LEOPOLD ASCHENBRENNER JUST GOT MARRIED - BUT HIS OWN EXISTENCE BEGAN WITH THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL “My mother grew up in the former East, my father in the former West.” “They met shortly after the Wall fell.” “The end of the Cold War was this extremely pivotal moment for me because it’s the reason I exist.” His great-grandmother survived Nazi Germany, witnessed the firebombing of Dresden and spent most of her life under East German communism. Her son was imprisoned by the Stasi after trying to cross the Iron Curtain. She was almost 60 when she finally lived in a free country. “She raised me when I was young. So it doesn’t feel that long ago. It feels very close.” Today, Leopold began the next chapter of that family story.