25 Years Since the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Germans celebrated 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, a crucial moment in the history of the Cold War. The fall of the Wall separating East and West Germany has become a symbol of the demise of communism in Europe. Over 1 million people, politica
Valentin Țigău, 10.11.2014, 14:16
On November 9, 1989, thousands of East-Germans were finally free to embrace their friends and relatives in West Germany, on the other side of the Berlin Wall, without the soldiers of the communist regime trying to stop them. Soon, the wall built in 1961 was downed and became a symbol of the demise of communist regimes in Eastern Europe, Romania included.
On Sunday, 25 years on after the events in Berlin, people who made the wall’s fall possible were celebrated in Germany’s capital. The most important of them was the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Ceremonies were held at the Brandenburg Gate, a symbol of Germany’s reunification, 11 months after the fall of the Wall. It was here that, in 1987, the US President Ronald Reagan called on the then secretary general of the Communist Party of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev, to open the gate of freedom and contribute to the lifting of the Iron Gate, which was separating two completely different political regimes.
As a result of all these efforts, says the incumbent US President Barack Obama, reason triumphed and it will continue to triumph, in spite of the fact that sometimes it takes a lot of time for this to happen. No wall of any kind, Obama says, can ever oppose the wish for justice, freedom and peace, which burns in every man’s heart. In a very emotional speech, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said it is important to think of all those who tried to flee East Germany. She paid homage to those victims and pointed out that many people had to suffer for the Wall to fall down.
The German Chancellor’s speech was optimistic, and included a message of hope for the people of Ukraine, Syria, Iraq and all the regions of the world where freedom and human rights are threatened and violated. Angela Merkel said quote “The fall of the Berlin Wall showed us that dreams can come true – and that nothing has to stay the way it is, no matter how high the hurdles might seem to be. It showed that we have the power to shape our destiny and make things better. It was a victory of freedom over bondage and its a message of faith for todays and future generations that can tear down the walls – the walls of dictators, violence and ideologies.” unquote.
Aged 83, the former soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has warned, in his turn, over the fact that the world is on the verge of a new cold war. In his opinion, in the context of a lack of dialogue among powers, the bloody conflicts in Europe and the Middle East are likely to create a new Iron Curtain.
