It was a lingering symbol of the Cold War; Monday evening marks the 20 year anniversary of the day it began to fall. The Berlin wall kept East German residents from traveling west, and certainly, from studying at Texas A&M University. One Fulbright Scholar says he wouldn't be an Aggie if the wall hadn't come down.

As East Berlin residents chipped away the wall in November of 1989, Martin Knaack was almost four-years-old. He doesn't remember the wall, but grew up hearing stories about it's impact on his family, and the day it fell.

"Many people have (sic) already given up hope that this could ever happen," said Knaack.

Knaack's grandparents were in their '20s when construction on the barrier to separate Soviet occupied East Germany from West Germany began in 1961.

After 28 years of living in East Germany, Knaack said it was hard for his family to believe the wall was coming down, so in November of 1989, his uncle made the hour-and-a-half trip to the wall.

"And he came back excitedly and said 'yeah, that's for sure and now is the time that something changed,'" said Knaack.

It was unexpected, but welcome. In 1972, when Knaack's mother was a child, her family's home was seized by the government and the family was restricted to the top floor. The nearby stone business was also seized. It had been in his grandfather's family for 150 years, and employed 60 people.

"He was forced to actually to make a proper hand over to them which was really hard for him to do," said Knaack.

The next year, his grandfather took his own life.

Knaack's mother grew up opposed to communism, but pledged allegiance because she wanted to go to college.

"She did finally do this kind of communist confirmation. I think it's called this when you confirm your baptism in church, the communists had a similar test, you join otherwise you could not study," said Knaack.

His father also made sacrifices. He'd wanted to study microelectronics, a degree which required three years of military service.

"And he didn't want that, so he quit after one-and-a-half years after the minimum time and started mathematics which he didn't like," said Knaack.

His father finished his degree the year the wall fell.

Two years later, a reunified German government returned the family business, and reimbursed them for their loss.

"There was no investment made in the whole 20 years, all the machines were still from the '60s, it was rusted," said Knaack.

Today Martin's uncle runs the business and ships stone to China and India; business deals in part, set up by Martin.

"Being born in East Germany, there was no way to travel to any western country," said Knaack.

Now the boy who was once an East German, is now an Aggie MBA student, focusing on international business.