Risk Management: 25 years ago, Reagan demanded of the Evil Empire, "Tear down this wall!"

English: Ronald Reagan speaking in front of the Brandenburg Gate and the Berlin Wall on June 12, 1987. 日本語: ベルリンの壁の前での演説（1987年) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Week in Germany Dear TWIG Readers, On June 12, 1987, US President Ronald Reagan stood before the Brandenburg Gate at the heart of Berlin and demanded that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev "Tear down this wall!" That speech - heard round the world on that day 25 years ago - has gone down in history as a call for freedom and democracy. Although it may seem hard to believe now, no one could have imagined at the time that just two years later, on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall that had artificially divided the city for nearly three decades would be peacefully opened by the former communist East Germany, which could no longer resist mounting pressure from an increasingly active East German population engaged in mounting political protests. This allowed East Berliners to freely cross over into West Berlin for the first time since the wall was constructed in 1961. This was a historic turning point that marked the beginning of the end of the Cold War era and took the entire world by surprise. Where watchtowers manned by guards with shoot-to-kill orders if anyone dared to flee from East to West Berlin had stood for decades, people could suddenly freely make this short journey on foot. They were greeted on the other side by jubilant crowds in what quickly morphed into a massive multi-day party at the center of Germany's biggest city. Images of people dancing on the Berlin Wall, of stunned uniformed East German soldiers sharing a laugh with their fellow German citizens (from both "East" and "West" Berlin) and of East Germans driving through formerly blocked and heavily guarded checkpoints into West Berlin in their tiny Trabant ("Trabi") cars went round the world - just like Reagan's speech held right before the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate just two years earlier. Germany, which had been artificially divided after the Second World War into two separate political entities - the former democratic West Germany and the former communist East Germany - was finally reunified on October 3, 1990, which has been celebrated as a national holiday known as "The Day of German Unity" (Tag der Deutschen Einheit) ever since. Karen Carstens Editor, The Week in Germany Webteam Germany.info