The world, 35 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a block wall that comes back

On the section of the Berlin Wall preserved on Bernauer Strasse – a street infamous because, during the division of the city by the Cold War, one sidewalk was on the pro-West western side and the other on the communist east side – a heartfelt ceremony took place yesterday Saturday at the opening of that ominous barrier. The 35th anniversary of the collapse, which occurred unexpectedly on 9 November 1989, was observed.

Spurred on by a GDR official’s clumsy announcement of new permits for travel to West Germany, a rush of Germans from East Berlin forced the peaceful opening of border posts. At night, the enthusiastic crowd sat on the wall, at the Brandenburg Gate, and hugged each other, which gave rise to pillage and popular anger in the following days and months.

That is why some remains of the 155 km long wall built in August 1961 remain at the same place where they stood. They are: the double wall and watchtower on Bernauer Strasse – home to the Berlin Wall Memorial; The 1.3 kilometer extension of the East Side Gallery, which was decorated by artists from around the world in the 1990s; Terror Topography on Nazi Germany 200-meter section next to the Documentation Centre; And some other bits here and there.

35th anniversary celebrated with joy in Berlin, even though it is clear how democracy is in retreat around the world

With the fall of the Wall and the reunification of Germany on October 3, 1990, democratic processes in the European countries of the former communist zone, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, an era of geopolitical excitement and new friendly relations between the West and Russia. .

Even as NATO’s 2010 Strategic Concept advocated a “strategic partnership” between the Atlantic alliance and Russia, this rapprochement halted with Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in March 2014. Russia’s massive invasion of Ukraine was ordered by Vladimir Putin in February 2022. The blow of the hammer that illuminated the warring factions’ gradual return to the world.

“Today, as at that time, we are looking towards Eastern Europe,” said historian Axel Klausmeier, director of the Berlin Wall Foundation. The values ​​of 1989 are now being defended on the battlefields of Ukraine; “It’s about choosing between a free political system and a dictatorial system.”

Opponents of the autocratic regime also took part in the memorial event, which was attended by the Federal President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, such as the Belarusian Svetlana Tijanovskaya or the Iranian Masih Alineyad. “When we Germans today look at our neighbors in the East, look at our friends in the European Union, look at Ukraine, which is fighting for its freedom and independence against the Russian army, we realize that 1989 What a lesson it is and should be: Join those who fight for their freedom today and against subjugation! Steinmeier said in the festival’s opening speech Thursday!

Because, despite the current gloomy international context due to the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the fall of the Berlin Wall is such a joyous date in contemporary German history that thousands of Berliners took to the streets to enjoy events, exhibitions and events. The concert, bearing the important motto “Defend Freedom!” Are included under.

To embody this ideal, a four-kilometre open-air art installation was erected along the former line of the wall, consisting of a series of 5,000 posters, most of which were created by citizens for the occasion, but some were also created from the 1989 protests.

video report

Ramon Eymerich, Javier Mas de Xaxus,
Maria-Paz Lopez, Arnold Pratt (Video)

On the road connecting Potsdamer Platz – a large square that at the time of the Wall was a border wasteland that served as a ‘no man’s land’ – with the Brandenburg Gate, we read signs that read: never a wall again , A world without violence and peace one of the two Heroines and heroes for democracy Exciting historical images of East Germans happily crossing the Bornholmer Strasse border post, which was the first to open on that memorable night, are displayed on the big screen.

But the decline of democracy is also present in the world. On a small stage, Belarusian rivals talk about their country dominated by Putin’s ally Alexander Lukashenko. One speaker says, “In 2020 and 2021 we also have a revolution, people took to the streets in Minsk and other cities, it was going to be like Germany in 1989.” But oppression is relentless; Many people are in jail, Lukashenko has also jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bilyatsky.

The returning Block Wall promotes Vladimir Putin’s stated aspiration to restore the Soviet space. “Putin views the loss of countries that were under the ambit of the USSR or were part of the USSR, and which later became independent, as the greatest shock and tragedy in Russian history,” says Laura Vorsh, an expert on foreign countries. Berlin research center Institute for European Policy (IEP). “It’s clear that in his world, in his ideology, he would like to return to the separation of factions,” argues Worsch, “but it’s also about having absolute power over the people, both militarily and economically.”

In 2014, as the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Wall and the Russian annexation of Crimea took place, the last leader of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, was in Berlin, still saying the world was “on”. On the verge of a new Cold War.”

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Maria-Paz Lopez | Berlin. reporter