Of course in the final event, it was not Gorbachev who brought down the wall...
but the German people themselves:
I think for many Americans alive at the time, this was an event like the first Moon Landing or the Kennedy Assassination, where you will never forget where you were when you learned about it. (I certainly never will.)
For those of us who had been raised our whole lives with the Cold War as the defining reality of the Geo-political order, this was a remarkable, almost surreal event...
It was a moment of great hope that the world was on the precipice of a profound change for the better...
Berlin celebrates the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall
On 9 November 1989, Berlin was reunited. The Berlin Wall fell – the end of the massive border complex that left Berlin divided into East and West for 28 years, tearing apart families, friends and neighbours.
Today, Berlin is known as a place of freedom, opportunity and individuality. But that was not always the case. On 13 August 1961, work began on constructing the Berlin Wall. It stood as a symbol of a divided city and country, of terror and the Cold War. Overnight, it changed an entire nation.
For many people, the fall of the Wall on 9 November 1989 was the best day of their lives – the day they regained their freedom through a Peaceful Revolution.
In addition to the national and international celebrations, exhibitions and events that take place throughout the year and beyond, the grand finale is the festival to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall from 4 to 10 November 2019.
Berlin will be transformed into a unique open-air exhibition and event venue. Along the route of the revolution in the city, important events of the history of 1989/90 become comprehensible at seven original locations. At these locations (Alexanderplatz, Gethsemanekirche, Brandenburger Tor, Schlossplatz, Kurfürstendamm, East-Side-Gallery and Stasi headquarters in Lichtenberg) large projections with historical pictures, films and sound installations will be shown.
There are concerts, lectures, readings, contemporary witness talks, poetry slams and film screenings in addition. This impressive festival will conclude with the evening of 9 November, when the entire city will become the largest concert stage in the world, featuring renowned musicians, orchestras and bands. Berliners and guests from all over the world are invited to celebrate the festival of freedom peacefully and exuberantly.
I had been in Berlin in the week before, the atmosphere was electric there.
Re: The 30th Anniversary Of A Better Time...
Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2019 1:48 pm
by ex-khobar Andy
I remember Leonard Bernstein conducting an international orchestra in Beethoven's 9th Symphony with "Freiheit!" (Freedom) substituted for "Freude!" (Joy).
Re: The 30th Anniversary Of A Better Time...
Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2019 2:08 pm
by Lord Jim
When my daughter was in High School, she interviewed me for a paper she did about what it was like to grow up during The Cold War...
(Nah, that didn't make me feel old...much... )
It's difficult to convey to folks who weren't around at the time exactly what that was like in general, or specifically the enormous psychological impact the fall of the Berlin Wall had...
Re: The 30th Anniversary Of A Better Time...
Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2019 2:53 pm
by BoSoxGal
I remember the wall coming down and how huge that felt after growing up in the Cold War and all the media in the 80s that reinforced the narrative - that’s partly why it’s so astounding to me now to see so many Republicans older than me embracing Trump’s embracing of the Soviet KGB Putin.
One of my best memories of the wall coming down was 8 months later when Pink Floyd played a live concert of The Wall at the wall.
But now I’m much older and much wiser and I realize that it was a powerful symbolic thing that didn’t amount to a whole lot for a great many people. PBS NewsHour just did a piece on this issue last night, and I’m sharing here a year old Bloomberg article that captures the same issues - how life in East Germany never got much better in terms of the bread and butter issues that govern most people’s lives.
And it’s worth noting that Dresden just recently declared a Nazi emergency due to the alarming rise of extreme right wing nationalism in East Germany, including a massive increase in antisemitism and anti immigrant sentiment and violence.
Perhaps it turns out we don’t even have to forget history to keep repeating it.
Some here cried all night the night the wall came down. And they love Fidel’s Cuba and Communist China. I suspect that many liberal politicians have sold out to Communist China. I remember when liberals complained about American economic imperialism, but now they have no problem with the Chinese economic colonization of this country.
The 30th Anniversary Of A Better Time...
Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 1:42 am
by RayThom
liberty wrote:Some here cried all night the night the wall came down. And they love Fidel’s Cuba and Communist China. I suspect that many liberal politicians have sold out to Communist China. I remember when liberals complained about American economic imperialism, but now they have no problem with the Chinese economic colonization of this country.
Oh, for Christ's sake, the king of assholery speaks again.
Bite me, lib.
Re: The 30th Anniversary Of A Better Time...
Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 1:48 am
by Joe Guy
lib's feng shui is twisted. Sum ting wong.
Re: The 30th Anniversary Of A Better Time...
Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 2:35 am
by liberty
RayThom wrote:
liberty wrote:Some here cried all night the night the wall came down. And they love Fidel’s Cuba and Communist China. I suspect that many liberal politicians have sold out to Communist China. I remember when liberals complained about American economic imperialism, but now they have no problem with the Chinese economic colonization of this country.
Oh, for Christ's sake, the king of assholery speaks again.
Bite me, lib.
Remember how liberals hated Reagan because he fought the Communist; they even tried to kill him.
“ The Boland Amendment prohibited the federal government from providing military support "for the purpose of overthrowing the (communist) Government of Nicaragua.”
A communist system works when it has a brutal master. That is what communist was in the twentieth century, slavery.
Re: The 30th Anniversary Of A Better Time...
Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 3:45 am
by Bicycle Bill
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. ....................... Robert Frost
Just an observation .... the Berlin Wall has been down for longer than it was up.
And both events — the raising of the wall as well as the destruction of it — happened within my lifetime.
God, do I feel old.... -"BB"-
Re: The 30th Anniversary Of A Better Time...
Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 4:00 am
by BoSoxGal
Recently I took a day hiking trip to Prudence Island, Rhode Island, with a group of fellow bird nerds. We hiked among others the Division Trail, which is named for the Division Wall it runs beside. The wall was built to divide the island when half belonged to the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the other half to Roger Williams. The wall was built in the latter half of the 1600s and is still in reasonably good condition - like many of the hundreds of years old stone walls in the area.
Just a cool related aside.
Re: The 30th Anniversary Of A Better Time...
Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 5:31 am
by ex-khobar Andy
liberty wrote:
Remember how liberals hated Reagan because he fought the Communist; they even tried to kill him.
Yup, John Hinkley was one of us all right. Mentally ill and fixated on Jodie Foster, he tried to get her attention by assassinating the President. He tracked the President for months until he was arrested for firearms violations. So he never did get a chance to take a shot at Jimmy Carter.
Luckily we liberals got to him and set him right.
BTW it was a couple of trade union officials who jumped on Hinkley when he started firing at Reagan. They manhandled him to the ground before the Secret Service guys had a chance to react. So it's possible that liberals saved Reagan from greater damage.
Re: The 30th Anniversary Of A Better Time...
Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 10:43 am
by Lord Jim
Beat me too it Andy...
Hinckley had absolutely zero ideological motivation for trying to kill Reagan; his motive was 100% narcissist head case..
In fact he came from a well-to-do family; his parents were active in Republican political circles, and as contributors (I believe they were from Colorado)
And FWIW lib, I had at the time (and still have) many liberal friends that were every bit as outraged and angered at the assassination attempt on Mr. Reagan as I was...
They didn't agree with him ideologically but they had every bit as much integrity and patriotism as I have. and they realized this is NOT the way we effect political change in this country, and that an attack like this is not just an attack on a single individual but an assault on our whole system of governance and Constitutional right to self-rule. (Duly elected Presidents are held accountable and if necessary removed by Constitutional means; not by the bullets of assassins.)
Lib, I understand that your constant obsessive carping about "the liberals" this, and "the liberals" that is designed to irritate some folks here who pissed you off in one way or another...I get that...
But MUST you take this particular dump in every single thread you respond to?
I REALLY would have appreciated it if you had NOT chosen this thread to grind your liberal trolling axe...
)
