“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!”
Standing in front of the Brandenburg Gate, I am reminded of the famous
speech delivered by Ronald Reagan on June 12, 1987.
Located on the River Spree, Berlin
is the capital city of Germany
with a population of 3.3 million people, making Berlin
Germany's largest city and second
most populous city in the European Union behind London.
Berlin
is a city with an extraordinary history, complete with culture, politics,
science, and nature - one third of the city's area is composed of forests,
parks, gardens, rivers and lakes. During
the Thirty Years' War between 1618 and 1648, a third of its houses were damaged
or destroyed, and the city lost half of its population. After the 1806 Prussian defeat at the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt,
Napoleon marched through the Brandenburg Gate and stole its Quadriga (statue of
a chariot drawn by four horses) while on route to Paris.
At the end of World War I in 1918, a republic was proclaimed in Berlin until January 30,
1933 when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power. After the Nazi-Germany was defeated in World
War II, the Allies (the U.S.,
Britain, and the Soviet
Union) agreed on dividing a Germany
into occupation zones. Later, a French
zone was carved out of the American and British zones. Additionally, although large parts of the
city were destroyed by air raids, Berlin, even
though it was inside the Soviet-controlled territory of Germany,
was also divided into four parts because of the city’s strategic and historical
importance. In 1949, the Federal
Republic of Germany was founded in West Germany
and eventually included all of the American, British, and French zones, however,
this republic excluded those three countries' zones in Berlin.
Airline service to West Berlin was
granted only to American, British, and French airlines.
The founding of the two German states increased Cold War
tensions. West Berlin was surrounded by East German territory, and East Germany proclaimed East
Berlin as its capital, which was not recognized by the western
powers. Although only half the size and population of West Berlin, East Berlin included most of the historic center of the
city. By 1961, approximately 20% of the entire East German
population, or 3.5 million people fled East Germany, with the majority of emigrants
being young and well educated. With the
brain drain of professionals becoming so damaging to the political credibility
and economic viability of East
Germany, construction on the Berlin Wall began
on August 13, 1961 to curb its declining population. The barrier completely cut off West Berlin
from surrounding East Germany
and East Berlin and included guard towers
placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (aka the
"death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, beds of nails,
dogs, and other defenses. This only
added to the political and economical tensions of the Cold War and events
escalated to a tank standoff at Checkpoint Charlie on October 27, 1961. The dispute began over whether East German
guards were authorized to examine the travel documents of a U.S. diplomat named Allan Lightner passing
through to East Berlin to see the opera. By October 27, ten Soviet and an equal number
of American tanks stood 100 meters apart on each side of the checkpoint. The standoff ended peacefully the next day,
however, the tension was high given that at any moment, a new world war could
have started over an accidental shot.
Following widespread public anger over the faking of results
of local government elections in 1989, many citizens applied for exit visas or
left the country. When Hungary removed
its border restrictions and unsealed its border in August 1989, and more than
13,000 people left East Germany by crossing the "green" border via
Czechoslovakia into Hungary and then on to Austria, and finally into West
Germany. On 9 November 1989, a few
sections of the Berlin Wall were opened, resulting in thousands of East Germans
crossing into West Berlin and West
Germany for the first time. Finally, on October
3, 1990, East and West Germany
was re-united.
Berlin's
history has left the city with a highly eclectic array of architecture and
buildings. The eastern parts of Berlin
have many Plattenbautens (large, prefabricated concrete buildings) as reminders
of Eastern Bloc ambitions to create complete residential areas that had fixed
ratios of shops, kindergartens, and schools to the number of inhabitants. The Fernsehturm (TV tower) at Alexanderplatz in Mitte (same
location as the Bourne Supremacy) is among the tallest structures in the
European Union at 368 m (1,207 ft). Built in 1969, it is visible throughout
most of the central districts of Berlin. The Brandenburg Gate is of course the iconic
landmark of Berlin and Germany, with the nearby Reichstag
building serving as the German Parliament.
The building was in the 1990s and features a glass dome over the session
area, which allows free public access to the parliamentary proceedings and
magnificent views of the city. Small
sections of the Berlin Wall remain today, but for an interesting history of the
wall, you can watch via the attached link.
Finally, the border crossing at checkpoint Charlie draws a number of
visitors, and it is interesting thinking how easily I passed through on a
bicycle without any questions, which 25 years ado was unthinkable.
One final reference to my favorite TV show Seinfeld while
sitting in the Berlin Tegel Airport (TXL), which may be one of the worst
airports for a delay or transfer due. As
customary for some European airlines, complementary newspapers and magazines
are handled out to read on the plane. In
Berlin, one
of the magazines was Playboy, which did not seem to last very long on the
shelf.
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| Bridge from the Bourne Supremacy |
