On Plugged In…
Remembering the intense days…
That led to the fall of the
Berlin Wall…
150 kilometers of
reinforced concrete…
and barbed wire…
that divided Germany…
both physically
and ideologicaly…
President Ronald Reagan: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
But now…
30 years after a US president…
told the Soviet Union…
to tear it down…
the wall remains
a potent symbol
of the cold war.
((whoosh))
What lessons have we learned?
Have we broken down one barrier
only to replace it...
with greater geo-political divisions?
On Plugged In...
The Berlin Wall...
30 years after the fall.
Hello and welcome to Plugged in. I'm Greta Van Susteren.
If walls could talk, the more than 150 kilometers of concrete and barbed wire that once divided the German capital of Berlin would have many stories to tell.
November 9th marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which liberated East Germany and ultimately led to the end of Soviet Communist rule.
Three decades later, the wall is long gone. But as Plugged In's Mil Arcega reports, the wall that once stopped East Germans from venturing into the West, still casts a long shadow over German life.
(Berlin: 30 Years Later)
((NARRATOR))
November, 1989…East Berliners climbing over nearly four-meters of reinforced concrete -- to freedom.
It’s a moment that remains among the most searing — and most hopeful events of the 20th century…
((Florian Schmidt, Berlin Resident))
“Very many people coming from the east to the West.. and we were going in the opposite direction.”
((NARRATOR))
Florian Schmidt, a student in West Berlin at the time was among the thousands of Germans who charged the wall that night and helped usher in a new era.
((FLORIAN SCHMIDT, BERLIN RESIDENT))
“For me in this moment it was adrenaline and danger…and the days after you only realized how historic this moment was.”
((NARRATOR))
Today steel pipes – have replaced some of the original walls that still snake through the city — and visitors still ask: ‘is this east or is this west?’
But stories about these walls still inspire --- as do the memorials to the peaceful revolution… and the lives lost before the walls came down.
((VISITOR FROM BRITAIN, FEMALE))
“I think it’s a peaceful lovely place to be, when you come in here. But this is always a reminder of what did happen.”
((NARRATOR))
Not to be forgotten is the darker side of life in communist East Germany — the so-called German “Democratic” Republic or GDR.
Berlin’s ‘Stasi Museum’ documents the abuses of the once feared East German secret police.
((German Museum Visitor))
“You always had the feeling that they were watching you. So it was a very repressive regime.”
((NARRATOR))
But over time, call it nostalgia, or just curiosity - interest in what it was like to live in East Berlin has grown.
At Berlin’s GDR Museum, visitors can test drive East Germany’s ubiquitous clunker the Trabant; experience life in a communist flat, or just browse through the East’s manufacturing past.
((Vanessa Lemke, GDR Museum))
“Besides all these serious and negative side of this socialist dictatorship, there was a normal life. And people got used to living in a such a state. And they had good lives and weren’t faced with repressions every day.”
((NARRATOR))
Despite dueling interpretations, some observers say Berlin may be unified but the stigma of East German socialism remains.
((Joerg Forbrig, German Marshall Fund of the United States))
”Despite the enormous effort they have made, they are still somehow being treated as second class Europeans or second class Germans. That they are still not quite there.”
((NARRATOR)
Recent polls find more than half of Germans — 53 percent — believe their democracy is in danger — the result of rising nationalism.
But East Germans’ faith in their government has also been shaken as economic prosperity continues to lag.
It all comes back to that moment in 1989.
Despite the initial euphoria – some say the process of reunification has been messy.
But others say despite lingering inequalities, Germans made the right choice to unify their country.
((Florian Schmidt, Berlin Resident))
“When you really think of how it used to be here, it’s just a step that had to happen. That was 100% right. Some things had been done wrong but in the end it was right.”
((NARRATOR))
Now three decades after the Wall was torn down, many Germans believe it remains a moment worth celebrating. Even for those still struggling to escape its shadow.
((for producer Charles Maynes, Mil Arcega VOA News))
(GRETA)
Germany's capital is marking this historic event with a week-long, city-wide celebration. That is where VOA’s Europe correspondent Henry Ridgwell is standing by.
GVS: Henry thank you for joining us. Is there a way to describe sort of the atmosphere, right now in the city?
HR: It's an atmosphere of anticipation I think ahead of Saturday's anniversary which will mark 30 years since that extraordinary event when tens of thousands, all over the wall. I'm here at the Brandenburg Gate which predates the days of the Berlin Wall, but it was always a potent symbol of the division between East and West. It did form parts of the border, about five meters behind where I'm standing, the concrete wall stood and several armed guards and razor wire separated those two sides of Berlin. And it was one of the first places where East Berliners is and West Berliners is flocked on that night in November, 1989 with their pickaxes, with their shovels, to come and destroy the wall that had divided them for 28 years.
GVS: You know as I watch this and listen to you I think that if you were under the age of 30, you may not realize the impact of that wall, and what it meant. The chancellor, Chancellor Angela Merkel was actually, she lived in East Germany. Didn't she during this time?
HR: Absolutely. She did. She was from East Germany and it's always been a matter of pride for her that she was a part of that movement and was able to celebrate the reunification of Germany. As you saw in that last report, there are lingering feelings, sometimes here in Germany that the process of reunification hasn't fully run its course yet. That parts of East Germany and still aren’t as economically developed as parts of West Germany, but that would underplay I think the political importance of exactly what happened here. The fall of the wall 30 years ago.
GVS: Does she have any special plans are there any events with the German Chancellor on this date?
HR: Well, as you can see behind me the Brandenburg Gate is going to be the center of the celebrations on Saturday, when Chancellor Merkel, along with many other officials in Germany and other leaders from across Europe will come here to mark that anniversary. There will be events as well across Berlin and across Germany because don't forget it wasn't just this city that was divided as you've alluded to, it was an entire country, and an entire continent that was divided by the iron curtain and that night, November the ninth was the first real chink in that iron curtain that led to the fall of communism in 199. And such a historic moment for Europe and also for the global order.
GVS: You know, I suppose, most people don’t even realize families were divided by this wall. Have you had an opportunity to speak to anybody who was, who talks about their personal experiences?
HR: Yeah, there were some extraordinary stories here. When the wall was first built sometimes it went through backyards and the front of apartment buildings or houses were separated from the, from the back part by the wall, so parts of houses were divided, as you say families were divided. I met one man yesterday who remembers growing up as a young boy and as a teenager, right next to the wall. He used to play soccer against the wall to use the wall as a football goal. And he was 19 years old in a punk rock band, when he heard that the wall was falling. His mother called him into the living room to see the television, and they both went down to one of the main crossings and couldn't believe their eyes when the gates opened. Of course, we know now, it was almost a bureaucratic mistake by an East German government spokesperson to say that East German citizens could move to the West. And so a few hundred arrived at first, the guards didn't know what to do they opened the gates. And this man, Patrick, along with others was among the first through. He'd never been to East Berlin before. The first place he made for was the Kurfürstendamm, which was the symbolic shopping heart, the symbol of capitalism in West Berlin. Tens of thousands more followed him, each have their own personal stories about that night, about the parties that went on, about the tears of joy that lasted for days, weeks, months after the reunification of the country. So while this is a hugely important geopolitical moment for Europe and the leaders will mark that, for many Germans themselves this is a very personal moment when families were divided and came back together.
GVS: And of course the Soviets resisted having the wall come down, because the Soviets thought that you want to keep the people in East Berlin in that area because if the wall should come down, it was a sign that communism was a failure because the East Germans wanted to get out.
HR: Exactly right. So, the wall was built in the first place because millions of East Germans were moving to the West and the wall put a stop to that. And it was only when Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union, that he began that period of Perestroika and the reforms that led to East Germany being able to take down that wall. There was huge resistance from the East German government, and from other Soviet officials in Moscow as well. And they foresaw that the fall of the wall would likely mean the end of communism, it didn't happen straight away. There would still be revolutions in Czechoslovakia. The revolution in Romania, which wasn't bloodless unlike the events here in Germany, the revolutions in the Baltic states as well. And it wasn't for another two years until 1991, that communism and the Soviet Union really came crashing down. And we should also remember the 30 years of history that have happened since then and the ongoing problems between East and West now, between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the West and the war in Ukraine and the standoff and the military rearmament that is still taking place.
GVS: Henry Thank you very much. I’m jealous, I'd love to be there. Henry Ridgwell, VOA’s correspondent in Europe. Thank you, Henry. And you can follow Henry on twitter @HenryRidgwell.
(GRETA)
And the fall of the Berlin wall symbolized the eventual liberation of East Germany, and later the rest of Eastern Europe from Soviet Communist rule.
Yet the wall's anniversary comes as the politics of East and West continues to reverberate through German society.
In former communist East Germany, a democratic slogan from the revolution of 1989, rebounds and resonates among the present-day nationalist far right.
Reporter Charles Maynes has more.
(FAR RIGHT RISING)
These days, the mood in the state of Thuringia, in central east Germany, is undeniably sour.
Look no further than the rise of the far right Alternative for Germany, or AfD,
The party’s local candidate, Nadine Hoffman, campaigned and won in her home town of Hildburghausen with one central idea: German reunification after 1989 has fallen hopelessly short.
((Nadine Hoffman, Alternative for Germany Party))
“East and West are still separated. I think more than 30 years ago. My opinion and we have to finish this progress to become one.”
((NARRATOR ))
For the AfD, that means harvesting the slogans and sentiments of 1989: when thousands took to the streets of communist east Germany demanding change.
Only, observers say, yesterday’s rallying cries have been refashioned by the AfD amid promises to, finally - in their words – “finish the revolution” for East Germans.
((Hajo Funke, Free University of Berlin ((in English) ))
“They thought with good reasons that we would have in three years “flourishing landscapes”…also economically. But that wasn’t the case. But still these days the majority of eastern German citizens say we are second class people…because of that experience.”
((NARRATOR ))
The AfD and other far right groups have found a potent issue in the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees to Germany beginning in 2015.
In Thuringia and elsewhere in the East, it has fueled a “Germans First” movement with disturbing overtones of Germany’s Nazi past.
There’s little doubt the AfD’s message resonates. While the party is now represented nationally, its core base remains in the east. Formed by the events of '89.
((Katrin, AfD Supporter, Thuringia (female in German) ))
“I was 18 years old and I witnessed how these people were trying to stop their fellow citizens from protesting. And I believe we are very close to that again.”
((NARRATOR ))
Is the AfD a corrective conservative vision - or an echo of Germany’s darkest historical chapter?
Either way, the frustrations of 1989 drive the debate. Ignoring it could come at Germany and perhaps Europe’s peril.
((Charles Maynes, for VOA News, Thuringia, Germany))
(GRETA)
The rise of the Far Right in Germany comes as that country confronts new challenges and new barriers in what is becoming a highly charged immigration debate.
Once again, reporter Charles Maynes.
((NARRATOR))
Germany, 2015. Hundreds of thousands of refugees arrive under a government resettlement program that has since roiled German politics: as Germany’s anti-immigrant far right was emboldened supporters of refugees also mobilized.
Ruckenwind — or ‘Tailwind’ in English — is one of hundreds of projects in Berlin aimed at helping assimilate new arrivals.
Their seemingly simple solution: locals and newcomers fixing bicycles together.
((Graham Pope, Volunteer, Ruckenwind))
“Refugees aren’t on large wages and so it’s not just ‘hey it’s cool, it’s sexy, let’s go on a bike.' It’s like, 'No. This is a very, very low cost way of me getting to the job center or my place of work or the university.'”
((NARRATOR))
Kayvan arrived as part of the new migrant wave…leaving behind a career as an auto mechanic in his native Iran.
((Kayvan, Iranian Refugee in Germany))
“Working with bikes is very interesting for me now, because I can repair bikes in the future at some other company or work independently.”
((NARRATOR))
In a city once defined and divided by a wall, networks of volunteers and community groups present a vision of an inclusive Germany, one that migration experts say is still the case, for now.
((Mona Günnewig, Analyst, German Council on Foreign Relations))
“Germany is still, if you look at the numbers for the 7th year in a row, the country in Europe with the highest number of asylum seekers or asylum applications. So it’s still a welcoming country to a certain degree. But it’s true that we have seen this very open reaction in 2015. What happened there triggered some backlash in the population.”
((NARRATOR))
Facing recent electoral gains by anti-immigrant parties, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has bowed to pressure from her party and put restrictions in place.
It’s not for the first time Germans have grappled with the migration debate. Turkish immigrants arrived as guest workers in the 1960’s and 70’s. Theirs has been a long path to path to acceptance in German society.
((Mete Kocbay, Berlin Resident))
“The old generation, for example, my dad, had no German friends. The young generation they integrate more and more; they are more German than Turkish. We have good chance and we can choose. The good things we can take from Turkish and the good things we can take from German. I think the German good: discipline, time. Turkish: more love. happy.”
((NARRATOR))
People from different cultures mixing, meeting… living and working together. It’s a story…as old as the wheel.
((Charles Maynes, for VOA News, Berlin))
(GRETA)
For those of you old enough to remember that day, there was never any doubt that what happened 30 years ago this month...
would prove historic.
Among them, former US Secretary of State James Baker, who played a pivotal role in the reunification of Germany and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Secretary Baker, who worked in both the President Reagan and first President Bush administrations recounted the fall of the Berlin Wall with VOA Eurasian Service's Vivian Chakarian, sharing his insights on the end of one cold war and the beginning of what he says is a new one.
(A GENERATIONAL CHANGE)
JB: It was the beginning of a change in the world that those people in my generation and before had known all of our adult lives or those people in my generation had known all of their lives. Forty years of the Cold War were coming to an end and the fall of the wall symbolized the beginning of that end.
None of us at the time expected the implosion of the Soviet Union, the end of the Soviet Union. You know, Yeltsin and Nazarbayev and Shushteyevich and Gravchuk got together in Minsk and decreed the end of the Soviet Union and the creation of the so-called Commonwealth of Independent States.
That came as a surprise to everybody.The fall of the wall really was not, was not predicted to happen when it did. We knew there were demonstrations for freedom occurring all across the Warsaw Pact countries and in large part, I might add, because of the actions and efforts of the Voice of America and the fact that we were getting our message across and into those countries.
There is a strong yearning for freedom on the part of peoples everywhere in the world. And when authoritarians come to power and try and shut off that freedom or eliminate that freedom, there's going to be resistance.
(POWER PLAYERS)
Well, personalities play a big part in in the formulation and implementation of foreign policy. If you could get into a position of trust with the person across the table from you, you had a heck of a lot better chance of accomplishing something. Not that you would diminish or give away any of your country's principles and values. But if you could get into a personal relationship of trust, then there would be far more chance of the two of you accomplishing something.
In the time we're talking about there, at the time of the collapse of the wall, they were very strong personalities. President Bush, President Gorbachev, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, President Mitterand, Helmut Kohl, the chancellor of West Germany. These were all strong personalities.
(US-RUSSIA RELATIONS)
I don't think our relations with Russia today are worse than then.
But I do think it's fair to say we're back into a Cold War with Russia. You know, when Russian aircraft buzz our ships and planes, that's just simply not acceptable and violate the rules of engagement and come too close and risk accidents. That's how wars start.
(COLD WAR 2.0)
Well, I'm not sure I know how we get back on track other than to do what we did so successfully during the Cold War. And that is be resolute in our support of freedom, democracy and free markets. That's how we won the Cold War. We had a paradigm that was far better than the statist and authoritarian paradigm of the Soviet Union. And that's the way we meet the challenges of today. And we just simply need to be steadfast and resolute and understand that our principles and values are the principles and values that free people everywhere around the world would like to maintain and subscribe to.
(GRETA)
What does the wall coming down 30 years ago mean for us today? And what was it like on day one after the wall went down?
Hope Harrison was on a plane to Germany on that historic day. She is a professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University and former public policy fellow for the Cold War International History Project at the Wilson Center. She is the author of a new book called "After the Berlin Wall."
GVS: Welcome Professor.
HH: Thank you for having me.
GVS: Ok, I love that where were you when and when there's a historic event. You have a particularly good one. You were on a plane, just coincidentally going to Berlin?
HH: Totally coincidentally. I boarded a plane on the morning of November 9th in New York City, headed to Berlin. And when we change planes in Frankfurt, everybody was reading newspapers with big headlines “Die mauer ist offen”, the wall is open, and I thought what? And the pilot got on the, the microphone and announced “ladies and gentlemen in case you haven't heard the Berlin Wall fell last night and we are flying into history”.
GVS: All right, so you arrived on the 10th we have pictures of you at the wall. Did you see this coming?
HH: I did not see it coming. Absolutely not. It was it was some sort of miracle. It wasn't supposed to happen. It was an unprepared East German official live at a press conference announced suddenly the wall was open. And then it was one border guard, Harold Yeager, who when he couldn't get any answer from his superiors “What am I supposed to do?” there are hundreds and thousands of people standing here. They didn't give him an answer. So he decided to open the border at Bornholmer Strasse. And that by the way, is where Angela Merkel, that night, along with 20,000 other East Germans, crossed from East Berlin into West Berlin.
GVS: And boy, her history changed after that. All right. Was this a sign communism failed?
HH: Yes, it certainly was. The wall had symbolized not only the Cold War, but the repressive nature of communism, and that the East German citizens were tired of that. They didn't want that.
GVS: Did they, did most East German citizens know, I mean like, compare like, I mean East Germany was a prison. And even like North Korea is a prison. You know their people can't leave. People in North Korea at least they stayed, they live in, you know, a great place. Did the East Germans know? Did they have enough Western influence to know that this was not paradise?
HH: Well Absolutely. And it's not quite a prison, to the extent North Korea is because they could watch West German TV. And some of them could travel and their relatives could come visit them. So they were watching West German TV all the time and they knew what the stores looked like, what the cars looked like, clothes.
GVS: Why was east Germany willing to let that happen? Couldn't they block the Western influence?
HH: They did at first, but ultimately, the East German regime decided to sort of buy off the loyalty of its people thinking, Okay, if we at least let them watch Western television, they'll be a bit quieter, and stay.
GVS: And that didn't work well. Okay, alright. I always read about it but I obviously read about it in English. You speak German, you can read German. What are the German websites saying about this today, how do they portray this?
HH: Well, sadly, there is a lot of talk about a renewed sense of division. As well as people remembering the joy they felt that day, that night, and the days after. So I would say it's split. There's some people who want to celebrate, who say this was fantastic. The peaceful fall of the wall, the sense of freedom for East Germans. It was a day that they will never forget. But there are others that say that what's happened since then, over the past 30 years, hasn't lived up to their expectations.
GVS: You've written a book “After the Berlin Wall” which I now am certain to buy and read. What's the thesis of the book, what would I walk away with or what am I going to walk away with after read it?
HH: It traces how Germany has dealt with the history of the wall, how they've commemorated the victims, how they put perpetrators on trial, and it argues that in 2009, the Germans suddenly realized they had something really positive in their recent history to celebrate, namely the peaceful fall of the wall. So the 20th anniversary in 2009, the 25th anniversary in 2014 was a mood of joy and pride and celebration which Germans aren't used to feeling. But this year, for the 30th anniversary. It's much more subdued.
GVS: I'm surprised it's much more subdued because I mean as you get farther away from events, sort of the you know the raw grudges from events, it seems to wane a little bit but I would think they'd be hugely celebrated.
HH: So many people are but there is this loud minority, who's voting for the far right, who are frustrated that while the gap has narrowed between East and West, there's still some important differences.
GVS: Professor, thank you very much. Fascinating time in history. Thank you very much.
HH: Thank you.
(GRETA)
As most of you know, music, like politics has the power to change hearts and minds. It has the power to inspire and move people to action. And there are those who believe music played a key role in changing public attitudes in the years and months that preceded the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In June 1987, the late British rock star David Bowie performed in West Berlin. It was a three-day open air show and it was close enough to the wall that East Berliners could hear the music.
Many listened as Bowie said quote “We send our wishes to all our friends who are on the other side of the wall.”
But on the final day of the event East German police violently cracked down on the people listening by the wall.
But it may have been too late. One week later, US president Ronald Reagan stood in West Berlin where he had this to say to the Soviet Union.
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”)
Fast forward one year – July 1988. American rock star Bruce Springsteen holds a concert in East Germany.
An estimated 300 thousand people showed up. Tensions among German youth had been growing and some say allowing Springsteen to perform was a way to calm things down.
It may have backfired. Many in the crowd waved Homemade American flags. Historians believe the concert fueled East Germans’ appetite for a bigger taste of life from the West.
16 months later, the Berlin Wall came tumbling down.
That's all the time we have for today.
Stay Plugged In by liking us on Facebook at Voice of America.
You can also like my Facebook page at facebook-dot-com-forward-slash-Greta.
And follow me on Twitter @Greta.
Thanks for being Plugged In.
Remembering the intense days…
That led to the fall of the
Berlin Wall…
150 kilometers of
reinforced concrete…
and barbed wire…
that divided Germany…
both physically
and ideologicaly…
President Ronald Reagan: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
But now…
30 years after a US president…
told the Soviet Union…
to tear it down…
the wall remains
a potent symbol
of the cold war.
((whoosh))
What lessons have we learned?
Have we broken down one barrier
only to replace it...
with greater geo-political divisions?
On Plugged In...
The Berlin Wall...
30 years after the fall.
Hello and welcome to Plugged in. I'm Greta Van Susteren.
If walls could talk, the more than 150 kilometers of concrete and barbed wire that once divided the German capital of Berlin would have many stories to tell.
November 9th marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which liberated East Germany and ultimately led to the end of Soviet Communist rule.
Three decades later, the wall is long gone. But as Plugged In's Mil Arcega reports, the wall that once stopped East Germans from venturing into the West, still casts a long shadow over German life.
(Berlin: 30 Years Later)
((NARRATOR))
November, 1989…East Berliners climbing over nearly four-meters of reinforced concrete -- to freedom.
It’s a moment that remains among the most searing — and most hopeful events of the 20th century…
((Florian Schmidt, Berlin Resident))
“Very many people coming from the east to the West.. and we were going in the opposite direction.”
((NARRATOR))
Florian Schmidt, a student in West Berlin at the time was among the thousands of Germans who charged the wall that night and helped usher in a new era.
((FLORIAN SCHMIDT, BERLIN RESIDENT))
“For me in this moment it was adrenaline and danger…and the days after you only realized how historic this moment was.”
((NARRATOR))
Today steel pipes – have replaced some of the original walls that still snake through the city — and visitors still ask: ‘is this east or is this west?’
But stories about these walls still inspire --- as do the memorials to the peaceful revolution… and the lives lost before the walls came down.
((VISITOR FROM BRITAIN, FEMALE))
“I think it’s a peaceful lovely place to be, when you come in here. But this is always a reminder of what did happen.”
((NARRATOR))
Not to be forgotten is the darker side of life in communist East Germany — the so-called German “Democratic” Republic or GDR.
Berlin’s ‘Stasi Museum’ documents the abuses of the once feared East German secret police.
((German Museum Visitor))
“You always had the feeling that they were watching you. So it was a very repressive regime.”
((NARRATOR))
But over time, call it nostalgia, or just curiosity - interest in what it was like to live in East Berlin has grown.
At Berlin’s GDR Museum, visitors can test drive East Germany’s ubiquitous clunker the Trabant; experience life in a communist flat, or just browse through the East’s manufacturing past.
((Vanessa Lemke, GDR Museum))
“Besides all these serious and negative side of this socialist dictatorship, there was a normal life. And people got used to living in a such a state. And they had good lives and weren’t faced with repressions every day.”
((NARRATOR))
Despite dueling interpretations, some observers say Berlin may be unified but the stigma of East German socialism remains.
((Joerg Forbrig, German Marshall Fund of the United States))
”Despite the enormous effort they have made, they are still somehow being treated as second class Europeans or second class Germans. That they are still not quite there.”
((NARRATOR)
Recent polls find more than half of Germans — 53 percent — believe their democracy is in danger — the result of rising nationalism.
But East Germans’ faith in their government has also been shaken as economic prosperity continues to lag.
It all comes back to that moment in 1989.
Despite the initial euphoria – some say the process of reunification has been messy.
But others say despite lingering inequalities, Germans made the right choice to unify their country.
((Florian Schmidt, Berlin Resident))
“When you really think of how it used to be here, it’s just a step that had to happen. That was 100% right. Some things had been done wrong but in the end it was right.”
((NARRATOR))
Now three decades after the Wall was torn down, many Germans believe it remains a moment worth celebrating. Even for those still struggling to escape its shadow.
((for producer Charles Maynes, Mil Arcega VOA News))
(GRETA)
Germany's capital is marking this historic event with a week-long, city-wide celebration. That is where VOA’s Europe correspondent Henry Ridgwell is standing by.
GVS: Henry thank you for joining us. Is there a way to describe sort of the atmosphere, right now in the city?
HR: It's an atmosphere of anticipation I think ahead of Saturday's anniversary which will mark 30 years since that extraordinary event when tens of thousands, all over the wall. I'm here at the Brandenburg Gate which predates the days of the Berlin Wall, but it was always a potent symbol of the division between East and West. It did form parts of the border, about five meters behind where I'm standing, the concrete wall stood and several armed guards and razor wire separated those two sides of Berlin. And it was one of the first places where East Berliners is and West Berliners is flocked on that night in November, 1989 with their pickaxes, with their shovels, to come and destroy the wall that had divided them for 28 years.
GVS: You know as I watch this and listen to you I think that if you were under the age of 30, you may not realize the impact of that wall, and what it meant. The chancellor, Chancellor Angela Merkel was actually, she lived in East Germany. Didn't she during this time?
HR: Absolutely. She did. She was from East Germany and it's always been a matter of pride for her that she was a part of that movement and was able to celebrate the reunification of Germany. As you saw in that last report, there are lingering feelings, sometimes here in Germany that the process of reunification hasn't fully run its course yet. That parts of East Germany and still aren’t as economically developed as parts of West Germany, but that would underplay I think the political importance of exactly what happened here. The fall of the wall 30 years ago.
GVS: Does she have any special plans are there any events with the German Chancellor on this date?
HR: Well, as you can see behind me the Brandenburg Gate is going to be the center of the celebrations on Saturday, when Chancellor Merkel, along with many other officials in Germany and other leaders from across Europe will come here to mark that anniversary. There will be events as well across Berlin and across Germany because don't forget it wasn't just this city that was divided as you've alluded to, it was an entire country, and an entire continent that was divided by the iron curtain and that night, November the ninth was the first real chink in that iron curtain that led to the fall of communism in 199. And such a historic moment for Europe and also for the global order.
GVS: You know, I suppose, most people don’t even realize families were divided by this wall. Have you had an opportunity to speak to anybody who was, who talks about their personal experiences?
HR: Yeah, there were some extraordinary stories here. When the wall was first built sometimes it went through backyards and the front of apartment buildings or houses were separated from the, from the back part by the wall, so parts of houses were divided, as you say families were divided. I met one man yesterday who remembers growing up as a young boy and as a teenager, right next to the wall. He used to play soccer against the wall to use the wall as a football goal. And he was 19 years old in a punk rock band, when he heard that the wall was falling. His mother called him into the living room to see the television, and they both went down to one of the main crossings and couldn't believe their eyes when the gates opened. Of course, we know now, it was almost a bureaucratic mistake by an East German government spokesperson to say that East German citizens could move to the West. And so a few hundred arrived at first, the guards didn't know what to do they opened the gates. And this man, Patrick, along with others was among the first through. He'd never been to East Berlin before. The first place he made for was the Kurfürstendamm, which was the symbolic shopping heart, the symbol of capitalism in West Berlin. Tens of thousands more followed him, each have their own personal stories about that night, about the parties that went on, about the tears of joy that lasted for days, weeks, months after the reunification of the country. So while this is a hugely important geopolitical moment for Europe and the leaders will mark that, for many Germans themselves this is a very personal moment when families were divided and came back together.
GVS: And of course the Soviets resisted having the wall come down, because the Soviets thought that you want to keep the people in East Berlin in that area because if the wall should come down, it was a sign that communism was a failure because the East Germans wanted to get out.
HR: Exactly right. So, the wall was built in the first place because millions of East Germans were moving to the West and the wall put a stop to that. And it was only when Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union, that he began that period of Perestroika and the reforms that led to East Germany being able to take down that wall. There was huge resistance from the East German government, and from other Soviet officials in Moscow as well. And they foresaw that the fall of the wall would likely mean the end of communism, it didn't happen straight away. There would still be revolutions in Czechoslovakia. The revolution in Romania, which wasn't bloodless unlike the events here in Germany, the revolutions in the Baltic states as well. And it wasn't for another two years until 1991, that communism and the Soviet Union really came crashing down. And we should also remember the 30 years of history that have happened since then and the ongoing problems between East and West now, between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the West and the war in Ukraine and the standoff and the military rearmament that is still taking place.
GVS: Henry Thank you very much. I’m jealous, I'd love to be there. Henry Ridgwell, VOA’s correspondent in Europe. Thank you, Henry. And you can follow Henry on twitter @HenryRidgwell.
(GRETA)
And the fall of the Berlin wall symbolized the eventual liberation of East Germany, and later the rest of Eastern Europe from Soviet Communist rule.
Yet the wall's anniversary comes as the politics of East and West continues to reverberate through German society.
In former communist East Germany, a democratic slogan from the revolution of 1989, rebounds and resonates among the present-day nationalist far right.
Reporter Charles Maynes has more.
(FAR RIGHT RISING)
These days, the mood in the state of Thuringia, in central east Germany, is undeniably sour.
Look no further than the rise of the far right Alternative for Germany, or AfD,
The party’s local candidate, Nadine Hoffman, campaigned and won in her home town of Hildburghausen with one central idea: German reunification after 1989 has fallen hopelessly short.
((Nadine Hoffman, Alternative for Germany Party))
“East and West are still separated. I think more than 30 years ago. My opinion and we have to finish this progress to become one.”
((NARRATOR ))
For the AfD, that means harvesting the slogans and sentiments of 1989: when thousands took to the streets of communist east Germany demanding change.
Only, observers say, yesterday’s rallying cries have been refashioned by the AfD amid promises to, finally - in their words – “finish the revolution” for East Germans.
((Hajo Funke, Free University of Berlin ((in English) ))
“They thought with good reasons that we would have in three years “flourishing landscapes”…also economically. But that wasn’t the case. But still these days the majority of eastern German citizens say we are second class people…because of that experience.”
((NARRATOR ))
The AfD and other far right groups have found a potent issue in the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees to Germany beginning in 2015.
In Thuringia and elsewhere in the East, it has fueled a “Germans First” movement with disturbing overtones of Germany’s Nazi past.
There’s little doubt the AfD’s message resonates. While the party is now represented nationally, its core base remains in the east. Formed by the events of '89.
((Katrin, AfD Supporter, Thuringia (female in German) ))
“I was 18 years old and I witnessed how these people were trying to stop their fellow citizens from protesting. And I believe we are very close to that again.”
((NARRATOR ))
Is the AfD a corrective conservative vision - or an echo of Germany’s darkest historical chapter?
Either way, the frustrations of 1989 drive the debate. Ignoring it could come at Germany and perhaps Europe’s peril.
((Charles Maynes, for VOA News, Thuringia, Germany))
(GRETA)
The rise of the Far Right in Germany comes as that country confronts new challenges and new barriers in what is becoming a highly charged immigration debate.
Once again, reporter Charles Maynes.
((NARRATOR))
Germany, 2015. Hundreds of thousands of refugees arrive under a government resettlement program that has since roiled German politics: as Germany’s anti-immigrant far right was emboldened supporters of refugees also mobilized.
Ruckenwind — or ‘Tailwind’ in English — is one of hundreds of projects in Berlin aimed at helping assimilate new arrivals.
Their seemingly simple solution: locals and newcomers fixing bicycles together.
((Graham Pope, Volunteer, Ruckenwind))
“Refugees aren’t on large wages and so it’s not just ‘hey it’s cool, it’s sexy, let’s go on a bike.' It’s like, 'No. This is a very, very low cost way of me getting to the job center or my place of work or the university.'”
((NARRATOR))
Kayvan arrived as part of the new migrant wave…leaving behind a career as an auto mechanic in his native Iran.
((Kayvan, Iranian Refugee in Germany))
“Working with bikes is very interesting for me now, because I can repair bikes in the future at some other company or work independently.”
((NARRATOR))
In a city once defined and divided by a wall, networks of volunteers and community groups present a vision of an inclusive Germany, one that migration experts say is still the case, for now.
((Mona Günnewig, Analyst, German Council on Foreign Relations))
“Germany is still, if you look at the numbers for the 7th year in a row, the country in Europe with the highest number of asylum seekers or asylum applications. So it’s still a welcoming country to a certain degree. But it’s true that we have seen this very open reaction in 2015. What happened there triggered some backlash in the population.”
((NARRATOR))
Facing recent electoral gains by anti-immigrant parties, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has bowed to pressure from her party and put restrictions in place.
It’s not for the first time Germans have grappled with the migration debate. Turkish immigrants arrived as guest workers in the 1960’s and 70’s. Theirs has been a long path to path to acceptance in German society.
((Mete Kocbay, Berlin Resident))
“The old generation, for example, my dad, had no German friends. The young generation they integrate more and more; they are more German than Turkish. We have good chance and we can choose. The good things we can take from Turkish and the good things we can take from German. I think the German good: discipline, time. Turkish: more love. happy.”
((NARRATOR))
People from different cultures mixing, meeting… living and working together. It’s a story…as old as the wheel.
((Charles Maynes, for VOA News, Berlin))
(GRETA)
For those of you old enough to remember that day, there was never any doubt that what happened 30 years ago this month...
would prove historic.
Among them, former US Secretary of State James Baker, who played a pivotal role in the reunification of Germany and the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Secretary Baker, who worked in both the President Reagan and first President Bush administrations recounted the fall of the Berlin Wall with VOA Eurasian Service's Vivian Chakarian, sharing his insights on the end of one cold war and the beginning of what he says is a new one.
(A GENERATIONAL CHANGE)
JB: It was the beginning of a change in the world that those people in my generation and before had known all of our adult lives or those people in my generation had known all of their lives. Forty years of the Cold War were coming to an end and the fall of the wall symbolized the beginning of that end.
None of us at the time expected the implosion of the Soviet Union, the end of the Soviet Union. You know, Yeltsin and Nazarbayev and Shushteyevich and Gravchuk got together in Minsk and decreed the end of the Soviet Union and the creation of the so-called Commonwealth of Independent States.
That came as a surprise to everybody.The fall of the wall really was not, was not predicted to happen when it did. We knew there were demonstrations for freedom occurring all across the Warsaw Pact countries and in large part, I might add, because of the actions and efforts of the Voice of America and the fact that we were getting our message across and into those countries.
There is a strong yearning for freedom on the part of peoples everywhere in the world. And when authoritarians come to power and try and shut off that freedom or eliminate that freedom, there's going to be resistance.
(POWER PLAYERS)
Well, personalities play a big part in in the formulation and implementation of foreign policy. If you could get into a position of trust with the person across the table from you, you had a heck of a lot better chance of accomplishing something. Not that you would diminish or give away any of your country's principles and values. But if you could get into a personal relationship of trust, then there would be far more chance of the two of you accomplishing something.
In the time we're talking about there, at the time of the collapse of the wall, they were very strong personalities. President Bush, President Gorbachev, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, President Mitterand, Helmut Kohl, the chancellor of West Germany. These were all strong personalities.
(US-RUSSIA RELATIONS)
I don't think our relations with Russia today are worse than then.
But I do think it's fair to say we're back into a Cold War with Russia. You know, when Russian aircraft buzz our ships and planes, that's just simply not acceptable and violate the rules of engagement and come too close and risk accidents. That's how wars start.
(COLD WAR 2.0)
Well, I'm not sure I know how we get back on track other than to do what we did so successfully during the Cold War. And that is be resolute in our support of freedom, democracy and free markets. That's how we won the Cold War. We had a paradigm that was far better than the statist and authoritarian paradigm of the Soviet Union. And that's the way we meet the challenges of today. And we just simply need to be steadfast and resolute and understand that our principles and values are the principles and values that free people everywhere around the world would like to maintain and subscribe to.
(GRETA)
What does the wall coming down 30 years ago mean for us today? And what was it like on day one after the wall went down?
Hope Harrison was on a plane to Germany on that historic day. She is a professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University and former public policy fellow for the Cold War International History Project at the Wilson Center. She is the author of a new book called "After the Berlin Wall."
GVS: Welcome Professor.
HH: Thank you for having me.
GVS: Ok, I love that where were you when and when there's a historic event. You have a particularly good one. You were on a plane, just coincidentally going to Berlin?
HH: Totally coincidentally. I boarded a plane on the morning of November 9th in New York City, headed to Berlin. And when we change planes in Frankfurt, everybody was reading newspapers with big headlines “Die mauer ist offen”, the wall is open, and I thought what? And the pilot got on the, the microphone and announced “ladies and gentlemen in case you haven't heard the Berlin Wall fell last night and we are flying into history”.
GVS: All right, so you arrived on the 10th we have pictures of you at the wall. Did you see this coming?
HH: I did not see it coming. Absolutely not. It was it was some sort of miracle. It wasn't supposed to happen. It was an unprepared East German official live at a press conference announced suddenly the wall was open. And then it was one border guard, Harold Yeager, who when he couldn't get any answer from his superiors “What am I supposed to do?” there are hundreds and thousands of people standing here. They didn't give him an answer. So he decided to open the border at Bornholmer Strasse. And that by the way, is where Angela Merkel, that night, along with 20,000 other East Germans, crossed from East Berlin into West Berlin.
GVS: And boy, her history changed after that. All right. Was this a sign communism failed?
HH: Yes, it certainly was. The wall had symbolized not only the Cold War, but the repressive nature of communism, and that the East German citizens were tired of that. They didn't want that.
GVS: Did they, did most East German citizens know, I mean like, compare like, I mean East Germany was a prison. And even like North Korea is a prison. You know their people can't leave. People in North Korea at least they stayed, they live in, you know, a great place. Did the East Germans know? Did they have enough Western influence to know that this was not paradise?
HH: Well Absolutely. And it's not quite a prison, to the extent North Korea is because they could watch West German TV. And some of them could travel and their relatives could come visit them. So they were watching West German TV all the time and they knew what the stores looked like, what the cars looked like, clothes.
GVS: Why was east Germany willing to let that happen? Couldn't they block the Western influence?
HH: They did at first, but ultimately, the East German regime decided to sort of buy off the loyalty of its people thinking, Okay, if we at least let them watch Western television, they'll be a bit quieter, and stay.
GVS: And that didn't work well. Okay, alright. I always read about it but I obviously read about it in English. You speak German, you can read German. What are the German websites saying about this today, how do they portray this?
HH: Well, sadly, there is a lot of talk about a renewed sense of division. As well as people remembering the joy they felt that day, that night, and the days after. So I would say it's split. There's some people who want to celebrate, who say this was fantastic. The peaceful fall of the wall, the sense of freedom for East Germans. It was a day that they will never forget. But there are others that say that what's happened since then, over the past 30 years, hasn't lived up to their expectations.
GVS: You've written a book “After the Berlin Wall” which I now am certain to buy and read. What's the thesis of the book, what would I walk away with or what am I going to walk away with after read it?
HH: It traces how Germany has dealt with the history of the wall, how they've commemorated the victims, how they put perpetrators on trial, and it argues that in 2009, the Germans suddenly realized they had something really positive in their recent history to celebrate, namely the peaceful fall of the wall. So the 20th anniversary in 2009, the 25th anniversary in 2014 was a mood of joy and pride and celebration which Germans aren't used to feeling. But this year, for the 30th anniversary. It's much more subdued.
GVS: I'm surprised it's much more subdued because I mean as you get farther away from events, sort of the you know the raw grudges from events, it seems to wane a little bit but I would think they'd be hugely celebrated.
HH: So many people are but there is this loud minority, who's voting for the far right, who are frustrated that while the gap has narrowed between East and West, there's still some important differences.
GVS: Professor, thank you very much. Fascinating time in history. Thank you very much.
HH: Thank you.
(GRETA)
As most of you know, music, like politics has the power to change hearts and minds. It has the power to inspire and move people to action. And there are those who believe music played a key role in changing public attitudes in the years and months that preceded the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In June 1987, the late British rock star David Bowie performed in West Berlin. It was a three-day open air show and it was close enough to the wall that East Berliners could hear the music.
Many listened as Bowie said quote “We send our wishes to all our friends who are on the other side of the wall.”
But on the final day of the event East German police violently cracked down on the people listening by the wall.
But it may have been too late. One week later, US president Ronald Reagan stood in West Berlin where he had this to say to the Soviet Union.
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”)
Fast forward one year – July 1988. American rock star Bruce Springsteen holds a concert in East Germany.
An estimated 300 thousand people showed up. Tensions among German youth had been growing and some say allowing Springsteen to perform was a way to calm things down.
It may have backfired. Many in the crowd waved Homemade American flags. Historians believe the concert fueled East Germans’ appetite for a bigger taste of life from the West.
16 months later, the Berlin Wall came tumbling down.
That's all the time we have for today.
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