Tear Down This Wall
Tear Down This Wall
November 9, 2019, is the 50th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. How was it built? How was it toppled?
World War II in Europe ended in May 1945 as the Soviet Union conquered Berlin. The victorious Allies divided Germany into four occupation zones, United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union zone surrounded Berlin. The Allies also split Berlin into the four occupation zones. The U.S., British and French zones were combined into West Germany and West Berlin, respectively.
After the war ended, millions of Germans fled into West Germany and West Berlin. In 1948, as the Cold War broke out, Stalin halted all ground traffic from the West into Berlin. Food and fuel were blocked. In response, the Western Powers initiated an airlift to deliver supplies. It lasted almost a year until the Soviet Union ended its blockade.
The boundary between East and West Berlin was open. Germans continued to flee into the West. To stop this exodus, East Germany built the Berlin Wall in 1961. The wall was effective. Guards killed people who tried to escape over the wall, an estimated 100+ people.
President John F. Kennedy traveled to West Berlin to support the residents and oppose communism in his Ich bin ein Berliner (I am a Berliner) speech.
“Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was civis romanus sum ["I am a Roman citizen"]. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner!"... All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!"
In 1980 Ronald Reagan was elected President on a firm anti-communism platform, highlighted by his calling the Soviet Union an ‘Evil Empire.’ At the time, the Soviet Union was led by the aged Leonid Brezhnev, who died two years later. He was followed by Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko. Both were elderly at the time they became premier, and each served under two years. In 1985 the younger Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the country. He was committed to an economic and political liberalization program, known as Glasnost and Perestroika.
Reagan and Gorbachev were negotiating a variety of disarmament treaties when Reagan traveled to Berlin in June 1987. Here is the portion of the speech with the call to tear down the wall:
“We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev...Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
In 1989 countries in Eastern Europe, including Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, rebelled against their Communist Governments, mostly using peaceful mass protests. Hungary opened its border to Austria. This allowed East Germans to escape to the West by traveling through Hungary, destabilizing the East German government. Massive protests by East Germans broke out in October 1989. East Germany announced freedom of travel at a press conference on the evening of November 9, 1989. Shortly thereafter, East Berliners mobbed the wall and tore it down.