Recognizing 20th Anniversary Of The Ending Of The Cold War

Floor Speech

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Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. I had planned on doing a 1-minute on the Berlin Wall. I think the 20th anniversary of the falling of the Berlin Wall is a historic occasion. It is a story about freedom and oppression and people having the opportunity to have that freedom.

I had the opportunity to visit Berlin before the wall came down and after the wall came down.

The contrast in East Berlin and West Berlin, when the wall was up, was about as stark as the debate is from this side of the aisle and the other side of the aisle. There was the idea of light and frivolity and freedom and action and caring--and just life on one side, and the other side of the wall was dark, negative, gray and repressive.

When I traveled over there, it was just startling for me to experience it. Kurfurstendamm, which is the main street in West Berlin, was a street of people and musicians and buskers on the street and wonderful food and all kinds of life and freedom, and the other side was dark. As soon as the people went home in these communist-style, Stalinesque architecture buildings, they went home, they were not out, there was no nightlife.

The waitress that waited on us in an East German, East Berlin restaurant was almost afraid to talk to us. She yearned to visit the West and to visit around the world, didn't know if she would ever have that opportunity. We tipped her handsomely, and I hope she used that money at some time to make her trip across to the free world.

When we went through Checkpoint Charlie, I gave the guard there--and it was one of the most ominous moments that I've experienced seeing a combination of a police person, a border patrol person, a German--and I say that in all the best respect to Germans, just a characterization thereof, the same for police and border guards--and a communist checking you through Checkpoint Charlie. It was rather stern and official-like and intimidating. I slipped him an Elvis Presley swizzle stick, which he kind of looked askance and took his hand and got it into his hand and stuck it in his pocket and never moved his eyes from looking forward. I was happy to pass Elvis along.

While I agree with the gentleman who spoke earlier about President Reagan and some of the things he did in spending to help defeat the Soviet Union and bring down that wall, a lot of what brought down that wall was the people and their yearning for freedom, which was expressed through Radio Free Europe and other manners in which the German youth heard American music and saw American life. They saw blue jeans and they heard rock and roll, they heard Elvis, they heard the Beatles, they heard all kinds of people. Eventually that wall came down and they heard Pink Floyd; Pink Floyd played and the world listened and the wall came down.

When I returned years later to Berlin, I drove through the Brandenburg Gate, which I don't think I was supposed to, but I did. And that was fun, I could do it, it was freedom.

I thought back upon the last time I had been in East Berlin and you couldn't do anything; it was such an ominous state. East Berlin now is a fun, thriving, great place with great restaurants and art scenes and freedom and people. It has really become more happening than the KuDam or Kreuzberg or the other areas in the West which are happening as well. But it was a great day when that wall came down.

The Newseum has three or four portions of the wall here in Washington. I went there last week. I would encourage everybody, Mr. Speaker, to go to the Newseum, which is a great museum. It's a museum about history in America and the world, not just the news media, but about freedom. The reason they've got the Berlin Wall there is because of that freedom in the First Amendment, the freedom of press, the freedom of expression, and the freedom of association. You can learn about that and value it.

You look at that wall and you see pictures of the people who died trying to get across, and coming up with ways to tunnel their way under the wall or to leap or to create some type of flying machines, and all the different ways, being inside cars or under cars and taken to freedom. Many died, some made it. It's a great tribute to people's yearnings for freedom and their desires to overcome the barriers put before them by repressive regimes.

So I wanted to speak today because that was a momentous occasion in my life to see the Berlin Wall, to go into East Berlin and see the difference between our type of government and the Soviet repression, and then to go back later and see the joy that is now in East Berlin and the freedom that has been allowed to flourish.

So I thank the gentleman for bringing the resolution, I thank the lady for bringing the resolution, and I encourage everybody to go to the Newseum and to cherish their freedom.

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