Word: german
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...appeal signed by the official Free German Youth movement and representatives of the democratic opposition voiced fears about "the very existence of our country" in the wake of the massive westward stream of visitors...
...wall will never be what it used to be. It remains a memorial to inhumanity," West German President Richard von Weizsaecker said in a speech in West Berlin's Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedaechtnis Church...
...pictures as defiant as a pair of young West Berliners, standing before a water cannon, ramming a post into the Wall, as inconceivable as hundreds of youths celebrating before the Brandenburg Gate, as simply staggering as a peak-capped East German border guard handing a flower to West German women seated atop the barrier, spread throughout the Western world...
...really in the West's best interest, however, to see it reduced to rubble? On a symbolic level, certainly. The Wall's designer and chief defender, former East German President Erich Honecker, called his creation the "Anti-Fascist Protection Barrier." In this era of glasnost, such rhetoric has about as much standing as the deposed Honecker himself, who was ousted by the East German Politburo three weeks ago after 18 years at the helm...
...literal destruction of the Wall would, in many respects, be redundant. Honecker's successor, Egon Krenz, has promised that most East German travel restrictions will be lifted, making it possible for citizens to travel freely to the West. The thousands who jammed the West German embassy in Prague last week seeking asylum testify to the futility of mere stones to bar the exodus. Johannes Chemnitzer, a member of the East German Communist Party's Central Committee, admitted last week that with the borders open, the Wall's "meaning becomes limited and illusory...