BERLIN — Germany marked the 47th anniversary on Wednesday of the Berlin Wall's construction, and the country's parliament speaker said the barrier's ultimate collapse proves that any regime's effort to isolate its citizens is doomed to failure.
Parliament President Norbert Lammert and Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit laid wreaths at a memorial at one of the few sections left standing of the barrier communist East Germany started building Aug. 13, 1961.
Lammert declared that German history and the Berlin Wall are evidence "that sealing off one's own population against unwanted information and undesired contacts ... is not just a political declaration of bankruptcy but also cannot, in the long term, withstand people's need for freedom."
East German leaders sealed off their border with the capitalist enclave of West Berlin in an attempt to stop the flow of their citizens fleeing to the West.
People are also reading…
The so-called "anti-fascist protection rampart" stood for 28 years. When it first was breached on Nov. 9, 1989, there were scenes of jubilation. That was followed less than a year later by the demise of East Germany.
Much of the concrete wall — which snaked around West Berlin for 96 miles — also was swiftly demolished.
Lammert, speaking at a chapel built in what was once the fortified border strip, said Germans' haste to eliminate nearly all traces of the "monstrous mistake" was understandable, but he expressed regret that "in the heart of the city, authentic evidence of the wall and what it means is missing."
Estimates of how many people died at the Berlin Wall vary. Researchers for the Berlin Wall Memorial said last week that their latest estimate is 136.
An estimated 700 to 800 died along the entire length of the border between East and West Germany, they said.
U of A president declines to sign shared governance contract with faculty
