The Berlin Wall Memorial
Panel A.
On November 9, 1989, to stem the flow of refugees, desperate Communist leaders announced amid chaos that they would issue passports to all East Germans, allowing them to come and go as they pleased. That evening hundreds of thousands of celebrating East Berliners peacefully swarmed past the Berlin Wall crossing points.
With hammers and chisels, thousands of enthusiastic "wall peckers" - mostly young people - struck the despised wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate until panels were pushed down and sections were broken out. Checkpoint Charlie was swamped by a flood of people. Bewildered East German border guards drifted with the current. Crowds were so large that guards could not process papers. People reaching the western side were welcomed to a huge street party. Jubilation, including Berliners dancing atop the wall, was televised around the world.
Official demolition of the wall began June 13, 1990. Segments went to depots and were recycled for use in road construction. On June 22 Checkpoint Charlie's wooden hut was lifted out and carted away.
East and West Germany were reunited October 3, 1990, and all four occupying forces prepared to withdraw from Berlin after almost a half century of occupation. Berlin became one city again. American forces were completely
withdrawn by September 1994.
Author Craig R. Whitney, reflecting on the success of the protesters, concluded: "...Amplified and made resonant by their courage and idealism, the clarion summons of human rights brought down communism, the Berlin Wall, and finally the Soviet Union itself. The power of the human yearning for freedom, so long and successfully suppressed behind the Iron Curtain, became an insurmountable force."
Picture captions:
East German police and West German citizens watched as workmen dismantled sections of the Wall near Checkpoint Charlie.
Sections of the Berlin Wall, which symbolize victory for freedom and the end of the Cold War, are scattered into all parts of the world; Hawaii's University in Honolulu, the German Embassy in Costa Rica, "Ripley's" Curio-Museum in Copenhagen, the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, the CIA Center in Washington, DC, the Lyndon Johnson Library in Texas, the Gerald Ford Library in Michigan and the Ronald Regan Library in California. All have pieces similar to the ones in Memorial Park. Many pieces were sold by auction in Monaco in June, 1990, to raise funds for the exhausted socialistic health care system in the former East German. At this auction, each piece sold for $12,000 to $115, 000.
Panel B.
Churches became oases of freedom because
they were the only places where East Germans could legally discuss politics without overt interference. In 1983, Leipzig's Nikolai Church began Monday "Prayers for Peace" services which, some say, provided the spiritual spark that ignited East Germany's peaceful revolution. By 1989, reformers gathered in churches in most major East German cities.
The ruthless East German Communist regime was unable to roll back the tide of freedom washing over its people. Between October 27 and November 9, 1989, 300,000 East Germans fled to the West, mostly through Hungary. Soon, hoping to migrate, East Germans even stormed West German embassies in Prague and Warsaw.
Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev signaled to east Germany on October 6, 1989, that no soviet troops would come to suppress reform. On October 9 "a spirit of peace and non-violence" prevailed as 70,000, armed only with candles and hymn singing demonstrated in Leipzig. Because of the crowd's gentleness, East German guards never received orders to shoot. That night was the turning point. Later, Monday evening crowds in Leipzig swelled to 300,000. On November 4, 1989, one million people marched in East Berlin, silently signaling with their feet that they wanted peaceful change.
Picture captions:
Systematic disassembling of the wall began in February, 1990, as hundreds of onlookers
gathered to observe. By November, 1990, the wall had been destroyed - a million tons of rubble. Some of the concrete was used for rail track and road construction. Some sections of the wall, such as the ones in Rapid City, were shipped to locations around the world to be displayed as symbols of victory and freedom.
Ronald Reagan, 1987, "General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."
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