Ausstellungseröffnung mit Jürgen Ritter in Brüssel

10.11.2009: Michael Cramers Rede zur Eröffnung der Fotoausstellung mit Jürgen Ritter im Europäischen Parlament, anlässlich des 20. Jubiläums des Mauerfalls

Mr President, Mr Ritter, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

Exactly 20 years ago the wall in Berlin fell and with it also the Iron Curtain in Europe, which separated this continent for decades. With this exhibition in the European Parliament today we remember the peaceful revolutions in central and Eastern Europe.

The photos displayed are by Jürgen Ritter, who walked along the German-German border on the Western side in the mid-1980s, and who documented the separation of Germany in numerous photos. 20 years later he repeated this walking-tour and captured the changes that had taken place in photos, which he took from the same perspective as the earlier pictures. I am very happy that we can show this exhibition in the European Parliament today.

In order to fully appreciate this exhibition, it is important to remember the European history which led to the events we are celebrating today.

The division of Europe does not begin with the end of the Second World War, but rather when Hitler seized power in 1933 and when German troops marched into Poland at the beginning of the Second World War 70 years ago.

Without Nazi Germany, triggering the Second World War, Europe would not have been divided.

Today we have to remember not only the 9th of November 1989. We will also not forget the darkest day in German History, the 9th of November 1938, when in the so-called "Reichspogromnacht" the houses, businesses and synagogues of Jewish people in Germany were destroyed and burnt by the Nazis.

After many years of discrimination of the Jewish people, this day was the beginning of the systematic killing of more than 6 million Jews in Europe until 1945.

The end of the Shoa and the end of the Second World War were finally brought about by the anti-Hitler coalition, which was - despite its differing ideologies - united in the common fight against National Socialist Germany.

Things already changed, however, shortly after the German army’s unconditional surrender: On the 5th of March 1946, the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill stated in his famous speech in Fulton, Missouri, that part of Europe had disappeared behind an "Iron Curtain", creating a division of Europe:- the Cold War had begun.

Since the leaders of the Warsaw Pact states were not willing to grant political freedom and proved incapable of solving their countries’ economic problems, there were repeated uprisings: The uprising in the GDR on the 17th of June 1953 was the first in the Soviet-controlled bloc after the Second World War. It was followed by the Poznań workers' uprising in June and the Hungarian Revolution in October 1956, the Prague Spring in 1968 and the Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia as well as the birth of the Solidarność movement in Poland in 1980.

The activities of the Solidarność trade union, Hungary’s success in reaching out to the West, the independence movements in the Baltic states - especially the chain of citizens from Tallinn to Vilnius on the 23rd of August 1989, which was the 50th anniversary of the Hitler-Stalin-Pact - and the removal of the barbed wire fence at the Hungarian-Austrian border by the two countries’ Foreign Ministers Gyula Horn and Alois Mock on the 27th of June 1989,- all these events paved the way for the fall of the Wall in Berlin and thus the end of the Iron Curtain in Europe.

We know that today is an important day, as 20 years ago the world changed. We commemorate the event with this photo exhibition.

Therefore, I would like to thank my colleagues for preparing this exhibition and I would like to thank and welcome the photographer Jürgen Ritter.

Mr Ritter, the floor is yours.

(Rede Jürgen Ritter)

Thank you very much, Mr Ritter. Ladies and gentlemen, we are commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall today. At the festivities in Berlin last night, one thousand domino bricks were toppled to symbolise the fall of the Berlin Wall. The first piece, which initiated the domino effect, was pushed down by Lech Walesa, the former Solidarność leader and later president of the free Poland. This was a very powerful symbolic act, because as especially we Germans know, without the activities of the Polish trade union Solidarność, the Berlin Wall would not have fallen down.

The importance of Poland was also stressed 5 years ago, on the 9th of November 2004, when I had the pleasure of showing an exhibition about the Berlin Wall here in the European Parliament. Bronislaw Geremek, who risked a lot as an original Solidarność-activist and later became the Foreign Secretary of Poland in the 1990s, gave the opening speech. Unfortunately he is not with us anymore but I can still clearly remember his words:

"Poland will only be free when Germany is free and as long as the Brandenburg Gate is behind a wall, Poland will not be free".

I am sure that he would be very pleased that the exhibition today will be opened by his former Solidarność-colleague Jerzy Buzek, who prepared Poland's accession to the European Union in his role as Prime Minister. Today he is the President of the European Parliament.

Ladies and gentlemen, this would have been unthinkable just 20 years ago. So I am especially happy that Mr. Buzek has agreed to hold the opening speech for this exhibition. Therefore, also many thanks and a very warm welcome to Jerzy Buzek, the President of the European Parliament. Mr President, the floor is yours!

(Rede Jerzy Buzek)

Dear Mr President, dear Mr Ritter, thank you very much for your words. And now, ladies and gentlemen, enjoy this exhibition and let's have a drink and toast to the year 1989, which Oxford University professor Timothy Garton Ash in a speech last Thursday here in Brussels called "the best year for Europe in the last century".

For - it was this year - which changed Berlin, Germany, Europe and the world!