Mon 9 Nov 2009
>>Berlin sagt Danke<<; Klaus Wowereit, Mayor of Berlin
Woman and Child, Potsdamer Platz November 2009
| « Have Lunch With Your Professors! | Trouble the Comfortable » |
8 Responses to “Berlin. Says. :”Thank You!””
Leave a Reply
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post
If a comment you submitted does not show up, please email us at eph at ephblog dot com. Please note that commenters are required to use a valid email address when submitting comments.
PTC says:
Yes ken… I bet it is a damn fine night to be an American Werewolf in Germany.
Cheers and happy hunting!
PTC says:
Ken.. if you make it South, make sure you check out the Irish pub in Boblingen… cool little town. There is also a placed called “C studio” there… which is like this really strange 80s metal hang out. The town is nice.. quaint.
PTC says:
So dude… WTF, are you going to tell us about how it is going? I mean… you are at perhaps the coolest place on the planet at this moment in time… got any pics?
Jr. Mom says:
I am envious. What a great time to be in Berlin. And ditto PTC’s comment, we need to hear more than “Thank you from Berlin”, Ken. (!!)
I did hear on NPR that it was pouring rain, but spirits were high.
Ken Thomas '93 says:
PTC (and now JM),
It has been a very long day with much to absorb. But you ask, so the usual “apologies for not having time for a shorter message:”
There is a great privilege involved in being able to sit in a room with people who have been Prime Ministers or served at the Cabinet level, and discuss the state of Europe and the meaning of this event.
It was also a privilege that most of that room was filled with people younger than I, and to listen carefully to their thoughts and discussions.
I took a few pictures, in very bad light and with the rain, and am trying to find a few to enhance to something acceptable.
What was said– at Brandenburg gate, quite a lot. Much of it is still in my head, not in translation, as much as I could piece together through the German overlay of non-German speakers.
Sarkozy prompted booing from the crowd — throughout the speech. Brown got a good deal at the start. Mendelev– I hope he wrote his speech, but I fear it was the party apparatus.
I do not express all of what Wowereit’s introduction said. What is most important to try to understand, is what everyone is so thankful for.
Without turning back to Wowereit’s remarks in German– for Freiheit, for the endurance and sacrifice, for what Europe has become– for the possibility of travelling across these lands, without borders, and something more behind that, a sudden security where one had lived in fear — and then, of course, for the wherewithall and help and of France and Great Britain and the United States.
(You will note the marked absence of the Russian Federation there.)
Much was also said about the state of the Eastern European states: “we were alone.” I cannot express this, quickly, in English.
Angela Merkel– I don’t know if she relied on a team of speechwriters, or a single one, or wrote her remarks herself. She got almost as much time as Lech Walesa and the last half was too much– but the first half drew the history out, said “thanks” in a deeper and less direct way– and talked about the experience of living in Eastern Germany, “there was always this Sehnsuecht.
There’s a hard word to translate– it’s used for the cravings of an addict– here, it means the terrible desire for something missing, for an experience that is lacking, for “freedom.”
Older people in the crowd broke down at that point in her speech, and many others came to tears. Amid half a million people.
She, and Walesa, also captured how unimaginable the current Europe, without borders, was in 1989– that can travel without restrictions, without border checkpoints– that the youth can live and study in any member state.
Clinton got some brief groans.
Mendelev– I was probably naive in hoping to find some way near his group, much less to speak to him. To compare Walesa to him– Walesa spoke in a Polish filled with common terms and literature and political understanding, where Mendelev spoke in a stilted, bureaucratic Russian of state or party memos– worse, if you’ve heard debates in Russian.
There is talk, of course, of expanding NATO to include the Russian Federation. Complex talk, of which the preconditions would be great– and of course travel to and in the Russian Federation is far from unrestricted at this point.
The overall vision of Europe– I’m skimming, and these leaders are just coming to terms with that. The commissions cannot function well because they can only meet every six weeks due to the documents translation requirements, to mention only one small problem in an enormous endeavor.
Regionalism, devolution, democracy and levels of power, and the re-emergence of local languages– also all on the table. “We all speak poor English,” it was said– but the youth, on the trains in Berlin, switch between German and English mid-sentence.
The elites. I did not get much chance today, to travel outside the elites, and hear their perspective. Last night, I hear resentment on the streets– people who felt threatened, at least, that their worlds and ways of life were being destroyed– and today, amid the elites, quite a bit that might indicate that there is not enough concern, or that there is contempt, for those who do not share “the education.”
Walesa. In the construction of the ceremony, he emerged as the old leader (there was Gorbachev as well) who had brought this chain of events into action. (Some irony: that would mean by organizing workers unions and strikes, to create a Revolution in a ’socialist’ republic founded by ‘councils’ which organized (…repeat…). But this voice, of wisdom.
Merkel: I don’t think the NYT got it right. She said that on this day, especially, we will not forget the fate of European Jewry, and what this means to them, and… I think she said ‘debt,’ or something very close to it (as she narrowly avoided ‘guilt’ and turned more towards ‘responsibility.’)
In which case I would like the opportunity to ask the Frau Chancellor what she means, and how far she is willing to go to repay that debt and rebuilt the worlds of European Jewry, and especially, eastern european Jewry.
Eastern Europe– has, of course, risen to near EU-wide levels of productivity in the past decade, and the Slovenian example and Ljubjana played a role today. That would be a longer aside (which has some Williams connections), but many issues of security that seem settled for Western Europe, remain present.
I will say that issues of the recent genocides, the lack of an effective response, and the need to revisit, came up.
I should close. Little time– but some– was given to the relationship of this new experiment in Union and democracy to the rest of the world. Largely, Europe is turned inward, to a difficult process of forging democratic institutions and a new form of civil society and governance, among peoples with a common heritage but with so many barriers and walls, cultural and linguistic and economic, still between them.
An event– todays’ event– with so many languages and exchanges, so much communication– it has all happened so quickly, and there is much pride and amazement, at how far things have come. The dominant theme is the new Union– hope– that we will solve the difficult problems. Peace and security– the sudden peace and security and cooperation of Europe– emerge as the dominant themes and rubrics.
I have my doubts and concerns. Today’s Union is not the world of Europe before 1938, but much of what I heard today, was the experience of people who grew up in the shadow of the Second World War. I might– what is on my mind, is that my grandfather and his contempraries lived in an open Europe before them, and travelled without passports, more extensively than I have– and spoke more languages.
The tale of Europe today is one of acheivement and progress– and surprise, given years of “oppression.” It is a tale that moves forward and says that these things are at an end.
I’m not sure it takes the longer view. I’m not sure — Frau Merkel’s references to German and Slavic literature aside– it takes a long enough view. I expect chaos; I expect irrationality; I fear we cannot understand the forces that led to a divided and oppressed Europe– and we cannot see or predict the future. I hope, yes– and today was a day of celebration– but I also see and hear the tensions, the conflicts, the racial divides, the great issue of admitting Turkey (and the treatment of Turks throughout the northern European lands)– and a larger world outside Europe, of potential conflicts that could destroy the pax europeeana, as quickly as the worlds of the early 20th century — more quickly, in a nuclear conflict.
The Union– today, of course, was an attempt at “the State of the Union–” that we have found Union, and created a brief bubble of freedom, amid and for so many peoples, is to be celebrated– but our Union is fragile. It is paid for in lives and sacrifice and responsibilities and risks– and that will not go away. The challenges will not go away. This generation’s youth, for all I hear today about their capacity and hope, and for all I believe and hope of them– can and likely will make the same mistakes that were made a century ago.
When we sit in a room– with people in their twenties and teens– asking them to take on the burdens of leadership– I should pause. I have to remind myself that Europe’s youth today– even the elites– are still largely educated by this divided system. Ten years ago– five years ago– between that period, people laughed at me when I said, “I want to learn Flaams.” (Who would do such a thing?) A unified Europe– a Europe where people see and live beyond small borders of a few tens of kilometers– is very new. The cross-national exchange, is new,– certainly in its numbers.
What I was going to say– we should also warn them, and ourselves, that it may be much harder. They may make mistakes. The current vision of an open and unified Europe– is untested. It has not worked in the past. It may fail financially. Politically, we may find that the institutions are unworkable. New problems and crises may emerge. Europe, so accustomed to its new peace and security, may find itself under attack or at war. (Pray that the North Atlantic Alliance is not tested in the near-term). The further expansion of NATO may prove a very dangerous course, or it may lead to stability and a new alliance, between the United States and the Russian Federation.
“Learn–” as much as you can. It was said today, but it was not said loudly enough for my tastes. The lesson of the Mauerfall may lie in its sudden change– and the enduring lesson may not be the sudden and unexpected situation it has created for Europe, but how sudden change may be.
[ended: for reasons of sleep, "not shorter"]
Jr. Mom says:
Ken,
Thank you for a beautiful essay. Your insights and ruminations bring the weight and meaning of the fall of the Wall into the present. It’s hard to believe how long it’s been.
I have a lot of questions, but will try later when I have more time.
kthomas says:
That was written very late at night (thanks guys for the prompting, but it is a first draft).
Picture added. There is never enough time in the presentations, for questions and discussion.
PTC says:
kt- dude outstanding. You going to be around long? I may be headed through the south and stop over in early december… we could do dinner.