December 22 1989 – The Brandenburg Gate Re-Opens in Berlin

797

*Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons Six weeks after the Berlin Wall came down, the last symbolic barrier between East and West Germany was destroyed on December 22, 1989: the Brandenburg Gate, a stunning 18th-century arch near the center of the city, allowed the free movement of citizens once again. Though political unification would take months to organize and execute, rapturous celebrations erupted on the streets as leaders from both sides met and shook hands. Two hundred years before, King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia ordered the construction of a new monument to peace among the city’s external fortifications. The result, the twelve-column Brandenburg Gate, blew away the previous arrangement of nondescript guard houses. Taking advantage of classical elements, the Acropolis-inspired columns are topped with a chariot driven by the Roman goddess of victory, Victoria, facing east. When completed in 1791, the Habsburg royal family were the only ones allowed to use the center of the Gate, while common people walked through the two outer openings. Badly damaged during World War II, the Gate remained a central pass-through for the people moving between East and West Berlin until the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961. With West Berliners gathering to protest on their side of the Gate during the morning of the 14th — the day after the concrete division went up — East German officials announced the checkpoint would be closed “until further notice.” More than 38 years later, on December 22, 1989, officials finally reopened the landmark. Under gray skies that afternoon, the Chancellor of West Germany, Helmut Kohl, walked through the center of the Gate flanked by the mayor of West Berlin. As he officially passed over into East Germany, he met his counterpart, newly-installed Prime Minister Hans Modrow, and the head of the East Berlin city council. Thousands of Germans lined the streets on both sides of the Gate, popping bottles of champagne and singing. In a brief ceremony, both leaders took the podium to commemorate the moment. “The wall was built to help men, but it has hurt men very much,” Modrow said. “The opening of the wall is a new sign of our good will.” Long a center for political action during the period of division, Presidents of the United States John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan both made significant speeches in front of the Gate during the Cold War-era — the latter infamously calling on Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev to “Tear down this wall!” in 1987. When the checkpoint reopened, the push to reunify the two nations gained steam while marking another hammer blow to the Communist cause. Soviet-installed governments were rapidly falling over the Eastern Bloc — Romania’s, for instance, on the same day the Gate opened. Throughout 1990, the process of creating a reunited Germany required a herculean effort by many. Involving the leaders of all the involved nations — East and West Germany, plus the former occupying powers of France, Britain, the United States and Soviet Union — negotiations took six months to finalize. It was not until October 3, 1990 that a single nation under one government existed once again. Also On This Day: 1864 – General William Tecumseh Sherman concludes his “March to the Sea” in the American Civil War by taking Savannah, Georgia 1894 – The Dreyfus Affair, a treason case brought up on trumped-up charges, begins with the wrongful conviction of a French officer of Jewish descent 1989 – Ion Iliescu takes charge of Romania after seven days of demonstrations against Communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu 1992 – The Archives of Terror, a book featuring details about 480,000 South Americans who had disappeared, been killed or taken to prison, is discovered in Paraquay 2010 – Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, a law forbidding homosexuals from serving openly in the United States military, is repealed