There Used To Be This Thing Called The Berlin Wall

11:39 am EST November 9th, 2009 | News | 10 Comments

Berlin wall

Upon hearing the hoopla over the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, I realized that I’m so old now that I actually remember a time when the Berlin wall was there. I was 11 when the wall came down and I can still remember thinking at that very moment that I had always assumed my entire life that it would always be.

I also remember the sheer joy of the German people as they poured across it as the restrictions were lifted, and even at that young age I was aware something of mighty importance had occured.

The idea that the wall came down simply because Ronald Reagan said so is absurd. But at the same time, President Reagan’s words and actions did have an effect and he was right to back the cause of freedom in Germany. What made the wall fall was Reagan, Gorbachev, and most importantly the people wanting to be free.

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10 Responses to “There Used To Be This Thing Called The Berlin Wall”

  1. Frank DiSalle says:
    November 9, 2009 at 12:15 pm

    The idea that the wall came down simply because Ronald Reagan said so is absurd
    Yes, as absurd as the idea that the wall came down because Gorbachev wanted it to.
    The fall of the wall began with Lech Walesca, then Pope John Paul II , Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

  2. Dennis says:
    November 9, 2009 at 12:26 pm

    Those were the days, my friend.

  3. Oliver Willis says:
    November 9, 2009 at 12:30 pm

    Yes, as absurd as the idea that the wall came down because Gorbachev wanted it to.
    Need some straw? Nobody made that argument.

  4. Oliver Willis says:
    November 9, 2009 at 12:30 pm

    … the days when we were a hair trigger away from nuclear war. Sorry, Reagan and Thatcher were good speechmakers, but I’ll pass on the ’80s.

  5. SaveFarris says:
    November 9, 2009 at 1:19 pm

    If only the Obama Administration wasn’t hell-bent on bringing those days back…

  6. White Whale says:
    November 9, 2009 at 4:00 pm

    Was there when I was a child. I will remember that for the rest of my life. The families being reunited. Somehow walls are just a bad idea. Of course, please keep building that indestructable “fence” out on Mexico. That will keep brown folks out. Let me guess…its Obama’s fault.

  7. tom says:
    November 9, 2009 at 5:48 pm

    You know, Maggie, Ronnie and the Pope are all nice but look, when you put that much real estate and economic resources into interning your own population, the artifice is bound to unravel at some point. I know it was difficult to see that in the 1980s, but the DDR and the Stalinist system of which it was a part were doomed. As Oliver said, that most important factor is the will of the people.

  8. Jaim says:
    November 9, 2009 at 7:22 pm

    The Soviet Union was never as powerful as we thought it was. Although I’m happy it’s gone.

    Thatcher bankrupted the UK. Not too many Brits under the age of 60 think fondly of her.

    Reagan raised taxes in his second terms to balance the enormous deficit he achieved through military spending. I guess I can applaud him for that. He also sent money and aid to Saddam Hussein, making him a terrorist sympathizer by any objective standard.

  9. canadian bacon says:
    November 9, 2009 at 11:13 pm

    “Those were the days, my friend.”

    We thought they’d never end.

  10. william says:
    November 10, 2009 at 8:11 am

    Funny that Obama couldn’t bring himself to mention Lech Walesca, Pope John Paul II , Margaret Thatcher, or Ronald Reagan in his video speech. Guess who he did mention…himself.