The Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall

“Germany Marks 25 Years Since Berlin Wall’s Fall”

By: Geir Moulson

Source: Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/08/germany-25-years-berlin-wall_n_6126190.html

Today Germany commemorates the twenty-fifth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall along with the fall of communism. The opening of the Wall on November 9, 1989 brought an end to the months of upheaval that had spread into Poland and Hungary. Alex Klausmeier, the director of the city’s main Wall memorial, claims that the downfall of the Wall that divided East and West Germany for twenty eight years was “a point of no return… from there, things headed toward a whole new world order” (Moulson, 1).  Chancellor Angela Merkel grew up in East Germany stuck behind the border. She entered politics as communism came to an end. Every time she walks through the Brandenburg Gate, Merkel senses the lingering feeling that this was not possible for most of the years of her life, and that she had to wait thirty-five years to have this feeling of freedom. The crumbling of the Berlin Wall was a transformation in peoples’ lives, which they desperately needed. The original plan when the borders were opened was to have the citizens line up properly and receive exit visas. By this time, the leadership over the border was completely lost. Less than a year later, Germany was on the road to unification. Cultural differences and inequalities still exist between the east and the west, although recognition has improved conditions. The progression toward genuine unity is displayed in Germany’s leader. The nation’s president, Joachim Gauck, comes from the east; he is a pro-democracy activist. Gauck believes that “Germans today can be grateful to have lives and opportunities that endless numbers of people in the world can only dream and desire of” (Moulson, 1).

            The rise and fall of the Berlin Wall is undeniably one of the most significant and symbolic moments in history. It is not only the tearing down of a wall that separated East Germany from West Germany; the fall of the Berlin Wall represented the collapse of communism and the beginning of a new era of unity.