WHAT MATTERS WEBLOG

Fall of the Berlin Wall:

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, all 27 leaders of EU countries, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev gathered in Berlin in front of the Brandenburg gate to celebrate and commemorate.

Hillary Clinton gave an excellent speech, introducing a message from U.S. President Barack Obama, before German chancellor Angela Merkel - who had lived in the communist German Democratic Republic for 35 years - addressed the audience of hundreds of thousands of Berliners and visitors from Europe and all around the world.

Two decades have passed since the Iron Curtain collapsed and Germany was reunited and Europe was united. It is incredible what has happened during these twenty years. The European Union has 27 members now, of which 9 were once part of the Eastern Bloc.

On November 9, 1989, the weakened socialist regime in Eastern Germany allowed its citizens more freedom to travel. Immediately after the announcement, thousands rushed to the border checkpoints and demanded that the gates be opened. The overwhelmed and confused guards gave up their resistance which marked the irreversible end of the communist dictatorship. Tens of thousands fled across the border to West Berlin where Germans from East and West celebrated and danced on the wall.

What followed was the complete destabilization of the communist regime. The first free elections in Eastern Germany were held shortly afterwards and on October 3rd, 1990, Eastern Germany officially became a part of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The fall of the Berlin Wall - preceded by mass protests and riots all across the Soviet-controlled Eastern Bloc - marked the end of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Thanks to then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the military did not intervene and the transition to a new era of liberty all across central and eastern Europe took place peacefully.

The role of the U.S. and Saudi Arabian oil:

A major reason why the Soviet Union did not crack down violently on the protests in Berlin and all across the Eastern Bloc is that in 1989, the Soviet Union’s economy was already on the verge of collapse. Communism’s self-destructive forces have for decades worked against the Soviet Union, but primarily due to oil and gas exports, the USSR managed to maintain the system it was based on that long because it had money to buy food and other goods to bridge the shortcomings of  its own economy.

In the mid-1980s, the United States convinced its ally Saudi Arabia to boost its oil production significantly in order to flood the market with cheap oil. That caused oil prices to tumble and was the death blow to the Soviet economy. Even by increasing its oil exports, the Soviet Union was earning less and less. When the foreign currency influx ebbed, the communist system collapsed.

November 9th throughout German history:

November 9th is the date of several turning points throughout German history.

In the year 1918 - at the end of World War I - the German revolution, sparked by a revolt of sailors, brought the German Empire to an end and led to the proclamation of a republic on November 9th, 1918. This event was followed by the abdication of the German emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II and the introduction of  democracy to the Weimar Republic.

On November 9th, 1923, Adolf Hitler attempted for the first time to seize power violently during the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich. The coup failed and Hitler and several followers were arrested.

The weaknesses of the new republic’s constitution, the chaotic economic and political conditions caused by ideological tensions, a lack of sympathy with democracy itself and a resurging nationalism and the effects of the Great Depression finally brought the Nazi regime to power in 1933.

20 years after the declaration of a republic, on November 9th, 1938, the Reichspogromnacht took place - an anti-Jewish pogrom. Hundreds of Jews were murdered, many synagogues burned to the ground and tens of thousands of Jews were arrested.

World War II and the division of Germany took place in the middle of the 20th century before the Berlin Wall was brought down on November 9th, 1989.

After the reunification, there was an intense discussion whether to make November 9th the new national holiday. But because of the terrible events that happened on November 9th in 1923 and 1938, October 3rd became the new national holiday, celebrating the official date of the reunification: October 3rd, 1990.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 5:25 PM and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.