Leipzig, 9 October 1989 — When Fear Was No Longer Enough Thirty-seven years ago today, around 70,000 people marched through Leipzig. The East German authorities were prepared to intervene, and nobody could be certain how the evening would end. Yet the feared bloodshed never came. A month later, the Berlin Wall opened. I lived through that extraordinary autumn. I remember how difficult it was to imagine where it would all lead. What now seems like an inevitable chapter of history was, at the time, a series of uncertain days, decisions and hopes. I later returned to that atmosphere in my novella The Wall, where political change unfolds alongside personal loyalties, friendships and the invisible barriers people carry within themselves. History remembers the walls that fell. Those who lived through those days may also remember how impossible their fall once seemed. The Wall — available on Amazon: