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15 Years After the Fall of the Wall The opening of the border between East and West Germany ? with the sudden opening of checkpoints across Berlin on November 9, 1989 ? was more than just one moment in history. It was the beginning of an exciting and sometimes difficult chapter for Germany, a chapter that is still being written. The United States played a vital part on the path to German unification. No one can forget US President Ronald Reagan standing in front of the Brandenburg Gate in 1987 and making his famous appeal to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to ?tear down this wall.? After the fall of the Wall, President George H. W. Bush decisively supported German unification. Without this US resoluteness, voiced by Reagan and Bush and displayed over decades throughout the Cold War, German unification might have remained merely a dream for some time. On this 15th anniversary of the fall of the wall, German Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger has recorded a special message of thanks to America. The German Embassy is celebrating the anniversary by taking part in a rededication of the display of Berlin Wall segments in the Newseum?s Freedom Park and by spreading the message of German and American friendship across the Nation?s Capital with a specially decorated Metro Bus. This InFocus takes a look at the unforgettable moment in history in November 1989, as well as the developments in Germany in the 15 years since.  Expressing Germany?s Appreciation to Our Friends in America
In a special message to the American people, German Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger remembers the unprecedented and rapid chain of events surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall and the key role played by the United States. ?Without America?s belief in German democracy, German unification might not have taken place in my lifetime.?
From the Berlin Wall's construction in 1961 to the historic events of 1989 to German unification in 1990, this timeline offers a multi-media look back.
In a piece for the new newspaper, ?The Atlantic Times,? Chancellor Gerhard Schröer writes about the close, special ties that link Germany and the United States and the steadfast friendship that has developed between the two countries, particularly since the end of World War II. ?During the decades of the Cold War, the Allies guaranteed the freedom of West Berlin and West Germany. It is also an indisputable historical fact that, when the Wall came down in 1989, Germany would not have been able to regain its unity in freedom, or at least not so speedily, had it not been for the Americans and, especially, the dogged determination of President George Bush.?
Bundestag President Wolfgang Thierse is someone who has bridged the former divide between East and West, going from an academic in the GDR to a member of parliament in unified Germany. In a speech at Georgetown University, he assessed his country?s position and outlook.
Attracting top researchers from all over the world and sparking economic growth, research ?clusters? in Dresden, Leipzig, Rostock, Jena and elsewhere in the eastern states are becoming successful centers of enterprise.
Pieces of the Berlin Wall have ended up in public and private hands all over the world, and indeed some remnants still stand in their original location in Berlin.
In eastern and western Germany, students who have grown up in a unified Germany describe what the Fall of the Wall means to them. |
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 15 Years After the Fall of the Wall
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