 1989, CC BY-SA

Enrich Europeana project will launch a new Transcribathon.eu tool in Vienna on 24 September, with a Mini-Transcribathon in which the international community of Vienna will be invited to enrich crowdsourced materials relating to the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. Read more about the event.

Blog parade

Thank you for sharing your memories, ideas, stories and more with #remember1989.

Below are some blogs, tweets, comments and photographs shared so far.

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Hinter den Berliner mauern [Behind the Berlin walls] by Michel (via email), In Copyright

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16 thoughts on “#remember1989 and the Fall of the Iron Curtain by joining our blog parade”

  1. I was only 9 years old and living in a small Greek village. However, I remember reading about it in my dad’s newspaper and feeling overwhelmed by the photographs and the rich reportage, although I knew nothing about politics! My generation has had a big share of seeing the world change..
    (Imagine a 9-year-old reading a newspaper today! )

    Reply

    1. Thank you Dimitra for sharing. It’s interesting to think too what today’s children will remember in 30 years time.

      Reply

  2. On the 9th November 1989, I was driving home from a business meeting in central London to my home in Harrow. At the bottom of the hill on which our house stood I was listening to The Brandenburg Concerto on the radio (GLR); how appropriate as it turned out? The broadcast was interrupted by the news flash of the fall of The Wall – thereafter, the radio went dead for quite a long time for radio. When it came back, it played REM’s End of the World as We Know It – even more appropriate! I parked the car and entered our house to find my (German) wife in tears. I still well up at this memory. Shortly thereafter, we moved to Berlin. Berlin is still my home and a great place, despite the same influx of those that think they can buy cool.

    Reply

  3. Looking at the map, it shows Northern Ireland as no longer in the UK but as part of the Irish Republic.

    Looks like the rather untalented cartographer is supporters of a terrorist group like Sinn Fein

    Reply

    1. Thanks for your comment. The map was drawn by a schoolchild around 1986 / 1987 showing how he wished the map of Europe to look.

      Reply

  4. Agosto 1989: il viaggio in bici in Ungheria che per me, ventenne italiano, ha significato l’immersione in un mondo solo pallidamente descritto nelle ultime pagine del libro scolastico di storia.

    Reply

  5. I was 9 years old and I remember my mum crying at the television news when the Berlin Wall came down. I knew it must be significant but as a child in the UK, it was something happening a long way away. And I thought the Fall of the Iron Curtain must have something to do with our Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, as she was the Iron Lady.

    Reply

    1. Danke / Thank you Pierre for this blog. It’s important to see these sides, thanks for contributing. A link has been added to the post above.

      Reply

    1. Danke Mathias for this blog, it is very comprehensive, and interesting to read your personal reflections too. We will add to the blog post links.

      Reply

  8. I was a little kid in 1989, 9 years old, soon to be 10. I don’t really directly remember any of the events of 1989.

    But I do remember watching TV on New Years Eve, with 1989 turning into 1990. Celebrations from somewhere in a former communist country were being broadcast (I don’t totally remember which place, perhaps Berlin). People were cheering, happy, hopeful: a new year, a new decade, a new era was beginning.

    I remember this making me cry, the happiness and hope and emotion of it all combining.

    Reply

  9. I remember the snow falling on Mariahilferstrasse in Vienna. It was Saturday, December 9th and Czechoslovakia had opened its borders for the first time since the Iron Curtain closed off Eastern Europe. Finally, Czechoslovakians were free.

    The people crossing the border came to this shopping district for the Christmas holidays, but they could not buy much with their devalued currency. However, freedom itself was the gift that day.

    At that time, I was living in Vienna as a Rotary exchange student from the Philadelphia, PA area of the United States. The Cold War was a part of my childhood. Ronald Regan was elected in part, because of his strong stance against the USSR. We watched movies like Red Dawn, where teenagers fought off the Russians.

    That day, I celebrated the human spirit versus a nationalistic pride. It gave new meaning to freedom. In Philadelphia, we celebrate freedom as the location of United States’ founding of our democratic republic. To see democratic protests lead to peaceful change is a lesson that will stay with me forever.

    Reply

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