As people commemorate the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, American historian Hope Harrison recalled the day she heard of the news.
On Nov. 9, 1989, the night the Berlin Wall fell, Harvard scholar Hope Harrison was on a flight from New York to West Berlin. At a stop-over in Frankfurt, she noticed the headline of a local newspaper. It read: “The Berlin Wall was opened.”
“What? You know, is my German not as good as I think it is? Is it April fools day today? And then the pilot got on the intercom and said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, in case you haven’t heard, the Berlin Wall fell last night and we are flying into history,” Harrison said.
Over the years, Harrison has interviewed many people on topics relating to the Berlin Wall. Her book, “After the Fall of the Berlin Wall,” reflects the different lessons and views people have in this historic process.
“The power of citizens taking to the streets in a peaceful revolution and demanding change, and saying our voices matter, we don’t want this wall, we don’t want this regime, we want reforms,” Harrison said.
Also 30 years ago, the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre saw a bloody crackdown in China. But why was there no such bloodshed when the Berlin Wall collapsed that same year? Harrison says the eighth and last Soviet Union leader’s attitude was key.
“[Soviet leader Mikhail] Gorbachev had made it clear he wanted reforms. He had made it clear he didn’t support the old hardline leader of East Germany Erich Honecker,” Harrison said. “Honecker been ousted the month before the wall fell.”
Without the support of the Soviet Union, the East German leaders believed they could no longer use force to close the wall. In the end, East and West Berlin peacefully reunified.
Looking back at history, it’s not totally coincidental that the once seemingly-powerful East Germany collapsed overnight.
Harrison says when West Germany took over the East, they were surprised to find that the regime was in such heavy debt to Western nations.
“They had kept any honest records of the economic weakness out of the public eyes, so people didn’t really know.”
Meanwhile, as for how things will turn out for Hong Kong today, Harrison says it ultimately depends on the strength of the people’s desire for freedom, and the regime’s power to resist it. The main difference, she says, is that Eastern Germany’s leaders were ultimately not willing to use force to maintain power.
