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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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111389
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11138900.042
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1990-09-19
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WORLD, Page 44After the Wall
Americans and Germans alike remember well the day in 1963 when
a visiting U.S. President, John Kennedy, gave voice to his feelings
about the two-year-old Wall that ran like a jagged scar through
Berlin: "Ich bin ein Berliner." His message was more than a
metaphoric statement of solidarity with the people of that divided
city. It was an appeal to the Wall's Communist architects to tear
down the 26-mile-long concrete monstrosity. Today the Wall
continues to pierce the hearts of Berliners every bit as
effectively as its pipes, barbed wires and other sharp obstacles
once sliced the bodies of desperate refugees. But for the first
time since Kennedy's appeal, it seems possible that the Wall might
come tumbling down.
Is it really in the West's best interest, however, to see it
reduced to rubble? On a symbolic level, certainly. The Wall's
designer and chief defender, former East German President Erich
Honecker, called his creation the "Anti-Fascist Protection
Barrier." In this era of glasnost, such rhetoric has about as much
standing as the deposed Honecker himself, who was ousted by the
East German Politburo three weeks ago after 18 years at the helm.
Yet the literal destruction of the Wall would, in many
respects, be redundant. Honecker's successor, Egon Krenz, has
promised that most East German travel restrictions will be lifted,
making it possible for citizens to travel freely to the West. The
thousands who jammed the West German embassy in Prague last week
seeking asylum testify to the futility of mere stones to bar the
exodus. Johannes Chemnitzer, a member of the East German Communist
Party's Central Committee, admitted last week that with the borders
open, the Wall's "meaning becomes limited and illusory."
Even if the Wall is stripped of political significance, it
still serves a purpose by applying a brake to refugee traffic. An
East German official predicts that once free travel wipes out
border barriers, about 1.5 million of the country's 16.6 million
citizens might head West. Without the Wall, West Berlin will bear
the brunt of that great rush. But West Berlin's workers already
resent the city's shortages of jobs and housing and the heavy
concentration of alien guest workers from Turkey and ethnic Germans
from the East bloc. Ironically, unless the burden of a new influx
is properly shared, the people on the Western side might not be all
that happy to see the monstrosity fall.
Even if such obstacles are satisfactorily addressed, there may
still be a peculiar nostalgia to keep portions of the Wall intact.
Says Jurgen Schmude, a West German Social Democrat and former
Justice Minister: "This thing should be left standing as a memorial
so that people in 200 years can study the unbelievable that once
was a reality. Except for the Chinese Wall, this is the most famous
wall in the world."