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 A Conversation with Henny McClymont |
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Willie: I’m Willie Porter Dani: and I’m Dani Riggs Willie: And we’re doing an interview for our History Day Project. This year the theme is Conflict and Compromise and our topic is the division of Berlin. Dani: I’d like to introduce you to Henny McClymont. Willie: Where were you when the Wall came down? Henny: I had been in college at the time ,and we did homework, and we listened to the radio and they said ,the borders are open, and we all looked at each other and we said, ‘the borders are open, that can’t be.’ We went to everybody else, ‘have you heard, have you heard?’ And no one could really believe it. We had lots of boys in the class with motorbikes, so we went to the Bavarian border down here (points to map) and, yeah, went over the border to West Germany. I have to say, the grass didn’t look greener like I thought it would, but ... so yeah, at the time, this was an East German identification card (shows card) they gave you a little stamp in the first few days, which was this, says (speaks German) so, that was pretty cool, which is why I kept it,actually, its a reminder of the day when we went over there. Dani: Did you have friends or family on the other side of the Wall? Henny: For my mother’s side there is family ...but we didn’t have any contact in East German times. No telephone, no one had a telephone, maybe just doctors and firemen and policemen and yeah, so no contact then, just after the Wall came down. Willie: Did you know anyone who tried to escape to the West side? Henny: We heard stories, and I also had an uncle, he didn’t try to escape, but he applied officially to leave the country and he had to leave all his belongings in East Germany and never got it back. And he started to make a new life. Dani: What were some of the first changes you noticed when the Wall came down? Henny: The supermarkets were full, suddenly not any East German things were there anymore. And yeah, it was full with colorful stuff and lots of oranges -- to come back to the oranges and bananas -- and I think in the first few months we probably, I probably have never drunk so much orange juice as then. So that was the first things. And then you could see that alot of advertisement posters went up things like that and they’re starting renovating houses so all the gray, dark houses suddenly got color, so things like that. And of course more cars, because in East Germany there weren’t alot cars. And people got money or West Germans came also to East Germany, I mean they were as curious as we were to go to the West. So, yes, so that was the first changes I would say. Dani: Did they want people from the West to come over or is that part of the reason the Wall went up because they didn’t want people coming over? Henny: Actually at that time it was a big Russian sector and the Russians actually didn’t want to have influences from the West coming in because East Germany now was a bit like their new experiment to show off a new socialist country and how perfectly it goes and how perfect socialism works. It’s like an experiment and also to keep people not just out, but also in, so that you can’t really get any free ideas -- especially in the beginning you didn’t have television and computers and you didn’t really get any information and in that time, in the beginning, or in the ‘40s and ‘50s people were so, so busy with making their lives, you know, building up the country again which was damaged, of course bombed, and getting a normal life, sending children to school again, and I guess the Russians, you know, saw that as our new baby, they will be all true communists and we will form them our way. And that was part of it why they put a wall up. Dani: How do you think your life would have been different if you lived in West Berlin? Henny: Hmmm ... well a lot different, first of all I probably would have chosen a different profession ... would have probably started earlier traveling ... you know, probably wouldn’t be so thankful, like now, for little things, but yeah,I think now I appreciate that I can speak out my mind. Which in the beginning you didn’t realize that you weren’t really allowed to. And like I said, I came to this age where I probably would have started and you know, would have probably suffered from it. Willie: So when the Wall came down were there any new freedoms or things that you couldn’t do that you were able to do? Henny: Oh yeah, I started traveling ... we could tell political jokes, without worrying, and even to think of maybe I’m doing my own business. Which I couldn’t have done in East Germany, to start your own business was very, very difficult or even just to get a credit for it, so that was all possibilities suddenly you start thinking, ‘Hmmm .... what should I do? Where would I go? What can I do with what I’m having already?’ Making a plan for the future. For lots of East Germans the plan for the future was getting married, having children because the earlier you have children the earlier they would give you a flat, an apartment, because it was not like you’re grown up and you decide you’re taking an apartment. There weren’t any apartments. You had to wait for one. And most of the people got children because then it was easier to get an apartment. So all these things, you know,changing your life. You feel more like a grown up because you make different decisions and you don’t have to rely on the state and maybe duck down and see what happens. ...Genesis played on the west side of the Brandenberg Gate and lots of East German teenagers, young people, went to the East German side because they wanted to listen to a world-famous band and they actually sent out the army to push them back away from the gate and people started suddenly to scream, ‘Tear down the Wall. Tear down the Wall,’ and it started suddenly to be a political demonstration, which wasn’t planned. And thirty people actually went to prison for that one. And then shortly before the Wall came down we had lots of Mondays demonstrations. I don’t know if you ever heard, but they got famous because they were silent and people would put up candles for every political prisoner and it started out in ... all the bigger towns ... also the smaller towns where I lived -- we would go out and I had to tell my mom, ‘Oh yeah, I’m just going to the town to go shopping,’ she would have been furious because worried that something happened, but because there were so many people and they actually it showed it on West German news even that they denied ever in East Germany that that happened, people would know and more people would go and it was really silent and nothing happened but in the end it was something like a half-million in East Berlin who would go out on the demonstration and I would say that this one was one of the biggest ones where people went together. And in the end it wasn’t silent anymore, people would, of course, scream, ‘We are the people, we are one nation’ So they really couldn’t deny that anymore because it was too big by then. I guess that was part why the wall came down. Willie: Do you remember President Reagan’s speech at all? Henny: With Gorbachev? I remember lots of things that Gorbachev said, he was actually the one who started perestroika, glasnost, all the change in the Eastern Block, you know opened up to the western side, and in East Germany, like Erich Honecker, our president then, they didn’t like that. They wanted to go on the old ways ... always worked with doing it that way, and they really pushed him away, Gorbachev, but he was actually the one which changed Eastern Europe with his beliefs and with his work and it was a famous phrase he mentioned, in German it’s (speaks German), who comes too late gets punished by life, and he told that to Erich Honecker in ‘89 because he didn’t want to go the new way. And that’s what happened then, finally, so the Wall came down. Which, by the way, wasn’t planned. It was never officially said that someone of the Politburo, of the state, gave the order to open the borders. So no one really knows what happened. That could have been a spy thing, who knows? You know. They said there was an order, there was an order, then they said, oh, they wanted to put soldiers in to stop it, and somebody said, now we’re not doing it, so you don’t know what really happened because I guess everything went so far and so fast. So they just let it go. Willie: What happened to Gorbachev after the wall came down? Was he still ... Henny: He still was active and he still proposed new changes. And he’s very popular especially in Germany.Actually my father met him once. My father’s a sculptor and he built a bust for him to give to him as a thank you for what he did, because my father, as an artist was very hard, too, you get limited in what you can do, limited in your work and to show your work. So that was a change for him, too. Dani: So after you finished college, what brought you to America? Henny: I actually met my husband, he came to East Germany to work for a company there, and he met my father so I met him (through) my father, you know how it happens ... caught him ... and from there we actually moved to the west for three years and lived there, and then we came almost eight years ago to America. Willie: Did you enjoy the time you lived in the West? Henny: Yeah, it was really nice. I have very happy memories, we made alot of good friends. I think I’m of a good age where you don’t think of East and West like, like my parents maybe would do. It’s a different generation. They actually missed alot of their live because they were in there (points to book). So it was easier. Willie: Do you still travel back and forth to Germany? Henny: Yes, I do. Not as often as my mom probably want to, sorry. But still alot. And they’re coming over here, too. Dani: Do you remember seeing any American soldiers? Henny: Not where we lived. But it was full of Russian soldiers. Because where the Wall is and to the side where West Germany starts, it’s too far away. And they don’t let you even come close to all the borders. So no, I haven’t seen any. Maybe on television. And after the Wall came down. Willie: Do you remember anything about the Russian soldiers? Were they mean or ... Henny: They didn’t have an easy life, either. They were far away from their families. Didn’t get alot of money, lived in army houses, which were really bad conditions. The army officers, the Russian ones, they lived much better than the actual soldiers. I remember actually in summertimes, because I lived in a village then for awhile, and they would come in for the harvest, to help out with the harvest, and they would bring self-made vodka, which of course you shouldn’t drink, you probably could clean your windows with it but that’s it, and I remember that they exchanged it for cigarettes and food because they really had a tough time, I would say. And they probably had a better time in East Germany than the ones in Russia or Soviet Union at the time. That’s just my feeling what I had, I have to confess, I never met any personally. ... A thing called (speaks German) in eighth-grade you dress up and the state takes you officially in as a grown up so it’s like a party thing and so you go with your parents and you get flowers and you get a book which is called (speaks German) which means the meaning of my life, which of course doesn’t give you any proper answers, but the main thing is that you get a party afterwards and you get presents -- but what you don’t realize at that age is that you have to say a vow -- which you vow that you’ll be a good citizen and support the state and government -- but of course you don’t think about that when you think, ‘oh wow, how much money do I get?’ things like that. Just later you realize how political and propaganda-like it was. And then in ninth grade we had around June a military practice where the boys would go for one or two weeks, I can’t remember exactly, to a camp where they get trained to use a weapon and run around with a gas mask and things like that, and the girls actually get more like nurse training, but we still had to run around in a uniform and we shoot and running around with a gas mask, too, feeling quite silly.You just realize later, God, what did we do? When you’re a teenager you just think, oh yeah, it’s a week off. A week off school. You know, you don’t really, because you grow into the system and you just start later to think about it properly. And that’s what happened. Willie: When you were in school did they teach you that communism was good and the West ... Henny: Oh yes, now that was a special ... you have math, you have German, and we had one lesson called (speaks German) which is like state information. You had to read the newspaper, which all the time was the same, like we work very hard, and we are the best in our economy and things like that and of course they’re telling you, we are the better ones. Our state is good for everybody. And maybe in a sense, you know, they wanted a good a thing but it turned out, over the years, worse and worse and worse and of course, all the Western states were all the enemies. Especially with all this nuclear race and everything. Of course, our nuclear arms were really small but the American ones are enormous, you know, things like that. And that’s part of the Cold War, so you have market economy and in Eastern Europe you have plant economy. Probably doesn’t make alot of sense in English, it makes more sense somehow in German (speaks German) .. and it’s the same with the Cold War, the nuclear race, it’s lot of competition, for example in sports, with the Eastern Bloc. They put alot of work into training people, find the right people who are good in sports to prove that Eastern Europe, or Eastern Germany, has the best sports people because we are the best in everything. And to come to the sport part, as I went to school, they start very early to send trainers to school who would check out the children ... when they have their sports lessons to see, ‘oh yeah, that one would be good in ice skating, oh, that one would be good in running,’ and when you’re very good in that, what they’re starting to train you to, you could go for a sports school. Which was a really big privilege to do that because if you go to a sports school your chances to go to Olympics or something was really big, which means big money, or more money than anyone else. So you wanted to be the best one, you get more privileges, so that’s how they did it actually, so be good in sports in East Germany was a big deal. It mean a new car or something like that, you know. I know it sounds silly but you know if you don’t have it, then it really is a big deal. Willie: Did you ever come close to the border of West Germany? Henny: Actually yes, my grandmother lived in a town called (speaks German), which is very south near the border with Barvaria. As a child I spent lots of holidays there, summer and also on weekends, but for that one I needed a special passport. And you had to apply for that one and it was exactly for the time you planned to go there. And I think it didn’t go longer than two weeks and when I would go there on the train ... at a certain point security police would come in and check everybody who has a passport and the people who didn’t have one, they took them with them for questioning because it’s a question -- why do you go there if you don’t know anybody there and its the border to Bavaria? And when you arrived there you had to call into the police station in 24 hours so that they see you arrived and they’re testing when you’re going. So, you better not staying a day longer. Even my father had to do that and he did grow up there and he had his mother there, even ... when she was sick he first had to apply for a passport to go to this area. And then this area, when you came on the train into it, not everyone saw it, but you had already a big fence there and huge concrete towers which are just made for two men, they’re very tight inside, they tear them by down, I guess, but we went after the Wall came down we went into some, they’re very tight inside and really unpleasant on the inside, but you just had little windows to look around all the angles to see if no one comes and the stories went that in between the land from East Germany to West Germany they had actually lined little bomb there. Munitions there. Maybe that was just to scare the people not to run over -- so I haven’t heard of anyone to cross the border there, but you also have to think these kinds stories, people leaving the country, even if our parents would have talked about it, they would have avoided to talk in front of us, because you’re a child, you maybe talking, you want to show off, and maybe tell the same stories -- you never know who’s listening, and you never know, as a parent, where you maybe end up because you discussed this kind of thing at home. And usually when you had parties, or so on and later in the hour, the parents would say psst psst psst, you would know there was something they’re talking about that you especially should listen to. Dani: So you were in college when the Wall came down. How old were you? Henny: Nineteen. Dani: And when did you realize that things were changing? Henny: In ‘89, in the summer, people who would go to Hungary on holiday decided actually that they would go to the West German embassy to get easier out of East Germany. So they refused to come back. And more people heard that on West German television. So more people went to Hungary. Until they had to start a camp there because there were so many hundreds of people who wanted to escape. And that was already a time where we thought, oh, something is happening. Then already church groups in East Germany started more freely to talk about political prisoners -- to release them, to force the state to release the prisoners. And because you heard more about that, you had the feeling, oh, people are getting more active, And then, of course, later, all the demonstrations started. But still, as it happened, it was still was a big surprise. You’re sitting in front of the television, just really don’t want to miss out anything. So that was quite a surprise still,even with all the effort everyone did. |
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| A Conversation with Don Ramakers |
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Dani: Hi, I’m Dani Riggs. Willie: And I’m Willie Porter. Dani: And we’re interviewing Don Ramakers. Willie: He was an American soldier, and was on the last patrol of the Berlin Wall. How long were you in the Army and why did you join? Don: I was in the Army, active duty, for four years, and then in the inactive reserve for seven years. I joined because I just felt like I wanted to serve the country. An I ended up doing what I was doing because I was really good in school, as a kid, but I was really bad at P.E, so I joined the infantry because it was the physically hardest thing to do in the Army, and I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. Dani: How was West Germany different from the place where you grew up? Don: Oh … well they had a lot more trees. I grew up here in southern California, in Germany they really value the wildlife and the trees and stuff like that, so when they plan their cities, they have whole spaces for forests actually inside the cities themselves, and things like that. Germany is very quiet, especially on weekends, they have very strict laws on making noise past certain hours and things like that. And generally, the people there are very ‘law and order.’ I actually was yelled at by a German woman once because I crossed the street against the crosswalk light even though there were no cars. It was a Sunday morning, no cars as far as you could see, and I didn’t wait, and she started yelling at me. Because I was breaking the light. So, it’s different that way. Willie: How old were you when you were stationed at the Wall? Don: I was there from the time I was 19 until 21… 22. Dani: Were there any rules about talking to soldiers on the east side of the Wall? Don: Yeah, we weren’t allowed to. Well once the Wall came down it was okay, but when we did our patrols, we weren’t allowed to talk to them, we weren’t allowed to wave to them, because they could get in trouble. If you waved, sometimes they would take pictures, and you would end up on the newspaper, in the East Berlin side, as, you know, propaganda or whatever. Or they would get in trouble because they thought you were waving to them because they were spies for us, or something like that. So we were just told, never ever wave, don’t say ‘hi,’ don’t do anything like that. Willie: Tell us about the final patrol (of the wall). Don: Oh. Well, basically, we, our normal patrols would be two vehicles -- with a driver, and a gunner, and then an observer -- and on the last patrol, we went without weapons. That was the only time we ever went unarmed. And we had as many people as we could fit, because everybody wanted to be on the very last one. So, it was like a normal patrol, only that day we didn’t really … it was a lot less formal. An on that particular day, there were whole sections of the wall missing, and the East German guards were on the other side, and that was the only time we ever stopped and tried to talk to them. They stepped through their side of the wall, and were standing on our side; and we stepped through and were standing on their side, and took pictures shaking hands, and stuff like that. That was the first time that we were allowed to do it, and they were still pretty nervous about it, but it was only a short time later that the two Germanies reunited. So, I don’t think it was a big deal. Dani: Did you share things with the East German guards after the wall came down? Don: Oh yeah. We swapped our little rank tags, and belt buckles, and things. Hats, basically anything we could take off and still keep our pants up, we would give to them. And they gave us their stuff. I still have some things at home, some hats and things like that from that patrol. Willie: What changes did you see after the wall came down? Don: Well, on the West side, not very many. But, on the east side, little by little the people became less afraid of talking to people. So we used to go over and walk around and it was very, I used to say it was kind of like going into an old black-and-white movie because they were behind, technologically, by probably 30 or 40 years. You know, and their everyday stuff like buses, the lighting, and the stores and things like that. And little by little, it got to be more modern, and you could tell the people were finally understanding the government weren’t going to come and take them away for talking to us. Dani: Do you have a piece of the wall? Don: I do. I have a very large piece about like this, with the reinforced steel bars sticking out of it, and it’s got graffiti on it, and all of that stuff. One of the things we did on the last patrol was open the backs of the humvees everywhere we stopped, and everybody gathered as much stuff as we could fit. So, my family has pieces, all of my friends had pieces. We brought them back as much as we could. Willie: Did you meet any East Berliners after the wall, and what was their reaction? Don: A lot of them were really kind of nervous, the older ones, but the younger ones, you could tell, had been waiting, just for their chance. The day the wall actually came down, I had been down by it, shopping, and when I went home, I turned on the TV, and I could see people standing on top of it. And we had no idea that this was going to happen, so we were kind of surprised. Like, ‘why are people standing on top of the wall?’ And ‘the guards aren’t doing anything,’ ‘nobody’s shooting at them.’ So, I lived about a hundred yards from the wall, at the time, and we walked over there, and all along the wall they had observation platforms where you could walk up and stand on the little ledge, almost like a balcony, and you could look over it. And we didn’t see anything unusual happening, until, all of the sudden, a guy climbed over. Right in front of us. And he dropped down on the ground and looked around and we walked over to him, and he started speaking German to us, and we said ‘We’re American,’ and he goes, ‘Oh! American!’ and we go, ‘Yeah, American’ and ‘Oh!’ and he came over and he gave both of us a big hug, me and my friend, a big hug and everything, and ‘Oh thank you! Thank you!’ and we gave him a Budweiser. And he ran off down the street, yelling ‘Freedom! Freedom!’ And that’s the last we saw of him, and little by little more people started coming over the wall, right at that point. ... There was some trouble in the East German government, and they were having problems with their economy, and they were trying to figure out ways to loosen things up, just enough to keep people from getting upset, and get the economy moving, but they didn’t want to, they didn’t want to let people be free yet … or ever really, if they had their choice. And they accidentally issued an order to let people go through the wall, for a limited amount of time. What they didn’t realize was that somewhere along the line, it came down as an order that the wall was open. And at first, even the guards didn’t know, and when people started going through, the guards weren’t sure what they were supposed to do about it, while everybody was confused, it just kind of broke up, and the chairman of the Communist Party on that side, what’s his name, Honecker, I think, Erich Honecker; he just resigned and ran out of town, while it was all going on. And so while everybody was confused, it just happened. And once it happened, it was too late to take it back. We, on our side, didn’t even know. Which was kind of odd, because one of the reasons for the wall patrol was to gather intelligence: how many guards, what routines did they keep, what kind of weapons did they have, all that kind of thing. And our intelligence had no clue that it was going on. When, a matter of fact, I wasn’t on patrol the day it opened, but my platoon was on the rotation and when the guys came off patrol, the wall was still up, and it was probably three o’clock in the afternoon. By five o’clock there were people standing on it. So we really…we were completely surprised by it. Dani: Okay, so how long did you serve? Don: Well, active duty, four years, and then inactive reserve, seven. I was on the wall about 18 months, roughly. The Wall was gone by, September or so, maybe October of ‘90. It took maybe six or eight months total for most of the wall … once the reunification actually took place, the wall was basically meaningless, so people just took it apart. They did preserve some sections of it as monuments, to the people who died trying to get across, and the people who guarded it and stuff. But most of it disappeared very quickly, as a big souvenir, to, well, everyone. So, they took it pretty fast. |
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| From the German Propaganda Archive |
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"What You Should Know About the Wall "Newspapers, radio and television report daily about Berlin and West Berlin in many languages throughout the world. They often speak or write of a state frontier, or of a wall. "It may be very difficult for you to form a valid picture from all these reports which frequently contradict each other. We want to help you to do so. "We tried to imagine what would be the considerations of a citizen of a foreign state if he wanted to gain clarity about the problems in West Berlin. And we would like to reply to these considerations. "1st CONSIDERATION. Where, exactly, is Berlin situated? A glance at the map suffices: Berlin lies in the middle of the German Democratic Republic, exactly 180 kilometres (112.5 miles) to the east of its western frontier. A quite normal locality for the capital of a state. Only one thing is not normal at all: that a hostile, undermining policy and disruptive acts have for years been carried on from the western part of this city against the surrounding state territory. West Berlin Mayor Willi Brandt called West Berlin a "thorn in the side of the GDR". Would you like to have a thorn in your side? We don't either! But Brandt even proclaims quite frankly: "We want to be the disturber of the peace." "2nd CONSIDERATION. Did the wall fall out of the sky? No. It was the result of developments of many years standing in West Germany and West Berlin. Let us recall preceding events: In 1948 a separate currency reform was introduced in West Germany and West Berlin - the West German reactionaries thereby split Germany and even west Berlin in to two currency areas. "The West German separatist state was founded in 1949 - Bonn thereby turned the zonal border into a state frontier. "In 1954 West Germany was included in NATO - Bonn thereby converted the state frontier into the front-line between two pact systems. "The decision on the atomic armament of the West German Bundeswehr was made in 1958 - thus, Bonn continues to aggravate the situation in Germany and Berlin. Repeatedly the annexation of the GDR is proclaimed as the official aim of Bonn policy, most recently in a statement of the Adenauer Christian Democratic Union (CDU), on 11 July 1961. "Thus did the anti-national, aggressive NATO policy create the wall which today separates the two German states and also goes through the middle of Berlin. The Bonn government and the West Berlin Senate have systematically converted West Berlin into a centre of provocation from where 90 espionage organizations, the RIAS American broadcasting station in West Berlin (Radio in American Sector) and revanchist associations organize acts of sabotage against the GDR and the other socialist countries. Through our protective measures of 13 August 1961 we have only safeguarded and strengthened that frontier which was already drawn years ago and made into a dangerous front-line by the people in Bonn and West Berlin. How high and how strongly fortified a frontier must be, depends, as is common knowledge, on the kind of relations existing between the states of each side of the frontier. "3rd CONSIDERATION. Did the wall have to come? Yes and no. We have submitted more than one hundred proposals for understanding, on the renunciation of atomic armament, and on the withdrawal of the two German states from NATO or the Warsaw Treaty. If things had gone according to our proposals the situation in Germany would not have been aggravated and, consequently, there would have been no wall. Especially since 1958 the GDR and the Soviet Union have repeatedly told the West Berlin Senate, the Bonn government, and the western powers: Be reasonable! Let us eliminate the abnormal situation in West Berlin together. Let us start negotiations. Why did Bonn and West Berlin reject these proposals? Why did they, instead, step up agitation to an unprecedented degree before 13 August? - The wall had to come because they were bringing about the danger of a conflict. Those who do not want to hear, must feel. "4th CONSIDERATION. What did the wall prevent? We no longer wanted to stand by passively and see how doctors, engineers, and skilled workers were induced by refined methods unworthy of the dignity of man to give up their secure existence in the GDR and work in West Germany or West Berlin. These and other manipulations cost the GDR annual losses amounting to 3.5 thousand million marks. "But we prevented something much more important with the wall - West Berlin's becoming the starting point for a military conflict. The measures we introduced in 13 August in conjunction with the Warsaw Treaty states have cooled off a number of hotheads in Bonn and West Berlin. For the first time in German history the match which was to set fire to another war was extinguished before it had fulfilled its purpose. "5th CONSIDERATION. Was peace really threatened? Indian journalists R. K. Karanjia shall give you the answer to the question. He published a sensational report from Berlin in the biggest Indian weekly, Blitz in which the world public is warned against the West Berlin powder-keg. K. R. Karanjia wrote: 'It (the protective wall of the GDR) served the cause of world peace since it halted the advance of the German neo-Hitlerites toward the East, forced the world to recognize the reality of the division of Germany and thus supports negotiation.' (retranslated from German) "If further evidence of the aggressive intentions of the West German government is needed it is provided by the authoritative West German employers' newspaper, the Industriekurier, which regretfully wrote, exactly 19 days after 13 August 1961: 'A reunification with the Bundeswehr marching victoriously through the Brandenburg Gate to the beating of drums - such a reunification will not take place in the foreseeable future.' "Bonn heads were really haunted by ideas of such a victorious entry. That would have meant war. "6th CONSIDERATION. Who is walled in? According to the exceedingly intelligent explanations of the West Berlin Senate we have walled ourselves in and are living in a concentration camp. But in that case why are the gentlemen so excited? Obviously, because in reality their espionage centres, their revanchist radio stations, their fascist solders' associations, their youth poisoners, and their currency racketeers have been walled in. They are excited because we have erected the wall as an antifascist, protective wall against them. "Does something not occur to you? West Berlin Mayor Brandt wails that half of the GDR, including the workers in the enterprise militia groups, is armed. What do you think of a concentration camp whose inmates have weapons in their hands? "7th CONSIDERATION. Who breaks off human contacts? Of course, it is bitter for many Berliners not to be able to visit each other at present. But it would be more bitter if a new war were to separate them for ever. Moreover, when the GDR was forced to introduce compulsory entry permits for West Berlin citizens on 23 August in the interests of its security we at the same time offered to open up entry permit offices in municipal railway stations in West Berlin. In fact we opened them and issued the first permits. Who closed them by force? The same Senate of that Mr. Brandt who is today shedding crocodile tears about "contacts being broken"! The GDR has maintained its offer. If we had our way Berliners could visit each other despite the wall. "8th CONSIDERATION. Does the wall threaten anyone? Bonn propaganda describes the wall as a "monstrous evidence of the aggressiveness of world communism". Have you ever considered it to be a sign of aggressiveness when someone builds a fence around his property? "9th CONSIDERATION. Who is aggravating the situation? The wall? It stands there quite calmly. Former French Premier Reynaud said already on 19 August 1961, according to UPI: 'The sealing-off measures of the East Berlin government did not increase, but lessened, the danger of a third world war.' In reality, the situation is being aggravated by persons who play at being the strong man on our state frontier, who are turning West Berlin into a NATO base and daily inciting West Berliners against the GDR. Municipal railway cars are being destroyed, frontier guards attacked and brutally shot, tunnels dug for agents and bomb attacks made on the GDR's frontier security installations. Does that serve relaxation? One must really ask why attacks on the GDR state frontier in West Berlin are not subject to court prosecution as in other states. The Brandt Senate even presents "its respects" to the provocateurs. "10th CONSIDERATION. Is the wall a gymnastic apparatus? The wall is the state frontier of the German Democratic Republic. The state frontier of a sovereign state must be respected. That is so the world over. He who does not treat it with respect can not complain if he comes to harm. West German and West Berlin politicians demand that "the wall be removed". We are not particularly fond of walls, either. But please consider where the actual wall runs in Germany, the wall which must be pulled down in your and our interest. It is the wall which was erected because of the fateful Bonn NATO policy. On the stones of this wall stand atomic armament, entry into NATO, revanchist demands, anti-communist incitement, non recognition of the GDR, rejection of negotiations, the front-line city of West Berlin. "So, make your contribution to the pulling down of this wall by advocating a reasonable policy of military neutrality, peaceful co-existence, normal relations between the two German states, the conclusion of a peace treaty with Germany, a demilitarized Free City of West Berlin. That is the only way to improve the situation in Berlin, to safeguard peace, a way which can, one day also lead to the reunification of Germany. The wall says to the war-mongers: "He who lives on an island should not make an enemy of the ocean. "[At this spot the brochure includes a map of the German Democratic Republic] Decide in favour of the recognition of realities. Don't join in the row over the wall. Perhaps YOU don't want socialism. That is your affair. "But should we not come to an agreement jointly to refrain from doing anything that leads to war and do everything that serves peace?" (http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/wall.htm) |
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| Text of JFK's 1963 Speech |
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"Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was 'civis Romanus sum.' Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is 'Ich bin ein Berliner.' "I appreciate my interpreter translating my German! "There are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass' sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin. "Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us. I want to say, on behalf of my countrymen, who live many miles away on the other side of the Atlantic, who are far distant from you, that they take the greatest pride that they have been able to share with you, even from a distance, the story of the last 18 years. I know of no town, no city, that has been besieged for 18 years that still lives with the vitality and the force, and the hope and the determination of the city of West Berlin. While the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the Communist system, for all the world to see, we take no satisfaction in it, for it is, as your Mayor has said, an offense not only against history but an offense against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a people who wish to be joined together. "What is true of this city is true of Germany--real, lasting peace in Europe can never be assured as long as one German out of four is denied the elementary right of free men, and that is to make a free choice. In 18 years of peace and good faith, this generation of Germans has earned the right to be free, including the right to unite their families and their nation in lasting peace, with good will to all people. You live in a defended island of freedom, but your life is part of the main. So let me ask you as I close, to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today, to the hopes of tomorrow, beyond the freedom merely of this city of Berlin, or your country of Germany, to the advance of freedom everywhere, beyond the wall to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to all mankind. "Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades. "All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words 'Ich bin ein Berliner'." |
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| Text of President Reagan's 1987 Speech |
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"Our gathering today is being broadcast throughout Western Europe and North America. I understand that it is being seen and heard as well in the East. To those listening throughout Eastern Europe, a special word: Although I cannot be with you, I address my remarks to you just as surely as to those standing here before me. For I join you, as I join your fellow countrymen in the West, in this firm, this unalterable belief: Es gibt nur ein Berlin. [There is only one Berlin.] "Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe. From the Baltic, south, those barriers cut across Germany in a gash of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guard towers. Farther south, there may be no visible, no obvious wall. But there remain armed guards and checkpoints all the same--still a restriction on the right to travel, still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state. Yet it is here in Berlin where the wall emerges most clearly; here, cutting across your city, where the news photo and the television screen have imprinted this brutal division of a continent upon the mind of the world. Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, every man is a German, separated from his fellow men. Every man is a Berliner, forced to look upon a scar. "President von Weizsacker has said, 'The German question is open as long as the Brandenburg Gate is closed.' Today I say: As long as the gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind. Yet I do not come here to lament. For I find in Berlin a message of hope, even in the shadow of this wall, a message of triumph. "In this season of spring in 1945, the people of Berlin emerged from their air-raid shelters to find devastation. Thousands of miles away, the people of the United States reached out to help. And in 1947 Secretary of State--as you've been told--George Marshall announced the creation of what would become known as the Marshall Plan. Speaking precisely 40 years ago this month, he said: "Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos." "In the Reichstag a few moments ago, I saw a display commemorating this 40th anniversary of the Marshall Plan. I was struck by the sign on a burnt-out, gutted structure that was being rebuilt. I understand that Berliners of my own generation can remember seeing signs like it dotted throughout the western sectors of the city. The sign read simply: 'The Marshall Plan is helping here to strengthen the free world.' A strong, free world in the West, that dream became real. Japan rose from ruin to become an economic giant. Italy, France, Belgium--virtually every nation in Western Europe saw political and economic rebirth; the European Community was founded. "In West Germany and here in Berlin, there took place an economic miracle, the Wirtschaftswunder. Adenauer, Erhard, Reuter, and other leaders understood the practical importance of liberty--that just as truth can flourish only when the journalist is given freedom of speech, so prosperity can come about only when the farmer and businessman enjoy economic freedom. The German leaders reduced tariffs, expanded free trade, lowered taxes. From 1950 to 1960 alone, the standard of living in West Germany and Berlin doubled. "Where four decades ago there was rubble, today in West Berlin there is the greatest industrial output of any city in Germany--busy office blocks, fine homes and apartments, proud avenues, and the spreading lawns of parkland. Where a city's culture seemed to have been destroyed, today there are two great universities, orchestras and an opera, countless theaters, and museums. Where there was want, today there's abundance--food, clothing, automobiles--the wonderful goods of the Ku'damm. From devastation, from utter ruin, you Berliners have, in freedom, rebuilt a city that once again ranks as one of the greatest on earth. The Soviets may have had other plans. But my friends, there were a few things the Soviets didn't count on--Berliner Herz, Berliner Humor, ja, und Berliner Schnauze. [Berliner heart, Berliner humor, yes, and a Berliner Schnauze.] "In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: 'We will bury you.' But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind--too little food. Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor. "And now the Soviets themselves may, in a limited way, be coming to understand the importance of freedom. We hear much from Moscow about a new policy of reform and openness. Some political prisoners have been released. Certain foreign news broadcasts are no longer being jammed. Some economic enterprises have been permitted to operate with greater freedom from state control. "Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state? Or are they token gestures, intended to raise false hopes in the West, or to strengthen the Soviet system without changing it? We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. "General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" |
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| New York Times Reports Border Closure |
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Special to the New York Times New York Times Aug. 13, 1961 “BERLIN, Sunday, Aug. 13 -- More than 2,500 East Germans, fearing the closing the borders, had slipped through tight police controls into West Berlin yesterday. This brought the total to more than 150,000 this year. “East Berlin, the capital of the German Democratic Republic that was founded in 1949 by the Soviet Union, is a city of 1,100,000. West Berlin has twice as large a population. The move made by East Germany blocked all means of exit from East Berlin into West Berlin --roads, subways and elevated lines. “The East German troops and Communist Brigades could be seen from West Berlin deploying in the streets along the sectoral border in the last hour before dawn. “The Communists’ move is clearly caused by the tremendous economic damage that the flow of refugees has been causing to East Germany. Month after month ever since the East German state was formed, laborers, farmers and intellectuals have fled with their families to West Berlin, from which they have flown out of West Germany. “In recent weeks the mass movement has swelled to proportions larger than at any time in the twelve years of the state, except for a period of five months in 1953. At that time discontent within East Germany caused a mass strike which, when it was halted, was followed by an open revolt on June 17, 1953. This was put down by Soviet troops supported by tanks. “The scene along the border between East Berlin and West Berlin in the first hours of daylight presented a contrast between a peaceful, beautiful morning and warlike preparations. East German troops began to stretch a wire fence between the Brandenburg Gate and the Potsdamerplatz, the two main connection points between East and West Berlin. “Wherever the East German troops lined up and began to drive stakes into the soil squads of West Berlin police, carrying only nightsticks, make a parallel line on the other side of the street. Nobody on either side showed any great concern about the confrontation. “The elevated railroad trains were suddenly halted when they came to the East Berlin border from West Berlin during the night hours and thereafter began to operate solely within the limits of West Berlin. At the two gates of the Brandenburg Gate and the Potsdamerplatz people were walking peacefully through from West Berlin into East Berlin, apparently residents of that section who were returning to their homes. “In other parts of West Berlin buses could be seen loading for trips to West Germany groups of vacationists and of persons who had been to visit Berlin. “Brig. Gen. Frederick O. Haratel, commanding officer of the 5,000-man United States force in Berlin, said early today that he had not received any specific orders from Washington on the situation. “He said that the ‘German police had responsibility for controlling traffic from East to West Berlin.’ “The East German move, however, was one that the three Western Allied occupation powers -- The United States, Britain and France -- had repeatedly warned against over many years as a violation of the four-power agreements on Berlin. “These guaranteed freedom of movement among the Allied occupation sectors, among other clauses. East Berlin is in the Soviet sector, while West Berlin is made up of the sectors of the three Western Allies. “Western officials in Berlin have long feared that the Communists would seal off the border completely, thus risking the possibility of another revolt. In Lubeck, West Germany, yesterday, Chancellor Adenauer urged the East German population to keep calm. “This represented a feeling of anxiety that exists among both West German officials and the Western Allies about the possible consequences if the East German population should make a rush for the borders.” |
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| Wall Street Journal Reports Reagan's Speech |
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"Our advance people had put up speakers aimed at East Berlin hoping that my speech might be heard on the other side. I could see the East German police keeping people away so that they couldn’t hear. They simply don’t realize it’s going to take more than that to keep out the stirrings of freedom. "There’s a couple sentences in this speech about tearing down the wall and opening the gate that I like quite a bit, and it actually makes the speech. I’m told that the State Department and The National Security Council thought the lines were two provocative "Just beccause our relationship with the Soviet Union is improving doesn’t mean we have to begin denying the truth. That is what got us into such a weak position with the Soviet Union in the first place. The line stayed and got quite a reaction from the crowd. "Twenty-four years ago, President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin, speaking to the people of this city and the world at the City Hall. Well, since then two other presidents have come, each in his turn, to Berlin. And today I, myself, make my second visit to your city. We come to Berlin, we American presidents, because it’s our duty to speak, in this place, of freedom. "Our gathering today is being broadcast throughout Western Europe and North America. I understand that it is being seen and heard as well in the East. To those listening throughout eastern Europe, I extend my warmest greetings and the good will of the American people. To those listening in East Berlin, a special word: Although I cannot be with you, I address my remarks to you just as surely as to those standing here before me. For I join you, as I join your fellow countrymen in the West, in this firm, in this unalterable belief: Es gibt nur cin Berlin. [There is only one Berlin.] "Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe. From the Baltic, south, those barriers cut across Germany in a gash of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guardtowers. Farther south, there may be no visible, no obvious wall. But there remain armed guards and checkpoints all the same--still a restriction on the right to travel, still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state. Yet it is here in Berlin where the wall emerges most clearly; here, cutting across your city, where the news photo and the television screen have imprinted this brutal division of a continent upon the mind of the world. Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, every man is a German, separated from his fellow men. Every man is a Berliner, froced to look upon a scar. "President von Weizsacker has said, 'The German question is open as long as the Brandenburg Gate is closed.' Today I say: As long as this gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind. Yet I do not come here to lament. For I find in Berlin a message of hope, even in the shadow of this wall, a message of triumph. "In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: 'We will bury you.' But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind--too little food. Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is a victor. "And now the Soviets themselves may, in a limited way, be coming to understand he importance of freedom. We ear much from Moscow about a new policy of reform openness. Some political prisoners have been released. Certain foreign news broadcasts are no longer being jammed. Some economic enterprises have been permitted to operate with greater freedom from state control. "Are these the beginnings of profound changes in Soviet state? Or are they broken gestures, intended to raise false hopes in the West, or to strengthen the Soviet system without changing it? We welcome change and openness: for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. "General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. If you seek liberalization: come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! "In Europe, only one nation and those it controls refuse to join the community of freedom. Yet in this age of redoubled economic growth, of infromation and innovation, the Soviet Union faces a choice: it must make fundemental changes, or it will become obsolete. "Today thus represents a moment of hope. We in the West stand ready to cooperate with the East to promote true openness, to break down barriers that separate people, to create a safer, freer world. And surely there is no better place than Berlin, the meeting place of East and West, to make a start. "The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront. Years ago, before the East Germans began rebuilding their churches, they erected a secular structure: the television tower at Alexander Platz. Virtually ever since, the authorities have been working to correct what they view as the tower’s one major flaw, treating the glass sphere at the top with paints and chemicals of every kind. Yet even today when the sun strikes that sphere—that sphere that towers over all Berlin—the light makes the sign of a cross. There in Berlin, like the city itself, symbold of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed. "As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner: 'This wall will fall. Beliefs become reality.' Yes, across Europe, this faith: It cannot withstand the truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom." |
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| New York TImes reports Berlin Border Guards Stunned by the News |
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"People are going to read this and say, ‘There must be some mistake,’ said a young guard, shaken out of his normally severe bearing and talking animatedly. “ 'It’s not good,' another said an hour after the decision was announced. 'We will lose our jobs.' "The border police commanding officer, a man about 30, slowly and deliberately read a dispatch about the open borders from the official press agency, A.D.N. “ 'Sometimes you have to read between the lines,' he said, pointing to a line saying official permission to travel was still needed. "Asked how many people might want to leave, the officer said he had heard talk in the force that two million of Germany’s 16 million people might pack up and move to the West. "He said many could turn up as early as Friday morning, with or without the necessary papers, and agreed the early shift would be 'interesting.' ” |
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