Three Leaders Attend Anniversary of Berlin Wall's Collapse
The three world leaders who oversaw the fall of the Berlin Wall that signalled the collapse of communism in Europe gathered in Berlin on Saturday to reflect on the changes they helped usher in 20 years ago.
The ceremony recalled how the three leaders turned a movement that had built on East Germany's streets into a political reality and helped end more than 40 years of animosity and division reflected in the concrete barrier that snaked across Berlin.
Former US President George H. Bush; the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev; and former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl were honored at a ceremony in Berlin earlier on Saturday.
In his speech, Bush praised his fellow statesmen for their cooperation and for seizing the moment two decades ago.
George H.W. Bush senior, former US President:
"And yet, if upon reflecting on the hopeful events of the two decades past, I might harbour a single hope, it would be that future generations might look back to the moment in time when mankind really got it right, when we rose above the recriminations of the past and broke the chain of human discontent and resolved our affairs not with rifles but with reason."
During the earlier ceremony, Kohl, who went on to become the first chancellor of a reunited Germany, was visibly moved as he recalled the days leading up to the November 9, 1989, collapse of the wall.
At an evening reception by a German newspaper, Gorbachev said the falling of the Berlin Wall proved that countries must work together.
EBRU NEWS
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