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Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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Germany marks 1989 Berlin Wall fall with 'Preserve Freedom' party
by Agence France-Presse
BERLIN --
Germany marks 35 years since the Berlin Wall fell with festivities
beginning Saturday under the theme "Preserve Freedom!" as Russia's war
rages in Ukraine and many fear democracy is under attack.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz -- whose governing coalition dramatically
collapsed this week -- said in a message to the nation that the liberal
ideals of 1989 "are not something we can take for granted."
"A look at our history and at the world around us shows this," said
Scholz, whose three-party ruling alliance imploded on the day Donald
Trump was elected president in the United States, plunging Germany into
political turmoil and toward new elections.
November 9, 1989, is celebrated as the day East Germany's dictatorship
opened the borders to the West after months of peaceful mass protests,
paving the way for German reunification and the collapse of Soviet
communism.
One Berliner who remembers those momentous events, retiree Jutta
Krueger, 75, said about the political crisis hitting just ahead of the
anniversary weekend: "It's a shame that it's coinciding like this now."
"But we should still really celebrate the fall of the Wall," she said,
hailing it as the moment East Germans could travel and "freedom had
arrived throughout Germany."
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will kick off events on Saturday at
the Berlin Wall Memorial, honoring the at least 140 people killed
trying to flee the Moscow-backed German Democratic Republic during the
Cold War.
In the evening, a "freedom party" with a music and light show will be
held at Berlin's iconic Brandenburg Gate, on the former path of the
concrete barrier that had cut the city in two beginning in 1961.
On Sunday, the Russian protest punk band Pussy Riot will perform in
front of the former headquarters of the Stasi, former East Germany's
feared secret police.
Pro-democracy activists from around the world have been invited for the
commemorations -- among them Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana
Tikhanovskaya and Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad.
Talks, performances and a large-scale open-air art exhibition will also
mark what Culture Minister Claudia Roth called "one of the most joyous
moments in world history."
Replica placards from the 1989 protests will be on display along 4
kilometers of the wall's route, past the historic Reichstag building
and the famous Checkpoint Charlie.
Among the art installations will be thousands of images created by
citizens on the theme of "freedom," to drive home the enduring
relevance of the historical event.
## Populism and division
Berlin's top cultural affairs official Joe Chialo said the theme was
crucial "at a time when we are confronted by rising populism,
disinformation and social division."
Axel Klausmeier, head of the Berlin Wall foundation, said the values of
the 1989 protests "are the power-bank for the defense of our democracy,
which today is being gnawed at from the left and the right."
Most East Germans are grateful the East German regime ended, but many
also have unhappy memories of the perceived arrogance of West Germans,
and resentment lingers about a remaining gap in incomes and pensions.
These sentiments have been cited to explain the strong support for the
far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, in eastern Germany, as well
as for the Russia-friendly and anti-capitalist BSW.
Strong gains for both at three state elections in the east in September
highlighted the enduring political divisions between eastern and
western Germany over three decades since reunification.
While the troubled government led by Scholz's Social Democrats and the
opposition CDU strongly supports Ukraine's defense against Russia, the
antiestablishment AfD and BSW oppose it.
The AfD, which rails against immigration, was embarrassed this week
when several of its members were arrested as suspected members of a
racist paramilitary group that had practiced urban warfare drills.
On the eve of the anniversary of the Berlin Wall's fall, government
spokesperson Christiane Hoffmann recalled that the weekend will also
mark another, far darker chapter in German history.
During the Nazis' Kristallnacht or Night of Broken Glass pogrom of
November 9-10, 1938, at least 90 Jews were murdered, countless
properties destroyed, and 1,400 synagogues torched in Germany and
Austria.
Hoffmann said, "It is very important for our society to remember the
victims ... and learn the correct lessons from those events for our
conduct today."
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