Fall Of Berlin Wall Was Point Of No Return: Harper
Posted November 9, 2009 4:48 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A massive chunk of the Berlin Wall, which has rested in a government conference centre largely out of public view for years, will be moved to the Canadian War Museum.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the announcement Monday to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall, the fabled dividing line between East and West for much of the Cold War.
“The point of no return was reached 20 years ago today, on Nov. 9, 1989,” Harper said at a brief ceremony next to the piece of the wall, a slab the size of a boardroom table daubed with colourful cartoons.
“That is when, with the world watching, thousands of Germans from the east poured across a border that would soon cease to exist. They chose with their feet the principles long upheld by Canada and our allies, embracing freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
“Border guards at first uncertain in the face of so many, became unwilling, and were quickly unable, to stop them. The life had gone out of the communist system.”
The piece of the wall was placed in the conference centre in 1991.
Harper says putting it in the war museum will serve as a reminder that tens of thousands of Canadians served with NATO in Germany for almost 40 years during the Cold War.
The wall was a bleak, towering symbol of the bitter East-West divide that split a city, a country and a continent from 1961 to 1989.
“It will honour the men and women of the Canadian Forces who served during that confrontation,” Harper said.
While Harper stayed in Ottawa, Defence Minister Peter MacKay was in Berlin, taking part the commemoration ceremonies.
Photo by Stephen Ferry/Liaison/Getty Images
