ENGLISH SPEECH RONALD REAGAN Tear Down This Wall English Subtitles
Thank you very much. Chancellor Kohl,
Governing Mayor Diepgen, ladies and gentlemen:
Twenty-four years ago, President John F. Kennedy
visited Berlin, 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, PaulLincke, 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 kofferin
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 Weizsacker has said:
“The German question is open as long
as the Brandenburg Gate is closed.”
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 air raid shelters to
find devastation. Thousands of miles away, the
people of the United States reached out to help.
Andin 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 the sign on a burnt-out,
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 reduced tariffs, expanded free
trade, lowered taxes. From 1950 to1960 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 park land. 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 Ku’damm.
From devastation, from utter ruin, you
Berliners have, in freedom, rebuilt a city
that once again ranks as one of the greatest
on Earth. The Soviets may have had other plans.
But, my friends, there were a few
things the Soviets didn’t count on
Berliner herz, Berlinerhumor, ja, und Berliner
schnauze. [Berliner heart, Berliner humor, yes,
and a Berliner
schnauze.]
In the 1950’s,
Khrushchev predicted: “We will bury you.” But
in the West today, we see a free world that has
achieved a level of prosperity and well-being
unprecedented in all human history. In the
Communist world, we see failure, technological
backwardness, declining standards of health.
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 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,
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 counter deployment 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 counter deployment,
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. And 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 far-reaching 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 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 many 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 East-mark, 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 spray-painted upon
the wall, perhaps by a young Berliner,
“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.