FRIDAY SURPRISES

Here is a short lesson in a foreign language.  Surprise!

After the end of World War II, the country of Germany was divided in two by the powers of the victorious Allied Forces.  The Western half of the country was the responsibility of  the United States, Great Britain, and France.  The Eastern half of the country was under the care of Russia (the Soviet Union).  In addition, the capital city of Berlin was also divided in half, even though it sits in the Eastern half of the country.  

The Soviets quickly turned their half of the city and country into an area no one was allowed to enter or leave without permission.  We had to show our resolve that the Western part of Berlin would be free.  We did this by air lifting everything they needed from West Germany into West Berlin.  In 1961, the Russians retaliated by building a wall around West Berlin and guarded it with armed soldiers.  East Berlin residents could not leave.  No one.  Some people died trying to get out. What a mess!  Relatives living within that city were cut off from each other.  Those is the West were free and those in the East were captive - never allowed to leave.  

On June 26, 1963, President John F. Kennedy went to West Berlin and gave a memorable speech just outside that wall.  He wanted to assure the German people that we would not desert them and to renew their nationalism.  I'll attempt to quote a part of that speech.  He said in his distinct northeastern US  accent, "Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast in the world was, 'Civis Romanus sum'.  ("I am a citizen of Rome")  Today, it is "Ich bin ein Berliner."  ( I am a citizen of Berlin).  The West Berlin crowd was ecstatic.  I think it also meant, we hold no grudges from WWII.

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan stood in almost the same location and addressed a large crowd with loudspeakers loud enough for the people of the East to hear.  He simply said, "Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall."  In 1989, the wall was torn down.  It ended 28 years of suppression of the people trapped in East Berlin and set Germany on the road to full recovery.  Even now, they stand with us against their Russian neighbors.

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