Finally, the cry of the demonstrators: ‘We are the people’ became ‘We are one people.’Īlthough throughout East Germany the pace of the revolution was breathtaking, life in the embassy kept pace with events, including this unusual dinner gathering of all the parties. After the Berlin Wall fell euphoria swept across Germany. Disintegration of East Germany was already in full swing. They were to be joined by East German officials and dissidents who had just breached the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, just three weeks earlier. Barkley, my boss, hosted a dinner in his Nordenstrasse Residence in East Berlin for Senators Claiborne Pell (of Rhode Island) and Richard Lugar (of Indiana). On Decemin East Berlin, the capital of the German Democratic Republic, U.S. Modrow had reluctantly agreed with de Maizière’s demand to cede SED power to the people. He agreed to join that government only if his conditions would be met, most important of which was the elimination of a constitutional provision guaranteeing a leading role for the Socialist Unity (communist) Party, the SED. Socialist Unity Party (SED) leader Hans Modrow, whose views on Glasnost and Perestroika supported Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, was elected Prime Minister and Christian Democratic Party (CDU) leader Lothar de Maizière became deputy prime minister. This is a story of ten days that sealed the partnership between Germans and Americans in the search for German unification.Īfter the fall of the Berlin Wall on Novemon November 13 the East German parliament (Volkskammer) had voted into office an interim government that would govern until free elections would be held in the spring. The United States stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Germans seeking freedom.
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