At a central commemoration ceremony in Berlin, the leaders of the Federal Republic, together with the presidents of several former Eastern Bloc states, recalled the fall of the Berlin Wall 30 years ago. At the event on the former death strip on Bernauer Straße, the director of the Gedenkstatten Foundation, Axel Klausmeier, said: "The peaceful revolution means first and foremost assuming responsibility, living tolerance, respecting and defending democracy and human rights, and the dream of a united Europe to fill with life. "
In addition to Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and Federal Council President Dietmar Woidke (SPD), the Presidents of Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, as well as contemporary witnesses and students participated in the ceremony.
Steinmeier thanked the citizens of the four states for their significant contribution to reunification. "Without the courage and the will to freedom of the Poles and Hungarians, the Czechs and Slovaks, the peaceful revolutions in Eastern Europe and German unity would not have been possible," he said.
He spoke in a second part of the celebration at the neighboring monument to the four Visegrad states. This is reminiscent of their contribution to the fall of the wall and was visited by Steinmeier and the four presidents Zuzana Caputova (Slovakia), Milos Zeman (Czech Republic), Andrzej Duda (Poland) and Janos Ader (Hungary). During the commemoration, Steinmeier, Merkel and the foreign state guests also put roses in the back wall for the victims of the Berlin Wall. In addition, candles were lit in memory of the courage of the GDR opposition in the fall of 1989.
Michael son / DPA
Milos Zeman, President of the Czech Republic, and Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier
Merkel called for the celebration of hatred, racism and anti-Semitism resolutely. At the same time she called on people not to be discouraged. "No wall that excludes people and limits freedom is so high or so wide that it can not be broken," Merkel said in the Chapel of Reconciliation on the former death strip on Bernauer Strasse.
"I remember those who were oppressed"
At the same time Merkel praised the people who opposed the SED state. "I remember those who were killed at the wall because they were seeking freedom," she said, citing around 75,000 people imprisoned in the GDR for seeking freedom. "I remember those who were oppressed and had to bury their dreams," said the Chancellor.
Bernauer Straße is considered a symbol of the German division. When the wall was raised in 1961, the street fronted the street to the east, the sidewalk to the west.
On November 9, 1989, the German division came to an end after about 40 years; the Berlin Wall itself had more than 28 years of existence. According to scientific findings, at least 140 people died on the 160-kilometer-long wall in the capital through the GDR border regime.
Read the best SPIEGEL stories about the fall of the Berlin Wall here.
