Tear Down This Wall! - Wikipedia

1987 Ronald Reagan speech in West Berlin "Tear down this wall"

Complete speech. The passage "tear down this wall" begins at 11:55 into this video.
Date	June 12, 1987 (1987-06-12)
Venue	Near the Brandenburg Gate at the presently named Platz des 18. März
Location	West Berlin
Participants	Ronald Reagan
The full text of the speech at Wikisource

On June 12, 1987, at the Brandenburg Gate, then-United States president Ronald Reagan delivered a speech commonly known by a key line from the middle part: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Reagan called for Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to open the Berlin Wall, which had encircled West Berlin since 1961.[1][2][3]

The following day, The New York Times carried Reagan’s picture on the front page, below the title "Reagan Calls on Gorbachev to Tear Down the Berlin Wall".[3] In the post-Cold War era, it was often seen as one of the most memorable performances of an American president in Berlin after John F. Kennedy's 1963 speech "Ich bin ein Berliner".[4] Reagan's speech was written by Peter Robinson.

Background

[edit]

The "tear down this wall" speech was not the first time Reagan had addressed the issue of the Berlin Wall. In a visit to West Berlin in June 1982, he stated, "I'd like to ask the Soviet leaders one question [...] Why is the wall there?".[5] In 1986, 25 years after the construction of the wall, in response to West German newspaper Bild-Zeitung asking when he thought the wall could be removed, Reagan said, "I call upon those responsible to dismantle it [today]".[6]

On the day before Reagan's 1987 visit, 50,000 people had demonstrated against the presence of the American president in West Berlin. The city saw the largest police deployment in its history after World War II.[7] During the visit itself, wide swaths of Berlin were closed off to prevent further anti-Reagan protests. The district of Kreuzberg, in particular, was targeted in this respect, with movement throughout this portion of the city in effect restrained completely (for instance the U1 U-Bahn line was shut down).[8] About those demonstrators, Reagan said at the end of his speech: "I wonder if they ever asked themselves that if they should have the kind of government they apparently seek, no one would ever be able to do what they are doing again".

The speech drew controversy within the Reagan administration, with several senior staffers and aides advising against the phrase, saying anything that might cause further East-West tensions or potential embarrassment to Gorbachev, with whom Reagan had built a good relationship, should be omitted. American officials in West Germany and presidential speechwriters, including Peter Robinson, thought otherwise. According to an account by Robinson, he traveled to West Germany to inspect potential speech venues, and gained an overall sense that the majority of West Berliners opposed the wall. Despite getting little support for suggesting Reagan demand the wall's removal, Robinson kept the phrase in the speech text. On Monday, May 18, 1987, Reagan met with his speechwriters and responded to the speech by saying, "I thought it was a good, solid draft." White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker objected, saying it sounded "extreme" and "unpresidential", and Deputy U.S. National Security Advisor Colin Powell agreed. Nevertheless, Reagan liked the passage, saying, "I think we'll leave it in."[9]

Chief speechwriter Anthony Dolan gives another account of the line's origins, however, attributing it directly to Reagan. In an article published in The Wall Street Journal in November 2009, Dolan gives a detailed account of how in an Oval Office meeting that was prior to Robinson's draft Reagan came up with the line on his own. He records impressions of his own reaction and Robinson's at the time.[10] This led to a friendly exchange of letters between Robinson and Dolan over their differing accounts, which The Wall Street Journal published.[11][12]

Speech

[edit]

Arriving in Berlin on Friday, June 12, 1987, Reagan and his wife were taken to the Reichstag where they viewed the wall from a balcony.[13] Reagan then gave his speech at the Brandenburg Gate at 2:00 p.m., in front of two panes of bulletproof glass shielding him from East Berlin.[14] Among the spectators were West German president Richard von Weizsäcker, chancellor Helmut Kohl, and West Berlin mayor Eberhard Diepgen.[13] In the speech, he said:

We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall![15]

Response and legacy

[edit]

The speech received "relatively little coverage from the media", Time magazine wrote 20 years later.[16] John Kornblum, senior US diplomat in Berlin at the time of Reagan's speech, and US Ambassador to Germany from 1997 to 2001, said "[The speech] wasn't really elevated to its current status until 1989, after the wall came down."[13] East Germany's communist rulers were not impressed, dismissing the speech as "an absurd demonstration by a cold warrior", as later recalled by Politburo member Günter Schabowski.[17] The Soviet press agency TASS accused Reagan of giving an "openly provocative, war-mongering speech."[14]

Former West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said he would never forget standing near Reagan when he challenged Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. "He was a stroke of luck for the world, especially for Europe."[18]

In an interview, Reagan said that the East German police did not allow people to come close to the wall, which prevented the citizens from experiencing the speech at all.[16]

Peter Robinson, the White House speech writer who drafted the address, said that the phrase "tear down this wall" was inspired by a conversation with Ingeborg Elz of West Berlin; in a conversation with Robinson, Elz remarked, "If this man Gorbachev is serious with his talk of Glasnost and perestroika he can prove it by getting rid of this wall."[19]

In a September 2012 article in The Atlantic, Liam Hoare pointed to the many reasons for the tendency for American media to focus on the significance of this particular speech, without weighing the complexity of the events as they unfolded in both East and West Germany and the Soviet Union.[20]

Author James Mann disagreed with both critics like Hoare, who saw Reagan's speech as having no real effect, and those who praised the speech as key to shaking Soviet confidence. In a 2007 opinion article in The New York Times, he put the speech in the context of previous Reagan overtures to the Soviet Union, such as the Reykjavik summit of the previous year, which had very nearly resulted in an agreement to eliminate American and Soviet nuclear weapons entirely. He characterized the speech as a way for Reagan to assuage his right-wing critics that he was still tough on communism, while also extending a renewed invitation to Gorbachev to work together to create "the vastly more relaxed climate in which the Soviets sat on their hands when the wall came down." Mann claimed that Reagan "wasn't trying to land a knockout blow on the Soviet regime, nor was he engaging in mere political theater. He was instead doing something else on that damp day in Berlin 20 years [before Mann's article] – he was helping to set the terms for the end of the cold war."[21]

In November 2019, a bronze statue of Reagan was unveiled at the US embassy, near the site of the speech, after the Berlin authorities had refused one to be placed in the city.[22]

See also

[edit]

• Evil Empire speech
• Ich bin ein Berliner
• Speeches and debates of Ronald Reagan

References

[edit]

1. ^ "Ronald Reagan speech, Tear Down This Wall". USAF Air University. Archived from the original on July 17, 2019. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
2. ^ "Reagan challenges Gorbachev to 'tear down' Berlin Wall, June 12, 1987". Politico. June 11, 2017.
3. ^ a b Osborn, John (June 13, 1987). "Reagan Calls on Gorbachev to Tear Down the Berlin Wall". New York Times. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
4. ^ Daum, Andreas (2008). Kennedy in Berlin. New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 8, 200, 209‒11.
5. ^ Ronald, Reagan (1982). Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Ronald Reagan, 1982. Remarks on Arrival in Berlin. Best Books on. ISBN 978-1-62376-934-5.
6. ^ Ronald, Reagan (1988). Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Ronald Reagan, 1986. Written Responses to Questions Submitted by Bild-Zeitung of the Federal Republic of Germany. Best Books on. ISBN 978-1-62376-949-9.
7. ^ Daum. Kennedy in Berlin. pp. 209‒10.
8. ^ van Bebber, Werner (June 10, 2007). "Cowboy und Indianer". der Tagesspiegel. Retrieved January 23, 2015. (in German)
9. ^ Walsh, Kenneth (June 2007). "Seizing the Moment". U.S. News & World Report. pp. 39–41. Archived from the original on June 14, 2007. Retrieved June 27, 2007.
10. ^ Dolan, Anthony (November 2009). "Four Little Words". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
11. ^ Robinson, Peter (November 2009). "Looking Again at Reagan and 'Tear Down This Wall'". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
12. ^ Dolan, Anthony (November 2009). "Speechwriters' Shouts of Joy in Reagan's Oval Office". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
13. ^ a b c "Ronald Reagan's Famous "Tear Down This Wall" Speech Turns 20". Deutsche Welle. June 12, 2007. Retrieved November 8, 2014.
14. ^ a b Boyd, Gerald M. (June 13, 1987). "Raze Berlin Wall, Reagan Urges Soviet". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 11, 2009. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
15. ^ "Remarks on East-West Relations at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin". Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Archived from the original on April 28, 2016. Retrieved May 29, 2011.
16. ^ a b Ratnesar, Romesh (June 11, 2007). "20 Years After 'Tear Down This Wall'". Time. Archived from the original on December 27, 2013. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
17. ^ "Reagan's 'tear down this wall' speech turns 20". USA Today. June 12, 2007. Retrieved February 19, 2008.
18. ^ Keyser, Jason (June 7, 2004). "Reagan remembered worldwide for his role in ending Cold War division". USA Today.
19. ^ Robinson, Peter (Summer 2007). "'Tear Down This Wall': How Top Advisers Opposed Reagan's Challenge to Gorbachev – But Lost". National Archives.
20. ^ Hoare, Liam (September 20, 2012). "Let's Please Stop Crediting Ronald Reagan for the Fall of the Berlin Wall". The Atlantic.
21. ^ Mann, James (June 10, 2007). "Tear Down That Myth". The New York Times. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
22. ^ Eddy, Melissa (November 8, 2019). "President Reagan Returns to Berlin, this time in Bronze". New York Times. Retrieved November 10, 2019.

Further reading

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• Robinson, Peter (2000). It's My Party: A Republican's Messy Love Affair with the GOP. Warner Books. ISBN 978-0-446-52665-4.
• C. Kornblum, John (May 2007). "Reagan's Brandenburg Concerto". The American Interest. Vol. 2, no. 5. ISSN 1556-5777. OCLC 180161622.
• Ratnesar, Romesh (2009). Tear down this wall: a city, a president, and the speech that ended the Cold War. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-5690-9.
• W. Daum, Andreas (2000). "America's Berlin, 1945‒2000: Between Myths and Visions". Berlin--the new capital in the east : a transatlantic appraisal (PDF). Washington, DC: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 49–73. ISBN 978-0-941-44150-6. OCLC 45217335.
• Daum, Andreas W. (2008). Kennedy in Berlin. Publications of the German Historical Institute. Washington, D.C. : Cambridge; New York: German Historical Institute; Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-85824-3. OCLC 76901946.

External links

[edit] Tear down this wall! at Wikipedia's sister projects

• Media from Commons
• Texts from Wikisource
• Data from Wikidata

• Full text and audio MP3 of the speech at AmericanRhetoric.com
• Full video of President Reagan delivering the speech at the Brandenburg Gate, courtesy of the Reagan Foundation.
• Ronald Reagan Signed and Inscribed Photograph at the Berlin Wall Archived January 14, 2015, at the Wayback Machine Shapell Manuscript Foundation
• Reagan speechwriter Peter Robinson reflecting on the speech before the Commonwealth Club of California in 2004.
• Image of text at National Archives site
• "Tear Down This Wall" How Top Advisers Opposed Reagan's Challenge to Gorbachev—But Lost by Peter Robinson
• A film clip of president Ronald Reagan's speech at the Berlin wall (June 12, 1987) is available for viewing at the Internet Archive
• Discussion of "Tear Down This Wall" speech featuring Peter Robinson, June 11, 2021, C-SPAN

v t e Berlin Wall
Main articles	Inner German border Iron Curtain Wall of Shame East Berlin West Berlin German reunification Eastern Bloc emigration and defection Republikflucht Berlin Crisis of 1961 Fall of the Berlin Wall Schießbefehl
Memorials, museumsand galleries	Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer White Crosses East Side Gallery Checkpoint Charlie Museum Topography of Terror Mauerpark Chapel of Reconciliation
Border crossings	Bornholmer Straße Checkpoint Charlie Checkpoint Bravo Berlin Friedrichstraße station Glienicke Bridge Invalidenstraße Oberbaum Bridge Sonnenallee Tränenpalast, Friedrichstraße station
People who diedbreaching the Wall	Klaus Brueske Peter Fechter Winfried Freudenberg Christian-Peter Friese Chris Gueffroy Marienetta Jirkowsky Cengaver Katrancı Erna Kelm Czesław Kukuczka Horst Kutscher Günter Litfin Dorit Schmiel Egon Schultz Olga Segler Ida Siekmann Heinz Sokolowski Hildegard Trabant Rudolf Urban Christel and Eckhard Wehage
Others associatedwith the Wall	Günter Schabowski Riccardo Ehrman Erich Honecker Konrad Schumann Walter Ulbricht David Hasselhoff Jutta Fleck
The Wall in speeches	"Ich bin ein Berliner" "Tear down this wall!"
In popular culture	Films andTV series Escape from East Berlin (1962) The Wall (1962) Stop Train 349 (1963) The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965) Freiheit (1966) Funeral in Berlin (1966) The Soldier (1982) Octopussy (1983) Gotcha! (1985) Wings of Desire (1987) Judgment in Berlin (1988) Das Versprechen (1995) Sonnenallee (1999) The Tunnel (2001) Buffalo Soldiers (2001) Good Bye, Lenin! (2003) Beloved Berlin Wall (2009) Bornholmer Straße (2014) Bridge of Spies (2015) Atomic Blonde (2017) Deutschland 89 (2020) Documentaries The Road to the Wall (1962) The Tunnel (1962) Rabbit à la Berlin (2009) Novels The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963) Funeral in Berlin (1964) Judgment in Berlin (1984) Am kürzeren Ende der Sonnenallee (1999) Edge of Eternity (2014) Songs "West of the Wall" (1962) "Holidays in the Sun" (1977) "Nikita" (1985) Other media The Berlin Wall (1991 video game) The Day the Wall Came Down (1997 sculpture)
Other	List of Berlin Wall segments Ghost station Steinstücken Grenzgänger (Cross-border commuters) The Shame

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1950s	Bamboo curtain McCarthyism First Indochina War Korean War 1952 Cuban Coup d'état Arab Cold War (1952–1979) Egyptian revolution of 1952 Iraqi Intifada Mau Mau rebellion Batepá massacre East German uprising of 1953 1953 Plzeň Uprising 1953 Iranian coup d'état Massacre of 14 July 1953 in Paris 1953 Colombian coup d'état Pact of Madrid Bricker Amendment 1954 Syrian coup d'état Petrov Affair Domino theory 1954 Geneva Conference 1954 Paraguayan coup d'état 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état Capture of the Tuapse First Taiwan Strait Crisis Jebel Akhdar War Algerian War Kashmir Princess Bandung Conference Geneva Summit (1955) Cyprus Emergency Vietnam War "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" 1956 Poznań protests Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Polish October Suez Crisis "We will bury you" Operation Gladio Syrian Crisis of 1957 Sputnik crisis Ifni War Iraqi 14 July Revolution 1958 Lebanon crisis Second Taiwan Strait Crisis 1959 Mosul uprising 1959 Tibetan uprising Kitchen Debate Cuban Revolution Consolidation of the Cuban Revolution Sino-Soviet split Night Frost Crisis
1960s	Congo Crisis Laotian Civil War Vietnam War Simba rebellion 1960 U-2 incident Bay of Pigs Invasion 1960 Turkish coup d'état Albanian–Soviet split Iraqi–Kurdish conflict First Iraqi–Kurdish War Berlin Crisis of 1961 Berlin Wall Annexation of Goa Papua conflict Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation Sand War Portuguese Colonial War Angolan War of Independence Guinea-Bissau War of Independence Mozambican War of Independence Cuban Missile Crisis El Porteñazo Sino-Indian War Communist insurgency in Sarawak Ramadan Revolution Eritrean War of Independence North Yemen civil war 1963 Syrian coup d'état Assassination of John F. Kennedy Aden Emergency Cyprus crisis of 1963–1964 Shifta War Mexican Dirty War Tlatelolco massacre Guatemalan Civil War Colombian conflict 1964 Brazilian coup d'état Dominican Civil War Rhodesian Bush War Indonesian mass killings of 1965–1966 Transition to the New Order (Indonesia) ASEAN Declaration 1966 Syrian coup d'état Cultural Revolution Cambodian Civil War Argentine Revolution South African Border War Korean DMZ Conflict 12-3 incident Greek junta 1967 Hong Kong riots Years of Lead (Italy) Six-Day War War of Attrition Dhofar rebellion Al-Wadiah War Nigerian Civil War Protests of 1968 May 68 Prague Spring USS Pueblo incident 1968 Polish political crisis Communist insurgency in Malaysia Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia 17 July Revolution 1968 Peruvian coup d'état Revolutionary Government 1969 Sudanese coup d'état 1969 Libyan revolution Goulash Communism Sino-Soviet border conflict New People's Army rebellion Note Crisis
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Technologicalcompetition	Arms race Nuclear arms race Space Race
Historians	Gar Alperovitz Thomas A. Bailey Michael Beschloss Manu Bhagavan Thomas Borstelmann Archie Brown Warren H. Carroll Chen Jian Adrian Cioroianu John Costello Michael Cox Nicholas J. Cull Nick Cullather Norman Davies Willem Drees Robert D. English Herbert Feis Robert Hugh Ferrell Sheila Fitzpatrick André Fontaine Anneli Ute Gabanyi John Lewis Gaddis Lloyd Gardner Timothy Garton Ash Gabriel Gorodetsky Greg Grandin Fred Halliday Jussi Hanhimäki Jamil Hasanli John Earl Haynes Patrick J. Hearden James Hershberg Tvrtko Jakovina Tony Judt Oleg Khlevniuk Harvey Klehr Gabriel Kolko Bruce R. Kuniholm Walter LaFeber Walter Laqueur Melvyn P. Leffler Fredrik Logevall Geir Lundestad Vojtech Mastny Jack F. Matlock Jr. Thomas J. McCormick Robert J. McMahon Timothy Naftali Marius Oprea David S. Painter William B. Pickett Ronald E. Powaski Stephen G. Rabe Yakov M. Rabkin Sergey Radchenko M. E. Sarotte Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Ellen Schrecker Giles Scott-Smith Shen Zhihua Timothy Snyder Frances S. Saunders Michael Szonyi Fyodor Tertitskiy Athan Theoharis Andrew Thorpe Vladimir Tismăneanu Patrick Vaughan Alex von Tunzelmann Odd Arne Westad William Appleman Williams Jonathan Reed Winkler Rudolph Winnacker Ken Young Vladislav M. Zubok
Espionage andintelligence	List of Eastern Bloc agents in the United States Soviet espionage in the United States Russian espionage in the United States American espionage in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation CIA and the Cultural Cold War CIA MI5 MI6 United States involvement in regime change Soviet involvement in regime change MVD KGB Stasi
See also	Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War Soviet Union–United States relations Soviet Union–United States summits Russia–NATO relations War on terror Brinkmanship Pax Atomica Second Cold War Russian Revolution
Category List of conflicts Timeline

v t e Ronald Reagan
40th President of the United States (1981–1989) 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975)
Life andpolitics	Birthplace Pitney Store Boyhood home General Electric Showcase House Rancho del Cielo 668 St. Cloud Road Filmography Political positions Governorship of California Presidential Library and Museum Reagan era Official White House portraits 1989 trip to Japan Death and state funeral Riderless horse
Presidency	Transition First inauguration Second inauguration Domestic policy Economic policy Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 Government cheese Tax Reform Act of 1986 Assassination attempt Strategic Defense Initiative Foreign policy Reagan Doctrine Cold War 1st term 2nd term Soviet Union summits Geneva Reykjavík Washington INF Treaty Moscow Governors Island Constructive engagement Invasion of Grenada Iran–Contra affair Libya bombing Cannabis policy International trips Opinion polling Grace Commission Cabinet Judicial appointments Supreme Court controversies Administration scandals "We begin bombing in five minutes" Impeachment efforts Executive orders Presidential proclamations Bush transition
Speeches	Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine (1961) "A Time for Choosing" (1964) States' rights speech (1980) First inaugural address (1981) Joint session of Congress (1981) "Ash heap of history" (1982) "Evil empire" (1983) Second inaugural address (1985) "Tear down this wall!" (1987) State of the Union 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988
Books	An American Life The Reagan Diaries
Elections	1966 California gubernatorial election 11th commandment 1970 California gubernatorial election Republican presidential primaries (1968 1976 1980 1984) Republican National Convention (1968 1976 1980 1984) 1976 presidential campaign 1980 presidential campaign "There you go again" "Let's make America great again" 1984 presidential campaign "Morning in America" "Bear in the woods" United States presidential election (1976 1980 1984)
Cultural depictions	Bibliography In music Let Them Eat Jellybeans! (1981) SNL parodies U.S. Postage stamps Rap Master Ronnie Ed the Happy Clown (1983 comic series) Spitting Image (TV series) (1984) A Mind Forever Voyaging (1985 game) The Dark Knight Returns (1986) film adaptation Pizza Man (1991 film) The Day Reagan Was Shot (2001 film) Reagan's War (2002 book) The Reagans (2003 film) Reagan (2011 documentary) The Butler (2013 film) Killing Reagan (2015 book) Killing Reagan (2016 film) Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020 game) The Reagans (2020 miniseries) Reagan (2024 film) Reykjavik (TBA)
Memorials	U.S. Capitol statue Namesakes and memorials Ronald Reagan Day Reagan Day Dinner USS Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Virginia statue Budapest statue Ronald Reagan Monument, Warshaw
Family	Jane Wyman (first wife) Nancy Reagan (second wife) Maureen Reagan (daughter) Michael Reagan (adopted son) Patti Davis (daughter) Ron Reagan (son) Jack Reagan (father) Nelle Wilson Reagan (mother) Neil Reagan (brother) Rex (dog)
Related	"What would Reagan do?"
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Authority control databases	NARA