Beata Kolasinski-Maurer: A poignant eyewitness account to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall

Beata Kolasinski-Maurer was 13 years old in November 1989. She had just emigrated from East Germany to West Germany via checkpoint Charlie on 16 October, three weeks before the wall came down.

Schöne Kindheitserinnerungen: Beata mit ihrer Mutter in Deutschland Source: Kolasinski

The family lived one kilometre from the wall in Berlin-Wedding when she was woken up by tooting Trabant cars. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.

Familienfoto 2017: Beata Kolasinski-Maurer mit ihrem australischen Ehemann und der Tochter Source: Kolasinski

Familienglück im Mai 2018: Beata Kolasinski-Maurer mit ihrer Tochter und Mutter im Hafen von Sydney Source: Kolasinski