After the Berlin Wall Fell

Concerts, Restoration of Western Art on Remnants of Wall Celebrate 20 Years Since Germans Brought Down the Iron Curtain

(CBS)  The anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall may not be until Monday, but the party has already started.

A U2 concert used The Brandenburg Gate as a convenient backdrop.

When the Wall ran through it, the Gate sat in the middle of a divided city and was the symbol of a divided world.

Now, search lights are merely visual effects piercing the night sky, rather than scanning No Man's Land for East Germans trying to escape to the West.

The main players that night 20 years ago were the people of East Berlin, who after months of mounting protest, finally called the bluff of the East German authorities.

But it was the behind-the-scenes players who really determined events that night, mostly by doing nothing, reports CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips.

Then-Soviet leader Michael Gorbachev had refused to back the desperate GDR regime.

Then-President George Bush refused to gloat as the Wall came down.

Then-German Chancellor Helmut Kohl went on to become the leader of a re-united Germany, an outcome neither he nor any of the others had planned but that they each now say could not have happened without them.

"I might harbor a single hope, it would be that future generations might look back at the moment in time when mankind really got it right," former President George W. Bush said.

"I remember my grandma calling, 'There is a never-ending convoy of cars leaving for the west side, what is going on?'" Benjamin Walther told Phillips.

Walther was 14 when the Wall fell. He didn't leave - he stayed in East Berlin, where he's carved out a nice career in information technology marketing. Walthermarvels at the changes in the life he might have led.

"Maybe I would have left the country, escaping, working in some rundown East German company," Walther told Phillips. "It wouldn't have been easy."

It still isn't easy for many. East German industry, without government subsidy, could not compete. The economy shrank by an estimated 50 percent. The MZ Motorcycle plant, for example, used to employ 3,000. Today, a couple of dozen are left.

The Eastern landscape is littered with the ruins of former state-supported enterprises. A million people have gone West looking for work.

Many of them may have come this weekend to Berlin's Eastside Gallery, formerly known as the Berlin Wall.

Part of the commemoration of the Wall coming down has been to refurbish what's left of it. The original paintings on it have been restored, an ugly interlude in history literally painted over.

And 20 years later, another party like no other is about to be relived.

[knottwolate]

I kept watching and waiting during your Berlin wall story for some mention about the role President Reagan and his administration played in weakening the resolve of the Soviets in maintaining the division of Germany. As the President challenged the Soviet world, his words (and actions) re-kindled the cry for freedon from those oppressed by the communist.It is a good thing that you don't write world history.Just stick with producing for CBS and history will stand a better chance of being written,as it actually happened.

[cupcake65]

Today is a day to remember the families who have suffered ,and to the poeple who lost their life while trying to escape!
The poeple in East Germany were bringing down the wall!!!At the beginning of 1961 my Family moved from West Germany to East Germany and did not know that 7 months later on August 13th 1961 troops in East Germany would sealed the border between East and West Berlin.I was born in East Germany 1965.When I was a child,growing up in the 70's, teacher told us stories about West Germany which were meant to scare us by filling our heads with propaganda.There was no freedom of speech.You could not leave the country without asking for permission.For example our family could not go to West Germany or USA to visit our relatives.My grandfather visited his sister in the USA,only once,because she was very sick.My grandmother visited West Germany in 1974,because her father died.It was never possible to travel together.This way the goverment was sure everyone would come back.My family wrote many exit applications,and they were always denied.My childhood was influenced by the dream that one day we would have a reunion with our family.In March 1984 I planned to escape to West Germany.It would be a luxury to freely choose my future,without repression,limitations,and interference.I went to the American Consulate in East Berlin to get asylum.They couldn't help me and I left the consulate and was immediately arrested.At this time East German citizens were trying daily to get asylum from foreign consulates,and that seemed a reason enough for the goverment to get arrested.Then I was taken to Potsdam,put in an investigated prison of the Ministry of Security (MFS,called Stasi),The MFS infiltrated almost every aspectof GDR live.I did not have a trial but was given a verdict on behalf of East German poeple even that the public was excluded from this decision.I was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months imprisoment.I was brought to Hoheneck (woman prison)there I stayed for 13 months.January 1986,I could leave East Germany and met for the FIRST time my relatives.Today,I live in Wisconsin.The time in jail influenced my live and I cherish every single day.

[jab712]

Why did obama REFUSE TO GO to the Berlin wall even after the
German Chancellor personally called and asked him !

JAB4

[twogrits]

I find it sad that you didn't even mention that President Reagan was the initial catalyst in bringing down the wall, and ultimately the USSR. The fact that you can't give credit where credit is due just because you don't agree with someone's politics speaks volumes about the integrity of your reporting.

[cupcake65]

Today is a day to remember the families who have suffered ,and to the poeple who lost their life while trying to escape!
The poeple in East Germany were bringing down the wall!!!At the beginning of 1961 my Family moved from West Germany to East Germany and did not know that 7 months later on August 13th 1961 troops in East Germany would sealed the border between East and West Berlin.I was born in East Germany 1965.When I was a child,growing up in the 70's, teacher told us stories about West Germany which were meant to scare us by filling our heads with propaganda.There was no freedom of speech.You could not leave the country without asking for permission.For example our family could not go to West Germany or USA to visit our relatives.My grandfather visited his sister in the USA,only once,because she was very sick.My grandmother visited West Germany in 1974,because her father died.It was never possible to travel together.This way the goverment was sure everyone would come back.My family wrote many exit applications,and they were always denied.My childhood was influenced by the dream that one day we would have a reunion with our family.In March 1984 I planned to escape to West Germany.It would be a luxury to freely choose my future,without repression,limitations,and interference.I went to the American Consulate in East Berlin to get asylum.They couldn't help me and I left the consulate and was immediately arrested.At this time East German citizens were trying daily to get asylum from foreign consulates,and that seemed a reason enough for the goverment to get arrested.Then I was taken to Potsdam,put in an investigated prison of the Ministry of Security (MFS,called Stasi),The MFS infiltrated almost every aspectof GDR live.I did not have a trial but was given a verdict on behalf of East German poeple even that the public was excluded from this decision.I was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months imprisoment.I was brought to Hoheneck (woman prison)there I stayed for 13 months.January 1986,I could leave East Germany and met for the FIRST time my relatives.Today,I live in Wisconsin.The time in jail influenced my live and I cherish every single day.

[apachekid]

The Great German Chancellor would not go along With Obamas Tax & Spend Scheme when they meet. Merkel could read him like a book. Obama as immature, & self centered as he is decided to snub the Great German Country & its People during this Historic Time unless he was given center stage.

Has put his staff to work on a cover up by organizing a PR trip to Fort Hood. That will serve as PR and a Fund Raising excursion for the DNC. So sad this President is so disingenuous to resort to tactics such as this. But this isn't the first time he tried this.

[jchenn]

I don't think any rational person believes that Obama doesn't have time to participate in the anniversary of the Berlin wall. President Obama tells us a lie of convenience rather than stating the obvious: He doesn't want to be there because it is at odds with his misplaced ideological notions. Reagan achieved peace through strength, and at some fundamental level I think this unsettles the effete Barack Obama.

[ibsteve2u]

Don't miss it.

But now the world builds even stronger walls with money, dividing those who can live from those whose life is forfeit if their survival requires money.