{"id":49563,"date":"2014-11-10T12:00:23","date_gmt":"2014-11-10T12:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=49563"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:29:33","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:29:33","slug":"as-germany-marks-fall-of-the-berlin-wall-gorbachev-warns-of-new-cold-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/11\/as-germany-marks-fall-of-the-berlin-wall-gorbachev-warns-of-new-cold-war\/","title":{"rendered":"As Germany Marks Fall of the Berlin Wall, Gorbachev Warns of New Cold War"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ex-Soviet leader backs Putin over Ukraine as Germany celebrates the 25th anniversary of a seminal moment in European history.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s hard to remember how scary it was\u2019 … extraordinary memories of the Berlin Wall<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Former<\/a>

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev walks across Pariser Platz near the Brandenburg Gate on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Photograph: Target Presse Agentur Gmbh\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

9 Nov 2014 – <\/em>As Berliners watch 8,000 balloons being released into the night sky this evening, old divisions between east and west will symbolically vanish into thin air with them. Yet the runup to the festivities has already served up plenty of reminders that, 25 years after the fall of the wall that divided the city for three decades, the scars of history are hurting more than ever.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a symposium near the Brandenburg Gate yesterday morning, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev <\/a>warned that the world was \u201con the brink of a new cold war\u201d and strongly criticised the west for having sown the seeds of the current crisis by mishandling the fallout from the collapse of the iron curtain.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of building new mechanisms and institutions of European security and pursuing a major demilitarisation of European politics \u2026 the west, and particularly the United States, declared victory in the cold war,\u201d said the man behind the Soviet Union\u2019s glasnost<\/em> and perestroika<\/em> reforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cEuphoria and triumphalism went to the heads of western leaders. Taking advantage of Russia\u2019s weakening and the lack of a counterweight, they claimed monopoly leadership and domination in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The enlargement of Nato, Kosovo, missile defence plans and wars in the Middle East had led to a \u201ccollapse of trust\u201d, said Gorbachev, now 83. \u201cTo put it metaphorically, a blister has now turned into a bloody, festering wound.\u201d<\/p>\n

Previously an outspoken critic <\/a>of Vladimir Putin, Gorbachev backed the current Russian president\u2019s stance over Ukraine, urging western leaders to \u201cconsider carefully\u201d Putin\u2019s recent remarks at the Valdai forum<\/a> : \u201cDespite the harshness of his criticism of the west, and of the United States in particular, I see in his speech a desire to find a way to lower tensions and ultimately to build a new basis for partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such strong words of criticism, voiced by the man still affectionately known as \u201cGorbi\u201d to many in Germany, came at the end of a week which has seen the value of the rouble tumbling dramatically<\/a> as a result of western sanctions.<\/p>\n

Friday afternoon had seen another reminder of the old east-west tensions still running through Germany when the usually rather staid proceedings of the Bundestag were shaken up by a musical guest performance. Veteran songwriter Wolf Biermann, who was kicked out of the GDR in 1976, performed a protest song called Ermutigung <\/em>(Encouragement) and took a number of swipes at politicians from Die Linke (the Left party), successors to East Germany\u2019s ruling party, the SED.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour punishment is to have to listen to me here \u2013 enjoy\u201d, Biermann said, while gesturing towards the leftwing parliamentarians. He went on to describe Die Linke MPs as \u201cdragon spawn\u201d and \u201cthe miserable dregs of something that had luckily been overcome\u201d.<\/p>\n

Only last week German president Joachim Gauck, a former head of the Stasi archives, had questioned whether the Left party had \u201creally distanced itself from the ideas the SED once had about repression of people\u201d. Die Linke is on the verge of gaining its first state premier, in the Thuringia region, something Gauck said \u201cpeople of my age who lived through the GDR find quite hard to accept\u201d.<\/p>\n

At the very least, such score-settling should stop this weekend\u2019s festivities, taking place under the motto \u201ccourage for freedom\u201d, from turning into a merely nostalgic affair. Events in Berlin will mark the culmination of a remarkable chain of events which resulted in the opening of border checkpoints in Berlin on the night of 9 November 1989. At least 138 people died trying to cross the inner-German border in the capital, more than 1,000 in the country as a whole, in the postwar years.<\/p>\n

A host of historic key players and celebrities have already dodged a nationwide train strike in Germany to descend on the capital. Yesterday evening German chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, attended a memorial concert at the Berliner Ensemble, the theatre founded by the playwright Bertolt Brecht.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Merkel will open a new exhibition centre at Bernauer Strasse, near the Bornholmer Strasse checkpoint where the then 35-year-old chancellor crossed over to the west for the first time. \u201cI think you never forget how you felt that day \u2013 at least I will never forget it,\u201d the chancellor said in a recent podcast. \u201cI had to wait 35 years for that feeling of liberty. It changed my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least two million people are expected to attend a grand street festival at the Brandenburg Gate. The former Polish president Lech Walesa, Hungarian ex-president Miklos Nemeth, as well as Gorbachev and German president Gauck, are all expected to take to the stage.<\/p>\n

Music will be provided by the Berlin State Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim<\/a>, as well as East Berlin rock band Silly and British singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel, performing David Bowie\u2019s Heroes.<\/p>\n

The centrepiece of the festivities will be formed by an ambitious art installation. Since Friday morning, 8,000 white balloons have been pegged to the ground along the former border. After sunset, they light up to form a 15km-long \u201cwall of light\u201d. This evening the balloons will be released into the air one by one, to the music of Beethoven\u2019s Ode to Joy.<\/p>\n

Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit, as well as guests of honour including Nobel peace prize winner Muhammad Yunus, Nasa astronaut Ron Garan and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, will start the balloon release at 7pm local time.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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