World marks fall of Berlin wall

BERLIN — On Nov. 4, 1989, a half-million East Berliners, most having grown up behind a nearly 10-foot-tall wall of oppression, mounted a huge demonstration in Alexanderplatz demanding freedom.

Colorful blocks decorated by children in Berlin and around the world line the former route of the Berlin Wall and will come tumbling down like dominoes during today’s Festival of Freedom marking the 20th anniversary of the wall’s demise. PHOTO BY JIM WILLIS, FOR THE OKLAHOMAN

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Background

→On Nov. 9, 1989, Guenter Schabowski, a member of East Germany’s ruling Politburo, casually declared that East Germans would be free to travel to the West immediately. Later, he tried to clarify his comments and said the new rules would take hold at midnight, but events moved faster as the word spread. East Germans came in droves. Hundreds, then thousands, then hundreds of thousands crossed over the Berlin Wall in the following days.

→Stores in West Berlin stayed open late and banks gave out 100 Deutschemarks in "welcome money,” then worth about $50, to each East German visitor.

→The party lasted four days and by Nov. 12 more than 3 million of East Germany’s 16.6 million people had visited, nearly a third of them to West Berlin, the rest through gates opening up along the rest of the fenced, mined frontier that cut their country in two.

→Sections of the nearly 100 miles of wall were pulled down and knocked over. Tourists chiseled off chunks to keep as souvenirs. Tearful families reunited. Bars gave out free drinks. Strangers kissed and toasted each other with champagne.

Today’s events

→U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected in Berlin to deliver a speech to the Atlantic Council and take part in anniversary ceremonies in Pariser Platz tonight. Former Polish President Lech Walesa and French President Nicholas Sarkozy also are expected at that event.

→Germans are celebrating with concerts boasting Beethoven and Bon Jovi; a memorial service for the 136 people killed trying to cross over from 1961 to 1989; candle lightings and 1,000 towering plastic foam dominoes to be placed along the wall’s route and tipped over.

The wall today

→The wall the communists built at the height of the Cold War and which stood for 28 years is mostly gone. Some parts still stand, at an outdoor art gallery or as part of an open-air museum. Its route through the city is now streets, shopping centers, apartment houses. The only reminder of it are a series of inlaid bricks that trace its path.

→Checkpoint Charlie, the prefab that was long the symbol of the Allied presence and of Cold War tension, has been moved to a museum in western Berlin.

→Potsdamer Platz, the vibrant square that was destroyed during World War II and became a no man’s land during the Cold War, is full of upscale shops selling everything from iPods to grilled bratwursts.

Source: Associated Press

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It was the capstone of many such demonstrations that had been taking place for months throughout the communist country.

That was a straw in the wind to people like Christhard Lapple, then a 31-year-old reporter for German ZDF Television. Could something big be about to happen? Was it really possible after all these years?

Friday morning, the now 51-year-old Lapple sat in his ZDF office near the Brandenburg Gate. He was holding a fist-size chunk of the Berlin Wall that he had removed from the "monster” back in 1989.

"Something was in the air,” he said about that Nov. 4 demonstration. "But none of us knew that the wall would fall just five days later. It was a total surprise.”

Lapple echoed what many others have said about the momentous event of Nov. 9, 1989, when the 28-year-old symbol of the Iron Curtain was breached by everyday East Germans who carried no guns.

"It was a people’s day,” Lapple said. "The fall of the wall is a story about the power of the people.”

George Glass, minister-counselor for political affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, agrees, at least in part.

"The unification of Germany was one of a few really great historic diplomatic successes,” Glass said. "In the first instance, it was a success brought about by the German people themselves. But in the second instance, it was the diplomats. They showed great restraint, and that helped greatly. In the end, reason and diplomacy prevailed.

"Today,” he said, "Germany is a model country and contributes to a great Europe.”

Still, even the career diplomat had to admit, "I cannot say I saw the end of the wall coming. But for me, the images (of that night) live on.”

If the 10th anniversary celebration in 1999 was any indication, this should be quite a party. That celebration drew some 40,000 Germans out into the cold night air. Floodlights swept across the face of the Brandenburg Gate and torches were lit all along the path that the wall had taken around the city.

While the torches provided the main visual imagery 10 years ago, on Monday night that image will be provided by dominoes. More than 1,000 brightly-painted, large Styrofoam dominoes painted by young Germans, together with other young people around the world, will topple in quick succession starting at the Brandenburg Gate. The dominoes carry a wide range of images, all connoting freedom, and they will follow the path that the wall took between Potsdamer Platz and the Reichstag Building. The event will be televised live in Germany and around the world.

The falling of the dominoes is part of the Festival of Freedom, as the 20th anniversary is called.

As it turns out, that announcement carried no official status — at least in terms of orders conveyed to the border guards.

So when East Berliners began to assemble at the main East-West gate on Bornholmerstrasse, the guards did not know what to do. Should they prevent them from leaving or not? And, if some tried to leave, should they shoot?

At last, Lapple said, "They just made a test with their bodies and started to move through the gate and past the guards. Twenty thousand East Berliners were starting to move against 50 to 60 East German guards who had machine guns. The guards decided not to shoot.”

Last week, Berlin hosted former President George H.W. Bush, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and former West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the three men who lead the key nations in pushing for change that helped bring about the fall of the wall.

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