"We must keep this wall standing if it ever comes down, because it really is a monument to misguided policy"
Jürgen Karwelat, an administrative lawyer, moved to West Berlin in the early 1980s for professional reasons. In 1983 he joined the historical society Berliner Geschichtswerkstatt e.V., working towards changing the conventional view of history and raising awareness of forgotten topics and points of view, e.g., that of women and the lower classes, the history of everyday life and cultural history, and above all providing precise information on victims and perpetrators under Nazism. Jürgen Karwelat was one step ahead of the times. A month before the fall of the Wall, in October 1989, he launched an appeal with the Berliner Geschichtswerkstatt e.V. to preserve the Berlin Wall as a historic monument if the border opened. Only a few people supported the initiative at the time. But it found many more supporters after 9 November 1989. It is not least thanks to this society’s commitment that sections of the Berlin Wall can still be seen today.
Additional information:
Berliner Geschichtswerkstatt e.V. http://www.berliner-geschichtswerkstatt.de/ueber-uns.html