Editor’s note: This story was originally published on June 12, 2024.
A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.
On June 12, 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, during a visit to the divided German city of Berlin, stood before the Brandenburg Gate and exhorted Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”
According to news reports then and now, the Berlin Wall had been erected in 1961 in response to the mass migration of East Germans to West Germany. Between the end of World War II in 1945 and the creation of the Berlin Wall in 1961, approximately 3.5 million East Germans escaped to the West. One of the easiest ways for East Germans to do this was simply to go to East Berlin, cross the street into West Berlin, then take a flight from Tempelhof airport to West Germany.
Most of the people who defected to the West were educated professionals, people who realized that they and their families could enjoy a much greater standard of living in the West, as well as the basic freedoms they had been denied. From the communist perspective, since these people had been educated at state expense, they were thieves who had stolen their education, and it was humiliating that its society’s most educated people rejected the communist system and fled West in droves.
Reagan was in Germany to help Berlin commemorate its 750th anniversary, but took the opportunity to prod Gorbachev into further action on his openness policies.
History will show that within two years, the wall had been symbolically torn down. But there is much more to that story, and certainly other factors within that proud country that played a more significant role than one speech by a foreign president.
In 2024, it’s hard to imagine anyone taking such a stand, or making such a bold statement, and surviving the X-verse or the weekend talk shows or the next election. But as a moment in time, the lessons to be learned from that moment are fascinating.
Here are some archived Deseret News stories from that period of time and in reflection.
“Reagan says wall is dramatic proof of a failed dream”
“Gorbachev hails Reagan as ‘great peacemaker’”
“Reagan and Gorbachev hail year of achievement”
“Gorbachev, Reagan nominated for Nobel”
“Reagan asked Gorbachev to autograph magazine cover”
And two years later:
“This week in history: The fall of the Berlin Wall”
“A look at the 1989 Associated Press report from when the Berlin Wall crumbled”
“In our opinion: The collapse of the Berlin Wall brings its own set of obligations for Americans”
