3
P
rince
of
A
sturias
A
wards
1981-2014. S
peeches
Laureates. Excerpts
This year Berlin commemorates the dramatic autumn events of 20 years ago. At first, only a few
faced up to the dictatorship with courage and determination. Then they became many more. In the
autumn of 1989, millions of people came out onto the streets of Berlin and other cities in the GDR
to peacefully demonstrate for their democratic and human rights to freedom.
On the 9th November 1989, they brought down the wall that had divided the city for three
decades. The images of people dancing on the wall were seen worldwide and aroused great interest.
It was the happiest moment in Berlin’s history.
A year after the wall fell, Germany and Berlin celebrated reunification in peace and freedom.
The peaceful revolution of the people of Berlin and other cities in the former GDR would have
been unimaginable without the prior events in Poland, with Solidarność, Hungary, the Republic of
Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union.
The reunification of our country would not have been possible without the support of many
friends abroad, not least among these Spain and its prime minister, Felipe González.
We remember all this in Germany with gratitude.
Many people in Berlin gave their utmost in the weeks of the peaceful revolution. It is well
known that faith in a better future is capable of moving mountains and it engendered a great
deal of confidence that encouraged Berliners to overcome the problems of unification. The wall
had severed Berlin’s life vein. The challenges in urban planning, infrastructure, economic and
social policies were beyond compare. Hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost and it took time to
create new ones. What’s more, reunification implied losses for many people. And in daily life it was
also necessary for the people of the East and the West to meet up again. It is true that they spoke
the same language, but they had grown up in very different systems. This new meeting and this
coexistence were not easy to surmount.
Klaus Wowereit, on behalf
of the City of Berlin, on
the 20th Anniversary of
the Fall of the Wall
—
Prince of Asturias Award
for Concord
2009
Klaus Wowereit was Mayor of Berlin
from 2001 to 2014.
—
Excerpt from the speech given on
the occasion of receiving the Prince
of Asturias Award for Concord on
23/10/2009.
