The main opposition party in Germany wants Berlin to name a street or square after the president who stood up to the Soviet Union when the city was divided, calling on Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”
 President Reagan in front of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, June 12, 1987. |
President Ronald Reagan, who died Saturday, left office in 1989, just prior to the fall of communism and the Berlin Wall that year and the reunification of Germany one year later.
“We should recognize his commitment to unification through a square or street near the Brandenburg Gate to be named after him,” Christian Democrat General Secretary Laurenz Meyer told the German daily Bild Zeitung.
In a speech in front of the wall in 1987, Reagan declared to the people of Eastern Europe, “Es gibt nur ein Berlin.” [There is only one Berlin], evoking memories of President Kennedy’s famous use of German when JFK attempted to say “I am a Berliner.”
Later, in the presence of former Christian Democrat German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and a worldwide audience, President Reagan directed his memorable words to the Soviet leader, “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Commenting after Reagan’s death, Kohl praised him as “a great friend of the Germans” for his role in ending both communism and the Cold War, according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur, the German news agency.
“Ronald Reagan was a man who achieved great things for his country,” Kohl said. “He was a stroke of luck for the world, especially for Europe.”
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will attend the state funeral for Reagan Friday in Washington.
Schroeder, who is at the G-8 Summit in Georgia, will come as a gesture of appreciation for Reagan’s commitment to ending the East-West conflict, a spokesman said, declaring the president had “always remained a close friend to Germany.”
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