When the Berlin Wall came down and ignited the opening of Eastern Europe to democracy and capitalism, I was just 9 years old. I remember thinking the ‘Cold War’ was an actual war that we seemed to be fighting permanently. Only while earning my Bachelors in history did I start to truly understand the event’s impact. And what an impact it has been. I had a great Modern Germany history professor, Prof. Peter Mellini, who told a group of 19-20 year olds what it was like for him when he first heard the Berlin Wall was coming down. For Mellini, nearly his whole life was lived in the shadow of the Cold War and in his studies and travels across Europe and the Soviet Union he saw the ideological and super power conflict first hand. His story of the Wall’s fall is simple, but moving.  He was just driving on a small road one day when on the radio he heard about travel restrictions being discontinued and the flowing details of Germans reuniting. Mellini could hardly believe his ears and had to pull his car over to the side of the road where he remained for some time, listening to what for him and millions of others, was an event that was hard to believe was actually happening.

To the students before him, this personal story made a ‘historical’ event for us more tangible and real. For there was no doubt that we were much more detached from the collapse of the Soviet Empire in Europe than we should have been. Talking great power politics, it was an incredibly important event in world affairs, a bipolar world turned into a unipolar one in an amazingly peaceful and quick fashion. But the event was also a powerful victory for the spread of freedom in our world. Within a two year span, millions of people were able to throw off the political, social, cultural, and religious chains that were holding them down from the chance to reach their potential. The fall of the Berlin Wall is one of the most empirical signs we have of freedom defeating tyranny.  

Just like myself before college, there are millions who have not learned the important lessons of the Berlin Wall, Cold War, and Soviet Union.  As Anne Applebaum in the Washington Post asserts: “Too many of them treat too much of the past two decades as a foregone conclusion, focusing on what didn’t happen rather than what did. Too many have taken the achievements for granted. Too many of us forget that there are few historical precedents for the past two decades.”  Complacency is a dangerous thing.  So many men and women fought for the freedom we now are so pleasantly enjoying right now. It is fitting that the US has its Veterans Day so close as the fall of the Berlin Wall reminds us all that freedom is not free (and it’s not a ‘Buck O’Five‘ either).  

The official commemoration held today in the city so divided during the Cold War, Berlin, was appeared to be a somber, yet cheerful event. Past and present leaders of Germany, Britain, France, and even Russia were there, but the current President of the United States was not. I’m not sure why not, but I don’t want to hear any excuses anyways. The United States was a leader in freeing Germany from its Nazi stranglehold, saved thousands of lives, and losing some of its own, in the Berlin airlift, and stood strong against the Soviet Union’s illiberal dictatorship, helping to finally bring freedom to millions. As was mentioned, this found freedom is not destined to last forever, we must continue to fight for it every day. Part of fighting for freedom is reminding all of us, (especially those who for one reason or another have lost sight of how it came about), that there was a time not long ago when nearly half the world lived in oppressed societies and how the US and West fought to free them. Having the President of the United States at Berlin would have helped further this cause and highlight the sacrifices that have before brought about freedom and will surely be needed to again.

(Photo Source: New York Times)

Tags: Berlin Wall, Cold War, Obama, Soviet Union