DATE=11/6/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=BERLIN WALL ANNIVERSARY (L-0)
NUMBER=2-255892
BYLINE=RON PEMSTEIN
DATELINE=BERLIN
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Germans begin celebrating the 10th anniversary
of the fall of the Berlin Wall Monday - one day early
- by awarding honorary citizenship to former American
President George Bush and former Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev. As V-O-A's Ron Pemstein reports from
Berlin, the wall was opened on the evening of November
9th, but it was not planned that way.
Text: The original plan had been to loosen travel
restrictions for East Germans on November 10th. A
misunderstanding of the Communist Party decision led
to (Central Committee member ) Guenter Schabowski's
shocking statement at a press conference the evening
before that the Berlin Wall would be opened
immediately.
The East German leader at the time, Egon Krenz, was
informed that people were already jamming border posts
at the wall on the evening of November ninth. He
worried about the consequences.
/// Krenz Act in German Fade Under ///
You must imagine, he says, the best watched
border perhaps in Europe, maybe outside Europe, a
border between two world systems, a border between two
blocs, Anything could have happened, if the border
troops of the D-D-R (East Germany) on this evening
had not reacted with care.
Today, Mr. Krenz is publishing his memoir titled
"Autumn, 1989." He does not openly criticize Mr.
Schabowski's premature statement that the Berlin Wall
would be opened.
/// Krenz Act in German Fade Under ///
But, he says, a situation was created in which
everything - from chaos to catastrophe - everything
was in it.
To mark the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin
Wall, the German government is honoring the world
leaders of 1989 who made the day possible - American
George Bush and Soviet Mikhail Gorbachev. They will
be awarded gold crosses covered with a German eagle
pinned on a red ribbon to symbolize their citizenship
of Berlin. There will also be speeches by the West
German chancellor at the time, Helmut Kohl, and the
current chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder.
Missing from the original program was any
representative of the half-million East Germans who
campaigned for freedom in 1989. At the last minute,
the German government invited Joachim Gauck to speak.
He was a Lutheran minister active in the East German
civil rights movement. Mr. Gauck is now in charge of
the files of the East German secret police, the Stasi.
British historian and author Timothy Garten-Ash says
East Germans tend to be forgotten by West Germans when
they remember November, 1989.
/// Garten-Ash Act ///
Immediately after autumn, 1989, everyone in West
Germany said oh, this is a wonderful, peaceful
revolution and then about two months later, the
same people were saying actually it wasn't a
revolution at all, it was all Gorbachev. And
the truth is halfway in between. Of course, it
couldn't have happened without Gorbachev, but it
also couldn't have happened without the popular
movements in Eastern Europe and in Germany, the
courage of the people on the streets of Leipzig.
So it needed both.
/// End Act ///
Less than a year after the wall fell, so did communist
East Germany. When Egon Krenz and his reform
communists loosened the travel restrictions on
November 9th, 1989, they never imagined they would be
swept away by a reunited Germany. (Signed)
Neb/RP/DW/JP
06-Nov-1999 09:38 AM EDT (06-Nov-1999 1438 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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