Rathaus Schöneberg

During the fall of the Wall, Chancellor Helmut Kohl was in Poland for a state visit. When he learned of the events there, he immediately rushed to Berlin. On November 10, 1989, he spoke in front of the Rathaus Schöneberg at a rally of the Abgeordnetenhaus of West Berlin, in English Berlin House of Representatives. He stood on the podium together with governing Mayor Walter Momper and former Chancellor Willy Brandt.

Christian Democratic Chancellor Kohl had a hard time in West Berlin, which was governed by a red-green coalition. When he spoke in front of the Rathaus Schöneberg, the audience booed him and whistled. In his speech, he talked about the hope for new freedoms for the people in the GDR.

"Because it is about our common future. It is about freedom for us all and especially for our fellow citizens over in the GDR in all areas of their lives. And the people of the GDR have a right to freedom of expression, to a truly free press, to free formation of trade unions, to free formation of political parties, and quite naturally, in accordance with the United Nations Charter and human rights, to free, equal and secret elections. Our fellow citizens are in the process of fighting for these freedoms themselves. And they have our full support in this. And I appeal from this place, as I did on Thursday in the German Bundestag, to the authorities in the GDR: Renounce your monopoly on power now!"

At another rally, which the CDU organised on the same day at the Gedächtniskirche, the mood was completely different. Helmut Kohl recalls how he experienced the day after the fall of the Wall in West Berlin.

"I came to Berlin, in a situation that was totally absurd, because the dispute between my political friends and the Senate had led to the fact that the Senate had organised a rally at the Rathaus Schöneberg, and the CDU had organised a much larger rally, as it later turned out, near the Gedächtniskirche. And when we stood on the balcony of the Rathaus Schöneberg, Mayor Momper, Willy Brandt, Hans-Dietrich Genscher and I, I was the focus of the most violent, aggressive reactions in the square. There were about 30,000 people. But that was the whole left-wing Schickeria, and in the worst way that Berlin had to offer. My mere appearance was enough to lead to wild protests. In the matter itself, of course, there was almost an explosion of protest when I spoke of German Unity, which we had come close to, when Mr. Momper uttered an unforgettable word, a bad word: “It’s not about reunification, it’s about reunion."

The SPD politician Willy Brandt was the governing mayor of West Berlin when the Wall was built. As chancellor, he later was engaged in improving relations between East and West. Brandt also spoke in front of the Rathaus Schöneberg, where he was greeted with cheers by Berliners.

"The German misery started with the terrorist Nazi regime and the horrible war it unleashed. The horrible war that turned Berlin, like so many other German and non-German cities, into piles of rubble. The division of Europe, and of Germany, resulted from the war and from the disagreements of the victorious powers. In Berlin it is reproduced in many ways. And now we are witnessing, and this is something great – and I am grateful to God that I am able to witness this – we are witnessing that the parts of Europe are growing together again."