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President Ronald
Reagan’s Address at the Brandenburg Gate of the Berlin
Wall
NOTE:
At the time of this speech, Germany was still divided
into two countries. West Germany was a free
democracy, while East Germany remained a Soviet
satellite under communist totalitarian rule. The
German capital city of Berlin was likewise divided
between East and West, with the Berlin Wall separating
the two. At the wall's Brandenburg Gate,
American President Ronald Reagan confronted the
continuation of communism, challenging the new Soviet
leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, to "tear down this
wall." His words, delivered to a West German
audience, could also be heard by East Germans gathered
at the other side of the wall.
June 12, 1987
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 Paul
Lincke 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 Koffer in 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, 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 the 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. And in 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 to 1960 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
parkland. 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,
Berliner Humor, ja, und Berliner Schnauze. [Berliner
heart, Berliner humor, yes, and a Berliner Schnauze.]
In the 1950s, 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, even want of the most
basic kind--too little food. Even today, the Soviet
Union still cannot feed itself. After these four
decades, then, there stands before the entire world one
great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to
prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among
the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the
victor.
And 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 SS-20 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 safe, 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 may 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 Alexanderplatz.
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.
Thank you and God bless you all.
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