1. Berlin Wall Tumbles
By Rie Yamada
The Berlin Wall was breached
by thousands of East Berliners after
Guenter Schabowski, who was an
official of the ruling party called the
Socialist Unity Party of Germany,
stated the deregulation of trip
permission in East Germany
yesterday.
On November 9, Berlin’s
party boss, Guenter Schabowski
announced that East Berlin citizens
were allowed to make private
journeys abroad without
preconditions. At the evening
briefing, Schabowski perplexedly
read out “[The rule] comes into
force… immediately, without delay”
(“Gunter Schabowski”) even though
the regulation was supposed to enter
into force on the next day.
Within hours, thousands of
East Berliners who heard
Schabowski’s statements rushed to
the border and crushed the Berlin
Wall, which has virtually become
nominal. After thousands of people
converged on the crossing points,
East Germany gave permission for
the gates to be opened.
The Berlin Wall was erected in
1961 to prevent East Germans who
rejected communism from escaping
to West Germany and it divided
Berlin into two different cities. West
Berlin belonged to the German
Federal Republic or an ally of the
West Berlin consisted of US, GB, and
France occupation sectors. East Berlin
consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin.
(Wikipedia)
United States, and East Berlin
became the capital of German
Democratic Republic dominated by
the Soviet Union. While West Berlin
prospered, the Communist
government of East Berlin failed in
economics. As people started
questioning its system of
communism, they began to flee into
West Germany and East Germany
lost over 1.6 million people between
1949 and 1961.
However, in June 1989, the
definitive incident which led to the
fall of Berlin Wall happened. The
gash in the Berlin Wall was first
made in Hungary. Hungarian
Foreign Minister cut open a section
of the barbed wire near Sopron and
after several months, more than
3,500 East Germans used a “pan-
European picnic” at the site to flee to
Austria.
Since East Berliners became
able to escape to Hungary, the Wall
lost its purpose and finally, East
Germany instituted the freedom of
traveling in November, 1898.
Hundreds of Berliners rushed to Berlin
Wall and the crane destroyed the wall.
(Wikipedia)
On the day the Berlin Wall
was opened, the people gathered to
the gate to see a historic moment and
were all delighted at freedom of
East-West traffic. Everyone
embraced each other and danced in
an all-night party. This event has
brought an “impression” and
“delight” all over the World and it is
hoped to be the driving force of “the
German reunification”.
West Germany’s Burden
The fall of Berlin Wall is not
just an incident that happened in the
past, but it might also affect our
Germany’s future.
The creation of Berlin Wall was
“an offense not only against history,
but an offence against humanity,
separating families… and dividing a
people who wish to be joined
together” (Gerdes). Therefore
humanely and moralistically, the
Berlin Wall should have been broken
down earlier. In addition, since the
Berlin Wall, which represents the
symbol of the struggle between East
and West, has been removed, this
can bring the chance to develop
economic, cultural, and political ties
between East and West.
However, in the reality, East
Germany has many problems such
as technological backwardness and
declining standards of health due to
its communist system. Who will
support East Germany in the future?
We, West Germany need to help
them prosper and we wonder how
much this will impose a burden on
us. Moreover, there is still a struggle
between East and West because
while we support democracy, the
East uses communist system. We
cannot cooperate with them
economically and politically if we
still have the struggle between
democracy and communism.
Germans had longed for
freedom for so long and now East
and West are together. At the same
time, we also need to know that this
might be a load for every single
person in order to put two Germanys
together as one prosperous nation.
Hopefully, East Germany will get rid
of its communist system and it will
lead both East and West to achieve a
level of prosperity.
American President, Ronald Wilson
Reagan visited the Berlin Wall and made a
famous speech, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear
down this wall.” in 1987. (Wikipedia)
Work Cited
Western GazetteThursday, August 24, 1989 Everyday’s information for you 3 cents

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