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 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 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.
Thank you and God bless you all.
Note:
The President spoke at 2:20 p.m. at the Brandenburg Gate. In his opening
remarks, he referred to West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Prior to
his remarks, President Reagan met with West German President Richard
von Weizsacker and the Governing Mayor of West Berlin Eberhard Diepgen
at Schloss Bellevue, President Weizsacker's official residence in West
Berlin. Following the meeting, President Reagan went to the Reichstag,
where he viewed the Berlin Wall from the East Balcony.