[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 161 (Monday, November 2, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10993-S10994]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 SENATE RESOLUTION 332--COMMEMORATING THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FALL 
    OF THE BERLIN WALL, THE END OF THE DIVISION OF EUROPE, AND THE 
   BEGINNING OF THE PEACEFUL AND DEMOCRATIC REUNIFICATION OF GERMANY

  Mr. KERRY (for himself, Mr. Lugar, and Mr. Cardin) submitted the 
following resolution; which was considered and agreed to:

                              S. Res. 332

       Whereas, between 1945 and 1961, more than 2,500,000 people, 
     or 15 percent of the total population of the German 
     Democratic Republic (referred to in this preamble as ``East 
     Germany''), left the country to pursue economic opportunity 
     and enjoy the benefits of liberty and political freedom in 
     the Federal Republic of Germany (referred to in this preamble 
     as ``West Germany'') and other countries;
       Whereas, at midnight on August 13, 1961, East Germany 
     sealed its border with West Berlin and began construction of 
     a 100-mile barrier that would later include bunkers, 
     watchtowers, searchlights, minefields, barbed wire, concrete 
     walls, and armed guards, to prevent the emigration of the 
     people of East Germany to seek freedom and opportunity 
     elsewhere;
       Whereas, during the 28 years the Berlin Wall existed, 
     approximately 5,000 people successfully fled East Germany for 
     West Germany and West Berlin, more than 75,000 people were 
     imprisoned for attempting to leave East Germany, and an 
     estimated 1,200 people were killed trying to escape;
       Whereas Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan 
     declared their vision of Berlin as a free city, in the heart 
     of a free Germany;
       Whereas Chancellor Willi Brandt of West Germany and others 
     demonstrated great foresight in their pursuit of 
     ``Ostpolitik'', a policy of engagement that lowered tensions 
     and ultimately helped undermine the authoritarian rule of the 
     wall-builders;
       Whereas more than 22,000,000 Americans served in the Cold 
     War, supporting the efforts to bring military, economic, and 
     diplomatic pressure to bear in the defense of Germany and the 
     West, and ultimately helping more than 400,000,000 people 
     gain their freedom from the bondage of communism in the 
     Soviet Bloc;
       Whereas the Solidarity Movement in Poland demonstrated that 
     the will of a people united could not be silenced by winning 
     a surprise landslide victory in elections to the Contract 
     Sejm in June 1989;
       Whereas, on August 23, 1989, Hungary officially opened the 
     border between Hungary and Austria, resulting in 13,000 
     refugees from East Germany fleeing into West Germany through 
     Hungary;
       Whereas, on September 4, 1989, after prayers for peace in 
     the Nikolai Church, crowds that would eventually number in 
     the hundreds of thousands gathered in Leipzig, East Germany, 
     to repeatedly and peacefully protest the authoritarian regime 
     of East Germany and to demand basic freedoms;
       Whereas, in September 1989, thousands of people in East 
     Germany took refuge in the

[[Page S10994]]

     embassy of West Germany in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in order 
     to emigrate to West Germany and the West;
       Whereas, on October 18, 1989, faced with widespread civil 
     unrest and a deteriorating political situation, East German 
     leader Erich Honecker, who had predicted that the Wall ``will 
     stand in fifty or a hundred years,'' resigned;
       Whereas, on November 4, 1989, more than 1,000,000 people 
     gathered in Alexanderplatz in East Berlin and 40 other cities 
     and towns in East Germany to demand free elections and basic 
     civil rights, such as freedoms of opinion, movement, press, 
     and assembly;
       Whereas, on November 9, 1989, East German politbureau 
     member Gunter Schabowki announced that the government would 
     allow ``every citizen of the German Democratic Republic to 
     leave the GDR through any of the border crossings,'' and East 
     German leader Egon Krenz promised ``free, general, democratic 
     and secret elections'';
       Whereas thousands of people in East Berlin immediately 
     flooded the border checkpoints at the Berlin Wall and 
     demanded entry into West Berlin, causing the overwhelmed 
     border guards of East Germany to open the checkpoints to 
     allow people to cross into West Berlin;
       Whereas, in the days following the fall of the Berlin Wall, 
     hundreds of thousands of people from East Germany freely 
     crossed the border into West Berlin and West Germany for the 
     first time in more than 28 years;
       Whereas the Chancellor of West Germany Helmut Kohl and 
     Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich Genscher managed the political 
     situation and foreign diplomacy with great tact and in close 
     cooperation with Western allies, leading to the peaceful 
     reunification of Germany as a sovereign, democratic state on 
     October 3, 1990;
       Whereas, on November 9, 2009, the people of Germany will 
     celebrate on both sides of the Brandenburg Gate the 20th 
     anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with the 
     ``Festival of Freedom'';
       Whereas the fall of the Berlin Wall was one of the 
     milestones of the 20th century, brought about by the actions 
     of many ordinary and some extraordinary people; and
       Whereas the fall of the Berlin Wall embodied the end of the 
     division of Europe, the opening of the Iron Curtain, and the 
     triumph of democracy over communism: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) recognizes the 20th anniversary of the fall of the 
     Berlin Wall;
       (2) celebrates 20 years of an undivided Europe, free from 
     the oppression of authoritarianism, with the people of the 
     former communist countries and Western Europe;
       (3) honors the service and sacrifice of the people of 
     Germany, the United States, and other countries who served in 
     the Cold War to bring freedom to Central and Eastern Europe;
       (4) expresses its appreciation to the people of Germany for 
     their commitment to preserving the dignity and freedom of 
     others in their leadership on international assistance, 
     peacekeeping, and security efforts, including in Afghanistan, 
     Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Lebanon, Sudan, and 
     off the coast of the Horn of Africa; and
       (5) reaffirms the friendship between the Government and 
     people of the United States and the Government and people of 
     Germany.

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