Perplexity

I cannot pretend that I have anything to add to all that is being written and said this weekend, a quarter of a century after the fall of the Wall.

In Munich we watched the newscasts on television and struggled to understand the implications. And how could such a momentous development... essentially the capitulation of a hatefully brutal regime... possibly take place without bloodshed? What lay ahead for us?

For me personally there was the awareness that my first ever visit to Berlin was in 1962, when the Wall was still very new. I had been sent there by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to handle publicity for a film being made on location in the German capital. The movie told the story of an escape from the East, under the Wall, Tunnel 28. 

So, yes, strange to say, even for a Scotsman a Wall that divided Europe had direct relevance.