BERLIN (Reuters) – George Bush, Mikhail Gorbachev and Helmut Kohl paid their respects to the ordinary people who were behind the peaceful revolution of 1989 that brought down the Berlin Wall at an emotional ceremony in Berlin yesterday.
The three statesmen from the United States, Soviet Union and West Germany — whose steady-handed leadership paved the way for the Wall’s opening on November 9, 1989 — recalled the heady events that led to the end of the Cold War at a ceremony attended by 1,800 people.
“We Germans don’t have very much in our history to be proud of,” said Kohl, 79, who was chancellor of West Germany and then united Germany from 1982-98. “But we’ve got every reason to be proud about German reunification.”
The reunion in Berlin of the three leaders at the centre of the whirlwind of events kicked off a week of celebrations in the German capital marking the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9.
Bush, US president from 1989-93, paid tribute in his speech to the countless thousands of courageous East Germans who risked persecution by attending mass protests to demand reform in the months leading up to the Wall’s peaceful collapse.
“It’s a joy to be here with my former colleagues,” said Bush, who repeatedly put his arm around both Gorbachev and Kohl during the two-hour long ceremony in a theatre on Friedrichstrasse just east of where the Berlin Wall stood until 1989.
“The point needs to be made that the historic events we are gathered to celebrate were set in motion not in Bonn, or Moscow or Washington but rather in the hearts and minds of the people who had too long been deprived of their God-given rights.
“The Wall could never erase your dream, our dream of one Germany, a free Germany, a proud Germany,” said Bush, 85.
The three former leaders clearly enjoyed each other’s company at their first reunion in many years — even though Kohl was in a wheelchair and had difficulty speaking while Bush relied on the help of a cane to move about.
