REMARKS BY SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON AND VIDEOTAPED REMARKS BY PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA COMMEMORATING THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL LOCATION: BERLIN, GERMANY DATE: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2009
SEC. CLINTON: Good evening, Berlin. (Cheers, applause.) It is indeed an honor and a great personal privilege to be here on behalf of President Obama and the United States of America -- (cheers, applause) -- to commemorate with you that night 20 years ago when history broke through concrete and barbed wire and signaled a new dawn, not just for the people of Berlin, not just for the people of Germany, but for the entire world. And that night, that night was built by the efforts, the prayers and the work of so many.
We remember the allies who conducted the largest humanitarian airlift in history, completing more than a quarter-million flights to sustain the people of West Berlin. (Applause.)
We remember the Poles, who waged a campaign for liberty that began with a strike in the shipyards of Gdansk and ended by shattering a system of tyranny. We remember a Polish pope who spoke out for the aspirations of people across Europe and the world. (Applause.)
We remember the people of the Baltics, who joined hands across their lands and helped to break the chains that held their nations captive. We remember the students of Prague, who propelled a dissident playwright from a jail cell to the presidency of a free republic.
And tonight we remember the Germans on both sides of the wall, but particularly the Germans in the East, who stood up and finally were able to say, "No more. Freedom is our birthright, and we will take it by our own hands." (Cheers, applause.)
We know that millions of hearts, of minds and hands were behind those who literally tore down the wall. But history did not end the night the wall came down. It began anew. We could not know what the people of Berlin or the people of Germany and Europe would do with this moment. But together we saw you transform the landscape of this continent and change the course of world events. So Berlin came to stand at the center of a free, peaceful, prosperous, reunified Germany in a free, peaceful, prosperous, unified Europe.
Two decades later, we remember. But it is also a call to action. There are still millions across our world who are separated, maybe not by walls, maybe not by barbed will, although that still exists, but who are separated from loved ones, who are kept down and behind, unable to fulfill their own destinies.
So as beneficiaries of this great bequest we inherited in 1989, those of us gathered here tonight, leaders and citizens alike, we must pledge ourselves to work together to advance freedom beyond its current frontiers, so that people everywhere are afforded the opportunities to pursue their dreams and live up to their God-given potential.
I am deeply honored to introduce now a message from someone who represents the fall of different kinds of walls -- walls of discrimination, of stereotype, of character, the walls that too often are inside minds and hearts. Let me introduce a message from President Barack Obama. (Cheers, applause.)
(Begin videotaped segment.)
PRESIDENT OBAMA: It's an honor to extend my congratulations to the people of Germany and the people of Europe on this 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. While I'm sorry I could not stand there today with so many friends, I'm pleased that Secretary Clinton is leading a delegation of Americans who represent our respect for this extraordinary event in history.
November 9th, 1989 will always be remembered and cherished in the United States. Like so many Americans, I'll never forget the images of people tearing down the wall. There could be no clearer rebuke of tyranny. There could be no stronger affirmation of freedom.
This anniversary is a reminder that human destiny will be what we make of it. For Germans, the wall was a painful barrier between family and friends. And for so many across Eastern Europe, it was one symbol of a system that denied the people the freedoms that should be the right of every human being. And yet, even in the face of tyranny, people insisted that the world could change. In those countries that got trapped on the other side of an Iron Curtain, they had the courage and resolve to hold fast to the belief in a better future.
In America, we stood for decades with our friends in Europe on both sides of the Iron Curtain, through the support to rebuild what had been destroyed by war, and our soldiers who kept watch to prevent another, through the enduring bonds forged across an ocean, and, above all, through a commitment to common values.
In our Declaration of Independence, it reads that all men are created equal and that they have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In Germany's constitution, it reads that human dignity shall be inviolable.
Even as we celebrate these values, even as we mark this day, we know the work of freedom is never finished. In a Berlin under siege, President Kennedy said, "Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free." Few would have foreseen on that day that a united Germany would be led by a woman from Brandenburg or that their American ally would be led by a man of African descent. But human destiny is what human beings make of it.
Today there are still those who live within walls of tyranny, human beings who are denied the very human rights that we celebrate today. And that is why this day is for them as much as it is for us. It is for those who believe, even in the face of cynicism and doubt and oppression, that walls can truly come down.
Let us never forget November 9th, 1989, nor the sacrifices that made it possible. Let us sustain the friendship across the Atlantic that must never be broken. And together, let us keep the light of freedom burning bright for all who live in the darkness of tyranny and believe in the hope of a brighter day.
Thank you. (Cheers, applause.)
