Monday, 9th November 2009

The night the wall came down

Charles Buttigieg

West German citizens sitting on the top of the Berlin Wall near the Allied checkpoint Charlie after the opening of the East German border was announced on November 9, 1989. Photo: Reuters.

It was November 9, 1989. "The Berlin Wall has been breached after nearly three decades keeping East and West Berliners apart," announced the BBC. "At midnight, East Germany's communist rulers gave permission for gates along the wall to be opened after hundreds of people converged on crossing points. They surged through, cheering and shouting and were met by jubilant West Berliners on the other side."

The BBC's news item continued as follows: "Ecstatic crowds immediately began to clamber on top of the wall and hack large chunks out of the 45-kilometre barrier. It had been erected in 1961 on the orders of East Germany's former leader Walter Ulbricht to stop people leaving for West Germany. Since 1949, about 2.5 million people had fled East Germany. After 1961, the wall and other fortifications along the 1,380-kilometre border shared by East and West Germany have kept most East Germans in. Many of those attempting to escape have been shot dead by border guards."

Forty-four years had passed since the July/August 1945 Potsdam Conference, held following Germany's unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945, during which the Allies divided what was then determined to be "Occupation Zone Germany" into four military occupation zones: French in the southwest, British in the northwest, United States in the south and Soviet in the east.

Berlin became the seat of the Allied Control Council, which was to have governed Germany as a whole until the conclusion of a peace settlement. However, in 1948 the Soviet Union refused to participate in the quadripartite administration of Germany. They also refused to continue the joint administration of Berlin. The Soviets drove the government elected by the people of Berlin out of its seat in the Soviet sector and installed a communist regime in East Berlin. From then until unification, the Western Allies continued to exercise supreme authority. The Allies and German authorities in West Germany and West Berlin never recognised the communist city regime in East Berlin or East German authority there.

At the end of World War II, Europe was drained and exhausted. Step by step, the continent ended up playing a supporting role on the international stage, compared to the increased might of the US and the Soviet Union. A Cold War emerged between them.

From 1949 onwards, contact between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was affected by the ups and downs of international relations of the Cold War. The erection of the Berlin Wall, which started on August 13, 1961, increased the tension. Indeed, the wall became the symbol in Europe of the Cold War between the two superpowers.

Following the construction of the wall, apart from occasional special arrangements at Christmas and other holiday periods, West Berliners had not been allowed to visit East Berlin. Then, in 1969, the newly-elected West German Social-Liberal coalition, headed by Willy Brandt, started seeking a new direction for foreign policy in favour of détente in Europe. On November 28, 1969, the FRG signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty with the USSR. This policy of normalising relations and openness towards the East, known as Ostpolitik, was established within the overall context of East-West détente and sought to restore the now economically powerful West Germany to a place on the international stage.

On September 3, 1971, a quadripartite Allied agreement between the United States, France, the USSR and the United Kingdom laid down conditions for travel by West Berliners and the Allies on the transit routes. The agreement provided for the resumption of overland and telephone communications between East and West Berlin. Border controls were relaxed and it became easier for residents to cross the wall. In fact, the agreement served as the basis for an arrangement between the Berlin Senate and the government of the GDR, enabling West Berliners to, once again, start visiting East Berlin and the GDR. Through the new agreement, 30 visiting days a year were allowed, spread over as many periods as people chose.

On December 21, 1972, in East Berlin, the two Germanys signed the Basic Treaty in which the two states recognised one another and established normal political and trade relations. The diplomatic status quo and the inviolability of the border dividing the two German states were recognised, although reunification remained a long-term goal.

I had the opportunity to visit both sides of Berlin in April 1974.

Some scenes, still vivid in my mind, are those I was able to see from a Reichstag building window overlooking that part of the wall that passed very near to it: the East Berlin heavily-armed guards in their towers with their gaze fixed on the surroundings crowded as they were with heavy obstacles intended to pre-empt any attempt to cross over to the West and the famous Brandenburg Gate standing in the cold hoping in silence to once again see the day when it could enjoy the scene of people moving happily around it.

I also remember the heavy security measures that visitors had to pass through when entering the East Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie and the striking difference in the restructuring and way of life there when compared to the West. At the time, the thought of a reunified Berlin without the wall seemed still wishful-thinking, short of a miracle.

Years went by. However, even at the time when Mikhail Gorbachev was liberalising the Soviet regime and the movements opposed to communism were gathering strength in central and Eastern Europe, the GDR appeared to be an invincible fortress. The Communist Party was still strongly supported by the army and the secret police, the leaders of which were set against any change and counted on the support of the Soviet troops stationed in the GDR.

Yet, there was an ever-growing wave of opposition which, in the autumn of 1988, called for a "society with a human face" and a year later for a liberalisation of the regime. Big demonstrations took place, calling for freedom of thought, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly. The people of East Germany wanted a share of the prosperity enjoyed by West Germany. They demonstrated in favour of a united Germany.

The East German government was counting on Soviet support to save the regime. But Mr Gorbachev refused any sort of military intervention and tried to persuade the East German leaders to proceed with reforms, along the lines of perestroika.

The pressure of the people for reform increased in October, with the symbolic Montagsdemonstrationen (Monday demonstrations). On October 18, Egon Krenz became leader of the Communist Party with Moscow's approval. Hans Modrow, who was in favour of the reforms, became head of government. However, it was too late. On November 4, the new leaders were booed by a crowd of about a million people gathered on Alexanderplatz in East Berlin.

On November 9, this led to the decision to authorise travel abroad. Immediately, thousands of people wanted to cross through the frontier posts in Berlin, which were forced to open up to the crowd. The demonstrators started to demolish the "Wall of Shame". Millions of East Germans immediately visited West Berlin.

The following day, November 10, the leaders of the GDR promised that "free and secret elections" would take place in May 1990. Nonetheless, continuing demonstrations forced them to bring the elections forward to March 18. The socialist reformers were defeated and the Christian Democrat Lothar de Maizière became head of government of the GDR. On April 12, he declared himself in favour of a unified Germany within Nato and the European Community.