This Saturday, November 9, Germany commemorates the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, against a backdrop of crisis in the government of Olaf Scholz.
This Saturday, November 9, Germany is celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall, which fell 35 years ago. It was “a happy day” which also reminds us that “freedom and democracy have never been self-evident”, declared the conservative mayor of Berlin Kai Wegner during a ceremony also attended by the head of the State Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The slogan of the festivities, “Preserve freedom”, finds particular resonance at a time when democracy is in decline throughout the world and where wars continue to rage, in Ukraine and Gaza.
They also come at a time when Olaf Scholz’s coalition was shattered, after the dismissal of the liberal Finance Minister on Wednesday evening, plunging Europe’s largest economy into a period of uncertainty.
“Wall of shame”
Chancellor Olaf Scholz also stressed on Friday that the values of 1989 could not “be taken for granted”.
To embody these ideals, an open-air installation stretching 4 km along the former route of the Wall displays replicas of signs from the 1989 protests as well as thousands of others created by citizens.
The fall of the Wall, a symbol of the Cold War and the division between the Western bloc and the Soviet bloc, paved the way for the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the reunification of Germany a year later late.
The “Wall of Shame” was erected in August 1961 over a length of 155 km around West Berlin in order to put an end to the growing exodus of inhabitants of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). At least 140 people died trying to cross it.
“Alongside those who fight for their freedom”
For the celebrations until Sunday, activists from around the world have been invited, including exiled Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad.
Russian protest punk band Pussy Riot will perform in front of the former headquarters of the Stasi, East Germany’s feared secret police.
“We stand alongside those who are fighting today for their freedom and against enslavement!” declared Frank-Walter Steinmeier in his speech to launch the festivities on Wednesday evening.
“The emphasis on freedom is particularly important “at a time when we are faced with the rise of populism, disinformation and social division,” also underlined Joe Chialo, head of Culture at the Berlin regional government. .
Political divisions
Elections held in September in three regions of the former GDR highlighted the persistent political divisions between East and West Germany.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party recorded historically high results, while a new far-left group made a breakthrough.
This weekend also marks the anniversary of “Kristallnacht” a pogrom perpetrated by the Nazis on November 9 and 10, 1938.
At least 90 Jews were murdered, tens of thousands deported to concentration camps, and 1,400 synagogues were burned in Germany and Austria.
“It is very important for our society (…) to draw the right lessons from these events”, recalled the German government at a time when Germany is experiencing an increase in anti-Semitic acts since the events of October 7, 2023 – l Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.
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