64.Ronald Reagan - Brandenburg Gate Addres
Thank you. Thank you, very much.
Chancellor Kohl, Governing Mayor Diepgen, ladies and gentlemen: Twenty four years ago,
President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin, and speaking to the people of this city and the world
at the city hall. Well since then two other presidents have come, each in his turn to
Berlin. And today, I, myself, make my second visit to your city.
We come to Berlin, we American Presidents, because it"s our duty to speak in this place of freedom. But
I must confess, we’re drawn here by other things as well. by the feeling of
history in this city more than 500 years older than our own nation. by the beauty of the
Grunewald and the Tiergarten. most of all, by your courage and determination. Perhaps the
composer, Paul Linke, understood something about
American Presidents. You see, like so
many Presidents before me, I come here today because wherever I go, whatever I do: “Ich
hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin” [I still have a suitcase in Berlin.]
Our gathering today is being broadcast throughout Western Europe and North America.
I understand that it is being seen and heard as well in the East. To those listening throughout
Eastern Europe, I extend my warmest greetings and the good will of the American people.
To those listening in East Berlin, a special word: Although I cannot be with you, I address my
remarks to you just as surely as to those standing here before me. For I join you, as I join
your fellow countrymen in the West, in this firm, this unalterable belief: Es gibt
nur ein Berlin. [There is only one Berlin.]
Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system of
barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe. From the Baltic South, those barriers cut
across Germany in a gash of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guard towers. Farther
south, there may be no visible, no obvious wall. But there remain armed guards and
checkpoints all the same still a restriction on the right to travel, still an instrument to
impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state.
Yet, it is here in Berlin where the wall emerges most clearly. here, cutting across your city,
where the news photo and the television screen have imprinted this brutal division of a
continent upon the mind of the world. Standing before the Brandenburg Gate, every man
is a German separated from his fellow men. Every man is a Berliner, forced to look upon a scar.
President Von Weizs.cker has said, "The German question is open as long as the Brandenburg
Gate is closed." Well today today I say: As long as this gate is closed, as long as this scar of
a wall is permitted to stand, it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the
question of freedom for all mankind.
Yet, I do not come here to lament. For I find in Berlin a message of hope, even
in the shadow of this wall, a message of triumph.
In this season of spring in 1945, the people of Berlin emerged from their airraid
shelters to find devastation. Thousands of miles away, the people of the United States reached out to
help. And in 1947 Secretary of State as you"ve been told George
Marshall announced the creation of what would become known as the Marshall Plan. Speaking precisely 40 years ago
this month, he said: "Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against
hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos."
In the Reichstag a few moments ago, I saw a display commemorating this 40th anniversary of
the Marshall Plan. I was struck by a sign the sign on a burntout, gutted structure that was
being rebuilt. I understand that Berliners of my own generation can remember seeing signs
like it dotted throughout the western sectors of the city. The sign read simply: "The Marshall
Plan is helping here to strengthen the free world." A strong, free world in the West that
dream became real. Japan rose from ruin to become an economic giant. Italy, France,
Belgium virtually every nation in Western Europe saw political and economic rebirth. the
European Community was founded.
In West Germany and here in Berlin, there took place an economic miracle, the
Wirtschaftswunder. Adenauer, Erhard, Reuter, and other leaders understood the practical
importance of liberty that just as truth can flourish only when
the journalist is given freedom of speech, so prosperity can come about only when the farmer and businessman
enjoy economic freedom. The German leaders the German leaders reduced tariffs,
expanded free trade, lowered taxes. From 1950 to 1960 alone, the standard of living in West
Germany and Berlin doubled.
Where four decades ago there was rubble, today in West Berlin there is the greatest industrial
output of any city in Germany: busy office blocks, fine homes and apartments, proud
avenues, and the spreading lawns of parkland. Where a city"s culture seemed to have been
destroyed, today there are two great universities, orchestras and an opera, countless
theaters, and museums. Where there was want, today there"s abundance food,
clothing, automobiles the wonderful goods of the Kudamm.1 From devastation, from utter ruin, you
Berliners have, in freedom, rebuilt a city that once again ranks as one of the greatest on
earth. Now the Soviets may have had other plans. But my friends,
there were a few things the Soviets didn"t count on: Berliner Herz,
Berliner Humor, ja, und Berliner Schnauze. [Berliner heart, Berliner humor, yes, and a Berliner Schnauze.2]
In the 1950s In the 1950s Khrushchev predicted: "We will bury you." But in the West today, we
see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and wellbeing unprecedented in
all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological
backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind too little food. Even
today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then,
there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to
prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with
comity and peace. Freedom is the victor.
And now now the Soviets themselves may, in a limited way, be coming to
understand the importance of freedom. We hear much from Moscow about a new policy of reform and
openness. Some political prisoners have been released. Certain foreign news broadcasts are
no longer being jammed. Some economic enterprises have been permitted to operate with
greater freedom from state control.
Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state? Or are they token gestures
intended to raise false hopes in the West, or to strengthen the Soviet system without
changing it? We welcome change and openness. for we believe that freedom and security go
together, that the advance of human liberty the advance of human liberty can only strengthen
the cause of world peace.
There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance
dramatically the cause of freedom and peace.
General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union
and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate.
Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate.
Mr. Gorbachev Mr.
Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
I understand the fear of war and the pain of division that afflict this continent, and I pledge to
you my country"s efforts to help overcome these burdens. To be sure, we in the West
must resist Soviet expansion. So, we must maintain defenses of unassailable strength. Yet we seek
peace. so we must strive to reduce arms on both sides.
Beginning 10 years ago, the Soviets challenged the Western alliance with a grave new threat,
hundreds of new and more deadly SS20 nuclear missiles capable of striking every capital in
Europe. The Western alliance responded by committing itself to a counterdeployment
(unless the Soviets agreed to negotiate a better solution) namely, the elimination of such weapons
on both sides. For many months, the Soviets refused to bargain in earnestness. As
the alliance, in turn, prepared to go forward with its counterdeployment, there were difficult
days, days of protests like those during my 1982 visit to this city. and the Soviets later
walked away from the table.
But through it all, the alliance held firm. And I invite those who protested then I
invite those who protest today to mark this fact: Because we remained strong, the Soviets came
back to the table. Because we remained strong, today we have within reach the possibility,
not merely of limiting the growth of arms, but of eliminating, for the first
time, an entire class of nuclear weapons from the face of the earth.
As I speak, NATO ministers are meeting in Iceland to review the progress of our proposals for
eliminating these weapons. At the talks in Geneva, we have also proposed deep cuts in
strategic offensive weapons. And the Western allies have likewise made farreaching
proposals to reduce the danger of conventional war and to place a total ban on chemical weapons.
While we pursue these arms reductions, I pledge to you that we will maintain the capacity to
deter Soviet aggression at any level at which it might occur. And in cooperation with
many of our allies, the United States is pursuing the Strategic Defense Initiative research to
base deterrence not on the threat of offensive retaliation, but on defenses that
truly defend. on systems, in short, that will not target populations, but shield them. By these means we seek
to increase the safety of Europe and all the world. But we must remember a crucial fact: East
and West do not mistrust each other because we are armed. we are armed because we
mistrust each other. And our differences are not about weapons but about liberty. When President Kennedy spoke at
the City Hall those 24 years ago, freedom was encircled. Berlin was under siege. And today, despite all
the pressures upon this city, Berlin stands secure in its liberty. And freedom itself is transforming the globe.
In the Philippines, in South and Central America, democracy has been given a rebirth.
Throughout the Pacific, free markets are working miracle after miracle of economic growth. In
the industrialized nations, a technological revolution is taking place, a revolution marked by
rapid, dramatic advances in computers and telecommunications.
In Europe, only one nation and those it controls refuse to join the community of freedom. Yet
in this age of redoubled economic growth, of information and innovation, the Soviet Union faces a choice: It
must make fundamental changes, or it will become obsolete.
Today, thus, represents a moment of hope. We in the West stand ready to cooperate with the
East to promote true openness, to break down barriers that separate people, to create a safer,
freer world. And surely there is no better place than Berlin, the meeting place of East and
West, to make a start.
Free people of Berlin: Today, as in the past, the United States stands for the strict observance and full
implementation of all parts of the Four Power Agreement of 1971. Let us use this
occasion, the 750th anniversary of this city, to usher in a new era, to seek a still fuller, richer
life for the Berlin of the future. Together, let us maintain and develop the ties between
the Federal Republic and the Western sectors of Berlin, which is permitted by the 1971 agreement.
And I invite Mr. Gorbachev: Let us work to bring the Eastern and Western parts of the city
closer together, so that all the inhabitants of all Berlin can enjoy the benefits that
come with life in one of the great cities of the world.
To open Berlin still further to all Europe, East and West, let us expand the vital air access to
this city, finding ways of making commercial air service to
Berlin more convenient, more
comfortable, and more economical. We look to the day when West Berlin can become one of the chief aviation
hubs in all central Europe.
With With our French With our French and British partners, the United States is prepared
to help bring international meetings to Berlin. It would be only fitting for Berlin to serve as the
site of United Nations meetings, or world conferences on human rights and arms control, or other issues that call
for international cooperation.
There is no better way to establish hope for the future than to enlighten young minds, and we
would be honored to sponsor summer youth exchanges, cultural events, and other programs
for young Berliners from the East. Our French and British friends, I"m certain, will do
the same. And it"s my hope that an authority can be found in East Berlin
to sponsor visits from young people of the Western sectors.
One final proposal, one close to my heart: Sport represents a source of enjoyment and ennoblement, and you
may have noted that the Republic of Korea South Korea has offered to permit
certain events of the 1988 Olympics to take place in the North. International sports competitions of all
kinds could take place in both parts of this city. And what better way to demonstrate to the world the openness of this city than to offer in some future year to hold
the Olympic games here in Berlin, East and West.
In these four decades, as I have said, you Berliners have built a great city. You"ve done so in
spite of threats the Soviet attempts to impose the Eastmark, the blockade. Today the city
thrives in spite of the challenges implicit in the very presence of this wall. What keeps you here? Certainly there"s a great deal to be said for your fortitude, for your defiant courage. But
I believe there"s something deeper, something that involves Berlin"s whole look and feel and way of life not
mere sentiment. No one could live long in Berlin without being completely
disabused of illusions. Something, instead, that
has seen the difficulties of life in Berlin but
chose to accept them, that continues to build this good and proud city in contrast to a
surrounding totalitarian presence, that refuses to release human energies or aspirations,
something that speaks with a powerful voice of affirmation, that says "yes" to this city, yes to the future, yes to
freedom. In a word, I would submit that what keeps you in Berlin is "love." Love both profound and abiding.
Perhaps this gets to the root of the matter, to the most fundamental distinction of all between
East and West. The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world
finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront.
Years ago, before the East Germans began rebuilding their churches, they erected a secular
structure: the television tower at Alexander Platz. Virtually ever since, the authorities have been working to correct what they view as the tower"s one major flaw: treating the glass sphere at the top with paints and chemicals of every
kind. Yet even today when the sun strikes that sphere, that sphere that
towers over all Berlin, the light makes the sign of the cross. There in
Berlin, like the city itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed.
As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spraypainted upon the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner (quote):
"This wall will fall. Beliefs become reality."
Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall, for it cannot withstand faith. it cannot withstand truth.
The wall cannot withstand freedom.
And I would like, before I close, to say one word. I have read, and I
have been questioned since I"ve been
here about certain demonstrations against my coming. And I would like to say
just one thing, and to those who demonstrate so. I wonder if they have ever asked themselves that
if they should have the kind of government they apparently seek, no one
would ever be able to do what they"re doing again.
Thank you and God bless you all. Thank you.
1Exclusive shopping district in Berlin. 2 "Berliner Schnauze" is a standard expression
used in Germany to describe the way people in and around Berlin talk to each other. Interestingly
enough, the sound and choice of words among these folks is slightly more rude as compared to similar expressions
found in other regions n Germany. "Schnauze" is the German word for "mouth of dogs" and is comparable
to the word "snout." [My thanks to Mr. Arndt Ulland for the above information.]
