Thursday, November 05, 2009

The Fall of the Berlin Wall - 20th Anniversary

Demolishing the Berlin Wall the hard way. Photograph by Dr. Friedhelm Pedde

The link below is to a PDF document that contains something near and dear to me. I hope you will download it, read it, share it, spread it around far and wide.

I was in Berlin in 1992, not quite three years after the Berlin Wall came down. I spoke with former East Germans who were still bristling at the fact that they had been kept isolated from the West, deprived of social and economic freedom and opportunity, always facing the certainty that they would be shot if they were to attempt to flee to the west to improve their prospects or reunite with family.

Next Monday, November 9th, marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall. I asked my cousin, Dr. Friedhelm Pedde, an archeologist in Berlin, to write an article about the fall of the wall. His perspective and some personal anecdotes are included, as are some personal photographs taken by him in the days after the momentous event. I am grateful for his time and effort.

Freedom is the most precious thing we can enjoy. Let's protect it, and to the extent that it has been taken from us, wherever we might reside, let's take it back.

I welcome comments on the article. I will pass them on to my cousin.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

3 comments:

  1. Those were high times & heady days!
    Twenty years later, it appears all the valuable lessons we learned then have been forgotten: The markets collapse under all the bureaucratic, tax-happy deadweight imposed upon them by government, government's proposed "solution" is more of the same, and the dumbed-down, pubic-screw-ooled masses eat it up.
    The conquest of the European continent that neither Hitler nor Stalin could accomplish with tanks and troops, is coming to pass with banks and the mass importation of Islamic fanatics.

    If it's alright, I'd like to put a post together from that article you've posted.

    Good to see you back on the blog again!

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  2. I have been remiss in not visiting recently, Sieg.
    Will catch up and comment.
    Hope all is well with you!

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  3. when I have visited to Berlin, was very keen to see Berlin wall. I found Bits of the wall was throughout the city in chunks.I know why some don't want reminder of the wall but I think we should always remember mans' inhumanity to man.
    Berlin places to visit

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