Three Nations, Three Men, One Watershed Moment
Event Reports
George Bush Sr, the ex-US president, Michail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, and Helmut Kohl, the former German Chancellor, gathered in Berlin to commemorate the fall of the Wall on November 9, 1989.
The three leaders paid their respects to the ordinary people who were behind the peaceful revolution that brought down the Wall dividing East and West Germany during most of the Cold War.
"We Germans don't have very much in our history to be proud of," said Kohl, 79. "But we've got every reason to be proud about German reunification."
"Mikhail Gorbachev and George Bush were Germany's most important partners," he said.
Bush, the US president from 1989-93, hailed the thousands of East Germans who risked persecution by attending mass protests to demand reform in the months leading up to the Wall's collapse.
"The point needs to be made that the historic events we are gathered to celebrate were set in motion not in Bonn, or Moscow or Washington but rather in the hearts and minds of the people who had too long been deprived of their God-given rights.
"The Wall could never erase your dream, our dream of one Germany, a free Germany, a proud Germany," said Bush, 85, during the ceremony in a theatre just east of where the Wall stood from 1961.
Berliners helped to dismantle the Wall at the end of the city's partition
The Berlin Wall, a symbol of the Cold War, was brought down in 1989 and the two Germanys reunited 11 months later. Researchers said at least 136 people were killed trying to cross to the West.
Gorbachev said the opening of the Wall and the end of the Cold War was the culmination of a long process of post-World War Two rapprochement.
"The people were the heroes," said Gorbachev, 78. "The three of us don't want to take credit for the accomplishments of the previous generations."
About this series
The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, its educational institutions, centres and foreign offices, offer several thousand events on various subjects each year. We provide up to date and exclusive reports on selected conferences, events and symposia at www.kas.de. In addition to a summary of the contents, you can also find additional material such as pictures, speeches, videos or audio clips.