The doom of the Berlin Wall let Europe re-find its soul! Opinion

    By Gulf News
    Published November 9, 2014
    Gulf News.com
Twenty five years ago today, Europe and the whole world looked on in awe as ordinary East Germans took to the streets and stormed the Berlin Wall, breaking it with their hands using hammers and clambering over to the freedom of West Germany. The grim border guards, who had shot so many of their compatriots doing exactly the same thing, simply stood by in their uniforms with their unused weapons at their sides. It was an extraordinary moment of history in the making as Communism ended, and freedom spread across the entire continent of Europe. That process brought all sorts of new problems, since 45 years of Communism could not just be wiped out, but at least the democratically-elected governments of central Europe were finding their own way forward with the agreement and active participation their people.

It is also astonishing that this dramatic change happened peacefully. USSR General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev had decided not to resist change, and he ordered the Soviet Bloc soldiers not to shoot their own people. Eric Honeker, leader of East Germany, wanted to force the people to stay quiet but he and his generals knew that they did not have the backing of the faltering Soviet Union, so they were forced to acquiesce in their own fall.

The legacy of that moment continues today, as a former East German chemist is the Chancellor of a united Germany and the leading politician in the European Union, and the peoples of Poland and the Baltic states are active members of the European Union and the global community of nations. The people of Ukraine are still wrestling with the outcome of the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, and Vladmir Putin’s Russia is trying to reverse the tide of history by re-imposing Russian dominance where he can find the opportunity to do so.

But as these issues work through, the extraordinary power of the moment when ordinary East Germans took their future in their own hands and stormed the Wall gives us all hope that humanity and basic values of decency and respect for the individual’s rights can prevail. We all need to remember the bravery of that night: when the Berlin Wall was doomed, and Europe found its soul again.