Berlin Wall TumblesBy Rie Yamada

The Berlin Wall was breached by thousands of East Berliners after Guenter Schabowski, who was an official of the ruling party called the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, stated the deregulation of trip permission in East Germany yesterday.

On November 9, Berlin’s party boss, Guenter Schabowski announced that East Berlin citizens were allowed to make private journeys abroad without preconditions. At the evening briefing, Schabowski perplexedly read out “[The rule] comes into force… immediately, without delay” (“Gunter Schabowski”) even though the regulation was supposed to enter into force on the next day.

Within hours, thousands of East Berliners who heard Schabowski’s statements rushed to the border and crushed the Berlin Wall, which has virtually become nominal. After thousands of people converged on the crossing points, East Germany gave permission for the gates to be opened.

The Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 to prevent East Germans who rejected communism from escaping to West Germany and it divided

Berlin into two different cities. West Berlin belonged to the German Federal Republic or an ally of the

West Berlin consisted of US, GB, and France occupation sectors. East Berlin consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin. (Wikipedia)

United States, and East Berlin became the capital of German Democratic Republic dominated by the Soviet Union. While West Berlin prospered, the Communist government of East Berlin failed in economics. As people started questioning its system of communism, they began to flee into West Germany and East Germany lost over 1.6 million people between 1949 and 1961.

However, in June 1989, the definitive incident which led to the fall of Berlin Wall happened. The gash in the Berlin Wall was first made in Hungary. Hungarian

Foreign Minister cut open a section of the barbed wire near Sopron and after several months, more than 3,500 East Germans used a “pan-European picnic” at the site to flee to Austria.

Since East Berliners became able to escape to Hungary, the Wall lost its purpose and finally, East Germany instituted the freedom of traveling in November, 1898.

Hundreds of Berliners rushed to Berlin Wall and the crane destroyed the wall. (Wikipedia)

On the day the Berlin Wall was opened, the people gathered to the gate to see a historic moment and were all delighted at freedom of East-West traffic. Everyone embraced each other and danced in an all-night party. This event has brought an “impression” and “delight” all over the World and it is hoped to be the driving force of “the German reunification”.

West Germany’s Burden

The fall of Berlin Wall is not just an incident that happened in the past, but it might also affect our Germany’s future. The creation of Berlin Wall was “an offense not only against history, but an offence against humanity, separating families… and dividing a people who wish to be joined together” (Gerdes). Therefore humanely and moralistically, the Berlin Wall should have been broken down earlier. In addition, since the Berlin Wall, which represents the symbol of the struggle between East and West, has been removed, this can bring the chance to develop economic, cultural, and political ties

between East and West. However, in the reality, East Germany has many problems such as technological backwardness and declining standards of health due to its communist system. Who will support East Germany in the future? We, West Germany need to help them prosper and we wonder how much this will impose a burden on us. Moreover, there is still a struggle between East and West because while we support democracy, the East uses communist system. We cannot cooperate with them economically and politically if we still have the struggle between democracy and communism.

Germans had longed for freedom for so long and now East and West are together. At the same

time, we also need to know that this might be a load for every single person in order to put two Germanys together as one prosperous nation. Hopefully, East Germany will get rid of its communist system and it will lead both East and West to achieve a level of prosperity.

\American President, Ronald Wilson Reagan visited the Berlin Wall and made a famous speech, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” in 1987. (Wikipedia)

Work Cited

Western Gazette Thursday, August 24, 1989 Everyday’s information for you 3 cents

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