From the historic campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, where the good, the true, and the beautiful are taught, nurtured, and honored, this is the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, bringing the activity and education of the college to listeners across the country.

You never know when history is about to happen.

I always tell my students, keep your eyes open, keep your ears open, watch out, because history is happening all around you.

This is your host, Scott Bertram, and that's Dr. Fred Ghaniga, our first guest on today's

program. Dr. Yonika is chairman and associate professor of German at Hillsdale College. He also was

in Germany when the fall of the Berlin Wall began November 9, 1989. What an amazing time in history

to be present for.

What was that experience like? Why were you there in the first place?

Right. Scott, I was spending my junior year abroad in Germany. I was in college. I was 20 years old and I was studying German and international studies and it was time for me to go spend some time overseas and to see the world a little bit.

And so I spent a year in Heidelberg, and I was in the western part of divided Germany at the time.

And it was the fall of 1989.

And so that was an amazing time.

Historically, you never know when history is about to happen.

I always tell my students, keep your eyes open, keep your ears open, watch out, because

history is happening all around you.

And the timing was perfect for me.

I was there right in the middle of it.

So can you remember the feeling leading up to, I would say that day, but that,

you know, those days when the wall literally came down, was there a feeling that this was going

to happen? Was there, was there this sense that a great event was going to occur? Of course,

looking back today, all of the signs were leading up to big changes.

But at the time, no one would have ever believed it.

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