Germans subdued at Wall anniversary
By Andrew Gimson in Berlin
Monstrosity that crumbled under weight of history
Thatcher accused of snub
GERMANS yesterday marked the tenth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin
Wall in an almost gloomy mood, with many Berliners angry at the dominant
role played by politicians in the commemoration of what was a popular
uprising.
The celebrations staged last night at the
Brandenburg Gate could not obscure
the fact that few, if any, Berliners tried
to recapture the careless rapture of the
event.
"We have all noticed that the Germans
don't celebrate with lightness of heart,"
said Joachim Gauck, a former member
of the East German civil rights
movement, during the official
commemoration held by German MPs
in the Reichstag.
Mr Gauck, a Lutheran pastor who is now in charge of the records amassed
by the East German secret police, was drafted in as a speaker at the last
minute after complaints that Easterners were grossly under-represented at the
ceremony.
He conveyed the disappointment of many East Germans after reunification by
saying that they had "dreamed of paradise and woke up in North
Rhine-Westphalia", the industrial belt of Germany.
Chancellor Schr”der caught the sombre mood when he reminded MPs that
the history-laden date of Nov 9 is "also a day of shame" for the Germans.
The night of Nov 9, 1938, saw nationwide attacks on Jews, with about 100
killed and 30,000 arrested. Almost every synagogue was burned down or
ransacked and 7,000 Jewish businesses were plundered. Mr Schr”der
described this pogrom as "the way into an abyss of inhumanity".
He added that Hitler's attempted putsch in Munich on Nov 9, 1923 - in which
he made an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German Republic
proclaimed on Nov 9, 1918 - had been "the overture to what in 1938
became gruesome reality".
Helmut Kohl, who was the West German Chancellor when the Wall came
down, delivered a strong warning to the current German government to
continue his policy of European integration or there would be "no peaceful
future for Germany and Europe".
Mr Kohl told the audience at the Reichstag that "the gift of unification obliges
us . . . to drive forward the building of the European house with powerful
steps".
The former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev told German MPs that the
"greatest hero" in the fall of the Berlin Wall was the German and Russian
people, but he added that he found it "incomprehensible" that some former
East German politicians had not been invited to the ceremony.
Just on Monday, Egon Krenz, who took over from Erich Honecker as East
German leader shortly before the Wall fell, lost an appeal against the six and a
half year jail sentence for his responsibility for the deaths of people shot trying
to escape from East Germany. He is expected to be in prison by Christmas.
He said this week that Mr Gorbachev had assured him that East Germany
would continue to exist. Mr Krenz also claimed the credit for deciding at a
politburo meeting to yield to pressure and open the Wall - a measure he
hoped in vain would show him as a reformer.
It was left to George Bush, the former American President who was a strong
supporter of German reunification, to strike a lighter note as he addressed
German Mps. He said: "I love this spirit of sweetness and harmony and light
that's in this chamber today. I'd like to bottle it and take it home."
Mr Bush recalled how when the Wall came down he feared that the East
German army might intervene. He said he did not come to Berlin then to
celebrate as he feared that "one arrogant step from our side could have
destroyed everything".
Die Welt was among the German newspapers which condemned the official
celebrations. It said they left an "an after-taste of hypocrisy since practically
the whole of the present German government was against the unification and
considered it - the words are unfortunately on the record - long after Nov 9,
1989, to be impossible and undesirable".
telegraph.co.uk |
