Republicans Convene in Berlin
>> Text of speech by Guenter Nooke MdB: Page 3

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At this demonstration, however, the issue was not primarily freedom of the press and assembly but, rather, power - although not many people said it out loud. On that day, the "party of the workers and peasants" and its representatives became a laughing stock. Some of you may recall the posters that were hung up, or will see them in the numerous documentaries of these events which the media are broadcasting. Ladies and Gentlemen, can you image anything worse happening to a dictatorship than to be laughed at by its own subjects? When, on that Saturday, I stood with moist eyes in the middle of the crowd on Berlin's Alexanderplatz and listened to the speakers, I knew that what was happening was irreversible. 

Five days later, on 9 November 1989, the Berlin Wall came down.

The crowds demonstrating on that Saturday were still well-behaved enough to remain on the prescribed route, turning off from Unter den Linden to the State Council building instead of marching straight on towards the Brandenburg Gate.

Those in power were incapable of announcing even their own laws and ordinances with a semblance of authority as the pace of events quickened. Starting immediately, everyone was allowed to leave East Germany for West Germany and West Berlin, Schabowski stated at that remarkable press conference on the evening of 9 November. First just a few, and later tens of thousands wanted to put it to the test that same evening, and began gathering along the border to West Berlin, that walled-in enclave of the free West in the heart of East Germany. It was a Stasi border officer who, after waiting in vain for instructions from his superiors, finally gave in to the crowd in the Bornholmer Strasse and said: "We're opening the flood gates now."

It was a revolution in which most people acted responsibly. And especially all those who returned home that night. Their children were sleeping there, and the next morning they went back to work. 

We can definitely learn a great deal from these historical events. But one thing is particularly important: it is always down to us. Each and every one of us is called upon to assume personal responsibility. It is not always possible to plan genuine, historic changes; sometimes the time is simply ripe for them. All we need to do is recognise what is happening, and then push in the right direction! 

Secondly, I would like to talk a little about German reunification. 

The fall of the Wall changed the situation in the GDR dramatically. Suddenly, the debate was no longer about how the GDR could be improved, but about German reunification. In the East, the sense of being part of Germany as a whole and feeling German had remained stronger that in the former Federal Republic. 

By the end of November 1989, Helmut Kohl, the "Chancellor of Unity" had presented a ten-point plan, thus assuming the role of spiritual leader in the reunification process for the people in both parts of Germany. The first, and last, free elections in the GDR resulted in a landslide victory for the CDU, which only narrowly failed to obtain an absolute majority. The message from the voters that they wanted to see the nation united rapidly was clear. On 1 July 1990, the currency union came into force, on 3 October we celebrate the Day of German Unity. 

The negotiations with the victorious powers in the Second World War were decisive in coming this far. Although these negotiations were known as the "Two plus Four" negotiations, in reality, they were more like "One plus Two" negotiations: between Helmut Kohl, George Bush Senior and Mikhail Gorbachev. I would like to express my particular thanks to you and your party for the role played by George Bush Senior during these pivotal moments. He had a great deal of trust in the Germans and did not doubt them, something which cannot be said of everybody in my own country. Some people, particularly intellectuals, feared the emergence of a new nationalism, but this did not happen. Even the celebrations when the German football team, led by Franz Beckenbauer, won the World Championships in Italy in the summer of 1990 were not particularly effusive. 

Reunification brought major changes for many people in the East. They often had to change jobs several times, many lost their jobs and have still been unable to find new jobs, particularly new jobs in line with their training. Nevertheless, social security provision, individual freedoms and a prosperity of which nobody would have dreamed during GDR times have now come to be taken for granted by all East Germans too. There are many success stories of German unity: modern factories, redeveloped towns and villages, salvaged cultural heritage, palaces and museums and an intact environment. The city of Dresden is the biggest producer of microchips in Europe. The medieval town of Quedlinburg, like the gardens of Wörlitz, the Wartburg Castle in Eisenach, the Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam and the Museum Island in Berlin are world cultural heritage sites. In 

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