Germany marks anniversary of fall of Berlin Wall

[jchima]

More than a million visitors have descended on Berlin for the weekend of festivities that will culminate later on Sunday at the Brandenburg Gate.

The monument itself was inaccessible during the partition of Germany and is seen as a symbol of the country's reunification.

On Saturday, people posed for photos in front of the few remaining graffiti-daubed slabs of the wall, or read information boards about life under Berlin's 28-year division.

Others admired the art installation of almost 7,000 white balloons, pegged to the ground and winding along a 15km (nine miles) stretch of the wall's route.

At the bustling Potsdamer Platz, which was once cut in two by the wall, a small crowd watched archive footage of East German demonstrators chanting: "We are the people."

Geraldine Bray, 68, visiting from the UK, said the memory of 9 November 1989 had stayed with her.

"I was at home making the evening meal and put on the news. It was very, very memorable," she said.

Striking a more sombre note, Mr Gorbachev, 83, warned on Saturday that the world was on the brink of a new Cold War.
Source: Germany marks anniversary of fall of Berlin Wall - eReporter

 

[whitehall]

The wall went up during the JFK administration. Kennedy flew to Germany and told the German people in German "we are all Berliners" not knowing that "Berliner" was a slang term for jelly donut. The liberal media gave Jack rave reviews (as usual) for the speech and he went back home and left the Germans to be shot in the back by the Russians fro trying to visit relatives. Not a single democrat ever criticized the monstrosity until Reagan said "Mr. Gorbechev, tear down this wall".

 

[CrusaderFrank]

 

[CrusaderFrank]

The wall went up during the JFK administration. Kennedy flew to Germany and told the German people in German "we are all Berliners" not knowing that "Berliner" was a slang term for jelly donut. The liberal media gave Jack rave reviews (as usual) for the speech and he went back home and left the Germans to be shot in the back by the Russians fro trying to visit relatives. Not a single democrat ever criticized the monstrosity until Reagan said "Mr. Gorbechev, tear down this wall".

That's what there are statues of Reagan all over Eastern Europe that American Progressives want to tear down and destroy

 

[longknife]

The Day The Wall Fell

Most weren't even born or were too young to know what it meant when it happened. They say “The Berlin Wall” but it was only a tiny section of an even more ghastly monstrosity – The Iron Curtain! 25 years ago today.

For anyone who ever lived or served in Europe during the Cold War, this was the darkest symbol of cleaving peoples and cultures apart. Hundreds died fleeing their loss of freedom by crossing this death trap.

One of my favorite spots in Europe was Burgenland, the easternmost state of Austria. Ignoring the beautiful homes, lovely countryside, and superb food, gazing upon barbed wire fences with guard towers overlooking mine fields what a chilling experience. And the eastern border was Hungary – just beyond The Curtain.


Thank God it's gone! And thank you President Reagan to pushing it to happen.

 

[indiajo]

Actually, this event on November 9th, 1989, was one of the rare bigger incidents that was definetely NOT planned or anticipated by politicians, neither your president, nor Gorbatchov.
It was a plain organisational failure in the east German political administration. Admittedly, there were a few predecessing rumbles which announced the quake. Like the demonstrations, or the slow and careful opening of the borders between Hungary and Austria. But it was like earthquakes or volcano eruptions, absolutely no one was aware when it would happen or about the intensity and consequences.

The next morning I was sitting in my car at 04:30 on my way to work, as usual early in bed the night before, so the radio news caught me completely unprepared.
My first reaction was: bullshit. Must be kind of a joke. After switching the channels my second reaction was: fuck! From now on we are in trouble.
And that's how it is.

 

[konradv]

The wall went up during the JFK administration. Kennedy flew to Germany and told the German people in German "we are all Berliners" not knowing that "Berliner" was a slang term for jelly donut..

Irrelevant, since both Kennedy and the Germans knew exactly what he was saying. Just like, if he had been elsewhere and said "we're all Hamburgers", nobody would have thought he was talking about a sandwich.

The liberal media gave Jack rave reviews (as usual) for the speech and he went back home and left the Germans to be shot in the back by the Russians fro trying to visit relatives. Not a single democrat ever criticized the monstrosity until Reagan said "Mr. Gorbechev, tear down this wall"

Give credit where credit is due. Every administration Republican AND Democrat decried the wall. Also, Gorbachev didn't listen to Reagan. The German people tore down the wall, THEMSELVES, years later.

 

[waltky]

Announcer of fall of Berlin Wall dies...

East German, who announced the fall of the Berlin Wall, dies
November 2, 2015 - The former spokesman of the Politburo central committee of East Germany’s ruling communist party, Guenter Schabowski, who inadvertently announced the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 died on Sunday aged 86. His death came just days before the 26th anniversary of the joyous border opening.

After months of mass protests against regime in 1989 and amid a widening exodus of citizens to the West via Hungary, the Politburo asked the government to prepare a law loosening restrictions on travel outside East Germany. It was nearly 7:00 p.m. on November 9 when Schabowski pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket and read out a decree stating that visas would be freely granted to those wanting to travel outside or leave the Stalinist state.

Guenter Schabowski’s improvised answer in 1989 inadvertently brought down the Berlin Wall.​

“As of when?” asked an Italian journalist. Schabowski hesitated and then improvised: “As far as I know... as of now.” The press conference was carried live by television networks and in minutes news bulletins were proclaiming that “The Wall has fallen.”

Thousands of East Berliners started streaming towards checkpoints leading to West Berlin. Eventually one barrier went up and East Berliners, who had been unable to cross freely for 28 years, staggered into the West.

East German, who announced the fall of the Berlin Wall, dies

 

[Picaro]

Reagan didn't have squat to do with the wall being torn down. LBJ and Nixon bankrupted the Soviets, along with driving them out of Africa and the ME along with shutting down their big dreams of a major naval base in Viet Nam. After 1973, the Soviet Union essentially became a U.S. client state, dependent on the U.S. and Europe for both food and oil imports to survive a far worse collapse. George H.Bush was in office when the final collapse of the Communist Party came along, not Reagan. Gorbachev's reform faction deserves all of the domestic credit for its final demise; Reagan didn't help him out at all. Even the Saudis and OPEC deserve more credit than Reagan and his pet neo-cons.

The Khrushchev/Brezhnev Doctrine took it's last weak gasp when Nixon signed the treaty with Red China.

 

[longknife]

Poor Tricky Dick. He will go down in history for Watergate and nobody will ever know that he was, in fact, a pretty good president.

 

[anotherlife]

The Berlin wall was not the only communist wall in Europe. The communists put up many internal walls too, that divided families like the Berlin wall did. They should mention, that the original idea of such walls comes from French statism, before even communism.

 

[Picaro]

Poor Tricky Dick. He will go down in history for Watergate and nobody will ever know that he was, in fact, a pretty good president.

On foreign policy he was; on domestic policy he was a disaster for the long term.

 

[longknife]

It was a scar on the face of the earth designed to cage millions in a communist state.

I once saw it from a helicopter and will never forget how ugly it was. Caused me to write my novel about the time near the end of the Cold War based in Vienna.