DATE=11/6/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=BERLIN WALL ANNIVERSARY (L-0)
NUMBER=2-255892
BYLINE=RON PEMSTEIN
DATELINE=BERLIN
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:


INTRO:  Germans begin celebrating the 10th anniversary 
of the fall of the Berlin Wall Monday - one day early 
- by awarding honorary citizenship to former American 
President George Bush and former Soviet leader Mikhail  
Gorbachev.  As V-O-A's Ron Pemstein reports from 
Berlin, the wall was opened on the evening of November 
9th, but it was not planned that way.

Text:  The original plan had been to loosen travel 
restrictions for East Germans on November 10th.  A 
misunderstanding of the Communist Party decision led  
to (Central Committee member ) Guenter Schabowski's 
shocking statement at a press conference the evening 
before that the Berlin Wall would be opened 
immediately.

The East German leader at the time, Egon Krenz, was 
informed that people were already jamming border posts 
at the wall on the evening of November ninth. He 
worried about the consequences.

            /// Krenz Act in German Fade Under ///

You must imagine, he says, the best watched 
border perhaps in Europe, maybe outside Europe, a 
border between two world systems, a border between two 
blocs,  Anything could have happened, if the border 
troops of  the D-D-R (East Germany) on this evening 
had not reacted with care.

Today, Mr. Krenz is publishing his memoir titled 
"Autumn, 1989."  He does not openly criticize Mr. 
Schabowski's premature statement that the Berlin Wall 
would be opened. 

            /// Krenz Act in German Fade Under ///

But, he says, a situation was created in which 
everything - from chaos to catastrophe - everything 
was in it.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin 
Wall, the German government is honoring the world 
leaders of 1989 who made the day possible - American 
George Bush and Soviet Mikhail Gorbachev.  They will 
be awarded gold crosses covered with a German eagle 
pinned on a red ribbon to symbolize their citizenship 
of Berlin.  There will also be speeches by the West 
German chancellor at the time, Helmut Kohl, and the 
current chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder.

Missing from the original program was any 
representative of the half-million East Germans who 
campaigned for freedom in 1989.  At the last minute, 
the German government invited Joachim Gauck to speak.  
He was a Lutheran minister active in the East German 
civil rights movement.  Mr. Gauck is now in charge of 
the files of the East German secret police, the Stasi. 

British historian and author Timothy Garten-Ash says 
East Germans tend to be forgotten by West Germans when 
they remember November, 1989.

            /// Garten-Ash Act ///

      Immediately after autumn, 1989, everyone in West 
      Germany said oh, this is a wonderful, peaceful 
      revolution and then about two months later, the 
      same people were saying actually it wasn't a 
      revolution at all, it was all Gorbachev.  And 
      the truth is halfway in between.  Of course, it 
      couldn't have happened without Gorbachev, but it 
      also couldn't have happened without the popular 
      movements in Eastern Europe and in Germany, the 
      courage of the people on the streets of Leipzig. 
      So it needed both.

            /// End Act ///

Less than a year after the wall fell, so did communist 
East Germany.  When Egon Krenz and his reform 
communists loosened the travel restrictions on 
November 9th, 1989, they never imagined they would be 
swept away by a reunited Germany. (Signed) 

Neb/RP/DW/JP




06-Nov-1999 09:38 AM EDT (06-Nov-1999 1438 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.