An anniversary tarnished by the new Cold War

Russia’s war against Ukraine has marked the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, an infrastructure that divided the city for nearly three decades and which was a symbol of Cold War divisions and tensions, reports Salvador Martínez Mas from EFE. agency. Berlin officials, together with the President of the Republic, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, participated with approximately 300 Berliners on a cold and autumn morning in the commemorative events of the fall of the border of the extinct German Democratic Republic (GDR). Forget the current defense of Ukrainians against Russia.

“The values ​​of the 1989 revolution are defended on the Ukrainian battlefield,” said Alexander Klausmeier, director of the Berlin Wall Foundation, at the memorial site dedicated to the Berlin Barrier that was built in 1961, next to a watch tower preserved for escape. . Oblivion. “Illegal war of aggression Putin kills, hurts and threatens our values ​​of freedom“Klausmeier showed his solidarity with Kyiv in his speech in front of the German capital’s Mayor-Governor Kai Wegener.

,We must remain on the side of those who are currently fighting for their freedom and survival in Ukraine” Wegner said among Steinmeier, Klausmeier and others, monitoring a large international delegation of opponents of dictatorial regimes such as Cuba, Iran, Belarus, Georgia or China. The delegation also included representatives of the Solidarnosc union, a union organization. It was instrumental in the fall of communism in Poland and is presented this Saturday as another force that made the fall of the Berlin Wall possible.

“Polish and East German adversaries worked together to achieve the same objectives: free elections, freedom, human rights,” Klausmeier recalled in the first Chapel of Reconciliation, in no man’s land across from the wall fortifications, Bogdan Borusewicz. , co-founder of Solidarnosc will speak. Borusewicz recalled how Solidarność had stood up against an “immoral” regime and, in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, stressed that it is “also immoral when the powerful attacks the weak, when it kills them and Makes war on them.”

“It is not moral to say that there should be peace in such a situation. Of course peace is important, but protecting values ​​and one’s own existence is also important, and this should be supported, we should defend ourselves and take up arms,” ​​Solidarnosc’s co-chairman said. -said the founder, who was the most notable intervention of the Chapel of Reconciliation. From there, Steinmeier, the rest of the officers and delegates marched to a point at the Berlin Wall Memorial to place candles, before entering a chapel a short distance away where they laid flowers across a section of the physical barrier that separated the city. .

Music against the “Anti-Fascist Wall” of the GDR

With them, at the end of the official events, on a small stage, the song ‘People Have the Power’ by Patti Smith was played live, opening the weekend of festivities in which music will also be the protagonist, as they will take part this Saturday and Sunday. Around 700 musicians will participate in the various concerts to be held. The Berlin Wall, built in the summer of 1961, was conceived by the GDR regime as the most symbolic of the “anti-fascist security” barriers constructed in terms of communist rule.

In fact, it was created to avoid the massive demographic exodus that the regime was facing, as despite the support of the Soviet Union, it saw how 2.5 million of its citizens fled the country for West Germany. Between 1949 and 1961, the loss of human capital called into question the economic viability of Of the now ended German dictatorship.

In total, the infrastructure dividing Berlin was 155 kilometers long, of which only a few sections of the city remain standing today, such as the one known as the “East Side Gallery”—known for its numerous and iconic frescoes. Famous – nearby, the historical museum ‘Topographie des Terrors’ and the Berlin Wall Memorial, where the German President and the rest of the authorities were summoned this Saturday.