Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate
West Berlin, Germany
June 12, 1987
This speech was delivered to the people of West Berlin, yet
it was also audible on the East side of the Berlin wall.
2,703 words
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.