English subtitles for clip: File:Tear down this wall.ogv

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Thank you!

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Thank you very much. Chancellor Kohl, Governing Mayor Diepgen, ladies and gentlemen:

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Twenty-four years ago, President John F. Kennedy visited Berlin, speaking to the

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people of this city and the world at the city hall. Well, since then two other presidents

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have come, each in his turn, to Berlin. And today I, myself, make my second visit to your city.

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We come to Berlin, we American Presidents, because it's our duty to speak, in this place,

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of freedom. But I must confess, we're drawn here by other things as well: by the feeling of

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history in this city, more than 500 years older than our own nation; by the beauty of the Grunewald

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and the Tiergarten; most of all, by your courage and determination. Perhaps the composer,

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Paul Lincke, understood something about American Presidents. You see, like so many Presidents before me,

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I come here today because wherever I go, whatever I do: "Ich hab' noch einen Koffer in Berlin."

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Our gathering today is being broadcast throughout Western Europe and North America. I understand

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that it is being seen and heard as well in the East. To those listening throughout Eastern Europe,

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I extend my warmest greetings and the good will of the American people. To those listening in

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East Berlin, a special word: Although I cannot be with you, I address my remarks to you

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just as surely as to those standing here before me. For I join you, as I join your fellow countrymen

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in the West, in this firm, this unalterable belief: Es gibt nur ein Berlin!

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Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city, part of a vast system

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of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe. From the Baltic, south, those barriers

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cut across Germany in a gash of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guardtowers. Farther south,

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there may be no visible, no obvious wall. But there remain armed guards and checkpoints all

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the same—still a restriction on the right to travel, still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men

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and women the will of a totalitarian state. Yet it is here in Berlin where the wall emerges most clearly;

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here, cutting across your city, where the news photo and the television screen have imprinted

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this brutal division of a continent upon the mind of the world. Standing before the Brandenburg Gate,

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every man is a German, separated from his fellow men.

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Every man is a Berliner, forced to look upon a scar.

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President von Weizsäcker has said: "The German question is open as long as the Brandenburg Gate is closed."

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Today I say: As long as this gate is closed, as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand,

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it is not the German question alone that remains open, but the question of freedom for all mankind.

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Yet I do not come here to lament. For I find in Berlin a message of hope,

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even in the shadow of this wall, a message of triumph.

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In this season of spring in 1945, the people of Berlin emerged from their air raid shelters to find devastation.

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Thousands of miles away, the people of the United States reached out to help.

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And in 1947 Secretary of State—as you've been told—George Marshall announced

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the creation of what would become known as the Marshall Plan.

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Speaking precisely 40 years ago this month, he said:

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"Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger,

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poverty, desperation, and chaos."

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In the Reichstag a few moments ago, I saw a display commemorating this 40th anniversary of the Marshall Plan.

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I was struck by the sign on a burnt-out, gutted structure that was being rebuilt.

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I understand that Berliners of my own generation can remember seeing signs like it dotted

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throughout the Western sectors of the city. The sign read simply: "The Marshall Plan is

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helping here to strengthen the free world." A strong, free world in the West, that dream became real.

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Japan rose from ruin to become an economic giant. Italy, France, Belgium—virtually every nation

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in Western Europe saw political and economic rebirth; the European Community was founded.

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In West Germany and here in Berlin, there took place an economic miracle, the Wirtschaftswunder.

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Adenauer, Erhard, Reuter, and other leaders understood the practical importance of liberty—that just as

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truth can flourish only when the journalist is given freedom of speech, so prosperity can come about

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only when the farmer and businessman enjoy economic freedom. The German leaders reduced tariffs,

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expanded free trade, lowered taxes. From 1950 to 1960 alone, the standard of living in West Germany and Berlin doubled.

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Where four decades ago there was rubble, today in West Berlin there is the greatest industrial output

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of any city in Germany—busy office blocks, fine homes and apartments, proud avenues, and the spreading lawns of park land.

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Where a city's culture seemed to have been destroyed, today there are two great universities, orchestras and an opera,

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countless theaters, and museums. Where there was want, today there's abundance—food, clothing, automobiles—

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the wonderful goods of the Ku'damm.

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From devastation, from utter ruin, you Berliners have, in freedom,

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rebuilt a city that once again ranks as one of the greatest on Earth. The Soviets may have had other plans.

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But, my friends, there were a few things the Soviets didn't count on:

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Berliner Herz, Berliner Humor, ja, und Berliner Schnauze.

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In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: "We will bury you." But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved

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a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure,

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technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind—too little food.

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And now the Soviets themselves may, in a limited way, be coming to understand the importance of freedom.

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We hear much from Moscow about a new policy of reform and openness. Some political prisoners have been released.

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Certain foreign news broadcasts are no longer being jammed. Some economic enterprises have been permitted to operate

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with greater freedom from state control. Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state?

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Or are they token gestures, intended to raise false hopes in the West, or to strengthen the Soviet system without changing it?

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We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together,

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that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace.

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There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace.

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General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe,

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if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!

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Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

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I understand the fear of war and the pain of division that afflict this continent—and I pledge to you my country's efforts

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to help overcome these burdens. To be sure, we in the West must resist Soviet expansion. So we must maintain defenses

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of unassailable strength. Yet we seek peace; so we must strive to reduce arms on both sides. Beginning 10 years ago,

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the Soviets challenged the Western alliance with a grave new threat, hundreds of new and more deadly SS-20 nuclear missiles,

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capable of striking every capital in Europe. The Western alliance responded by committing itself to a counterdeployment,

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unless the Soviets agreed to negotiate a better solution; namely, the elimination of such weapons on both sides.

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For many months, the Soviets refused to bargain in earnestness. As the alliance, in turn, prepared to go forward

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with its counterdeployment, there were difficult days—days of protests like those during my 1982 visit to this city—

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and the Soviets later walked away from the table.

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But through it all, the alliance held firm. And I invite those who protested then—I invite those who protest today—

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to mark this fact: Because we remained strong, the Soviets came back to the table.

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And because we remained strong,

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today we have within reach the possibility, not merely of limiting the growth of arms, but of eliminating, for the first time,

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an entire class of nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth. As I speak, NATO ministers are meeting in Iceland

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to review the progress of our proposals for eliminating these weapons. At the talks in Geneva,

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we have also proposed deep cuts in strategic offensive weapons. And the Western allies have likewise made

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far-reaching proposals to reduce the danger of conventional war and to place a total ban on chemical weapons.

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While we pursue these arms reductions, I pledge to you that we will maintain the capacity to deter Soviet aggression

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at any level at which it might occur.

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And in cooperation with many of our allies, the United States is pursuing

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the Strategic Defense Initiative—research to base deterrence not on the threat of offensive retaliation,

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but on defenses that truly defend; on systems, in short, that will not target populations, but shield them.

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By these means we seek to increase the safety of Europe and all the world. But we must remember a crucial fact:

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East and West do not mistrust each other because we are armed; we are armed because we mistrust each other.

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And our differences are not about weapons but about liberty. When President Kennedy spoke at the City Hall

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those 24 years ago, freedom was encircled, Berlin was under siege. And today, despite all the pressures upon this city,

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Berlin stands secure in its liberty. And freedom itself is transforming the globe.

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In the Philippines, in South and Central America, democracy has been given a rebirth. Throughout the Pacific,

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free markets are working miracle after miracle of economic growth. In the industrialized nations, a technological revolution

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is taking place—a revolution marked by rapid, dramatic advances in computers and telecommunications.

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In Europe, only one nation and those it controls refuse to join the community of freedom. Yet in this age

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of redoubled economic growth, of information and innovation, the Soviet Union faces a choice:

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It must make fundamental changes or it will become obsolete.

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Today thus represents a moment of hope. We in the West stand ready to cooperate

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with the East to promote true openness, to break down barriers that separate people, to create a safer, freer world.

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And surely there is no better place than Berlin, the meeting place of East and West, to make a start.

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Free people of Berlin: Today, as in the past, the United States stands for the strict observance

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and full implementation of all parts of the Four Power Agreement of 1971. Let us use this occasion,

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the 750th anniversary of this city, to usher in a new era, to seek a still fuller, richer life for the Berlin

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of the future. Together, let us maintain and develop the ties between the Federal Republic

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and the Western sectors of Berlin, which is permitted by the 1971 agreement.

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And I invite Mr. Gorbachev: Let us work to bring the Eastern and Western parts of the city closer together,

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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.

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To open Berlin still further to all Europe, East and West, let us expand the vital air access

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to this city, finding ways of making commercial air service to Berlin more convenient, more comfortable,

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and more economical. We look to the day when West Berlin can become one of the chief aviation hubs in all central Europe.

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With our French and British partners, the United States is prepared to help bring international meetings to Berlin.

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It would be only fitting for Berlin to serve as the site of United Nations meetings, or world conferences on human rights

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and arms control or other issues that call for international cooperation.

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There is no better way to establish hope for the future

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than to enlighten young minds, and we would be honored to sponsor summer youth exchanges, cultural events,

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and other programs for young Berliners from the East. Our French and British friends, I'm certain, will do the same.

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And it's my hope that an authority can be found in East Berlin to sponsor visits from young people of the Western sectors.

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One final proposal, one close to my heart: Sport represents a source of enjoyment and ennoblement,

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and you many have noted that the Republic of Korea—South Korea—has offered to permit certain events of the 1988 Olympics

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to take place in the North. International sports competitions of all kinds could take place in both parts of this city.

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And what better way to demonstrate to the world the openness of this city than to offer in some future year

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to hold the Olympic games here in Berlin, East and West.

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In these four decades, as I have said, you Berliners have built a great city. You've done so in spite of threats—

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the Soviet attempts to impose the East-mark, the blockade. Today the city thrives in spite of the challenges

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implicit in the very presence of this wall. What keeps you here? Certainly there's a great deal to be said for your fortitude,

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for your defiant courage. But I believe there's something deeper, something that involves Berlin's whole look and feel

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and way of life—not mere sentiment. No one could live long in Berlin without being completely disabused of illusions.

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Something instead, that has seen the difficulties of life in Berlin but chose to accept them, that continues to build

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this good and proud city in contrast to a surrounding totalitarian presence that refuses to release human energies or aspirations.

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Something that speaks with a powerful voice of affirmation, that says yes to this city, yes to the future, yes to freedom.

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In a word, I would submit that what keeps you in Berlin is love—love both profound and abiding.

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Perhaps this gets to the root of the matter, to the most fundamental distinction of all between East and West.

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The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create,

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to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront.

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Years ago, before the East Germans began rebuilding their churches, they erected a secular structure:

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the television tower at Alexander Platz. Virtually ever since, the authorities have been working to correct

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what they view as the tower's one major flaw, treating the glass sphere at the top with paints and chemicals of every kind.

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Yet even today when the Sun strikes that sphere—that sphere that towers over all Berlin—the light makes the sign of the cross.

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There in Berlin, like the city itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed.

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As I looked out a moment ago from the Reichstag, that embodiment of German unity, I noticed words crudely spray-painted upon the wall,

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perhaps by a young Berliner, "This wall will fall. Beliefs become reality."

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Yes, across Europe, this wall will fall.

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For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.

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And I would like, before I close, to say one word. I have read, and I have been questioned since I've been here

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about certain demonstrations against my coming. And I would like to say just one thing, and to those who demonstrate so.

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I wonder if they have ever asked themselves that if they should have the kind of government they apparently seek,

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no one would ever be able to do what they're doing again.

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Thank you and God bless you all.