Mark Joseph Jochim

Reading about the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall this week found me waxing nostalgic.  Without going into too many details, this historic event and  others surrounding the “opening” of Eastern Europe and the dissolution of the former Soviet Union had a profound affect on my life at the time and continues to shape my psyche.  There was a profound sense of HOPE throughout the world that I feel hasn’t existed since those heady days of the late 1980’s and early to mid-1990’s. 

At the time, I amassed a nice collection of “souvenirs” of many of these events – largely philatelic.  I even had my “piece” of the Wall (practically a boulder!).  Sadly, those are mostly gone – victims of  my move from the deserts of the southwest United States to the jungles of Southeast Asia.  What’s left are memories which, thanks to the magic of the Internet, can be visualized at times such as this.

This then forms the basis of my own personal “tribute” to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of freedom in a part of the world I hold great affinity for.  I hope you enjoy the following virtual album of my philatelic and pictorial memories of the ninth of November 1989 and the celebrations a quarter-century later.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---