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Agence France-Presse

Germany marks three decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall this week, but a hint of a return of the cold war and the rise of nationalism is dampening the mood.
Leaders of former cold war powers will be absent from anniversary festivities, as Donald Trump’s America First, Britain’s Brexit and Russia’s resurgence put a strain on ties.
Gone, too, is the euphoric optimism for liberal democracy and freedom that characterised the momentous event on November 9, 1989, as Germany grapples with a surge in far-right support in its former communist states.
“The spirit of optimism” that we saw 30 years ago, or even five or 10 years ago, “is not perceivable” today, said Berlin’s culture senator Klaus Lederer, whose office took the lead in putting together the capital’s festivities for the week.

The mood is therefore “reflective, but we are celebrating”, he said.
“We are looking back at history together, and we are also talking about the future.”
As a sign of the tense times, Germany will put on a sober political programme to mark the epochal event that led to reunification and brought down the Iron Curtain dividing a communist East from a capitalist West.
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the anniversary was a chance to remind Europe why it needs to stay united in the face of rising geopolitical tensions around the world.
How a picnic in Europe brought down Iron Curtain 30 years ago
“Exhortations from individual European capitals fall on deaf ears in Moscow, Beijing and, unfortunately, to an increasing extent also in Washington, DC,” he wrote in an op-ed carried in newspapers across the EU on Saturday.
“It is only Europe’s voice that carries decisive weight. This is why unilateral action at the national level must finally be taboo in Europe.”
While the spotlight five years ago was on world leaders from Barack Obama to Mikhail Gorbachev, this time round, the central focus is on Europe itself.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen will set the tone with a speech on the eve of the anniversary at an event attended also by Chancellor Angela Merkel.

On November 9 itself, only central European presidents will headline the official ceremonies.
Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will be joined by his Polish, Czech, Slovak and Hungarian counterparts, in town to mark “the contribution of the central European countries to the peaceful revolution” that led to the collapse of the communist regime.
That time Putin terrified Merkel with his dog
Merkel will speak at the Chapel of Reconciliation, which stands on the former Berlin Wall border strip.
Steinmeier, the moral arbiter of the country, will also make a speech at the Brandenburg Gate on the anniversary evening, before a series of concerts including by the prestigious Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
And US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was stationed in Germany as a young soldier in 1989, will be in visiting from Wednesday but leave on the eve of the anniversary.
He meets Merkel and members of her cabinet on Friday, in meetings set to underline the growing divisions across the globe.

In a statement announcing his visit, Pompeo’s office said talks with his counterpart Maas will “discuss the importance of our Transatlantic partnership and the need for strengthened engagement in the face of growing threats from Russia, China, and Iran”.
While the fall of the Iron Curtain that divided post-war Europe had led to hopes of a liberal democratic era and arms dismantlement three decades ago, the mood has soured today.
Within the EU, cracks have appeared as former eastern bloc countries like Hungary or Poland are accused by Brussels of challenging the rule of law.
Joshua Wong says Hong Kong is like Berlin in ‘new cold war’ as he arrives in Germany
On a broader arena, Trump’s go-it-alone stance on rejecting world treaties including on climate change and a nuclear disarmament deal with Iran has deeply shaken long-time allies in Europe.
Russia, meanwhile, is consolidating its foothold in the Middle East, while the US is also increasingly at odds with China.
For UN chief Antonio Guterres, “the cold war is back – with a vengeance, but with a difference. The mechanisms and the safeguards to manage the risks of escalation that existed in the past no longer seem to be present.”
Gorbachev, who chose to stand aside instead of stopping the Wall from falling 30 years back, was also more pessimistic today.
Writing in his latest book, Gorbachev warned: “International politics is on an extremely dangerous trajectory … military operations currently have the characteristics of a real war.”


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Germany

Brexit, Trump, Russia: why the mood in Germany is sombre 30 years after Berlin Wall fell

On November 11, 1989 West Berliners crowd in front of the Berlin Wall as they watch East German border guards demolish a section of the wall in order to open a new crossing point between East and West Berlin, near the Potsdamer Square. File photo: AFP

A cyclist drives past remains of the Berlin Wall at the "Topography of Terror" memorial site on November 1, 2019 in Berlin. - Germany and it's capital Berlin will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Fall of the Wall on November 9, 2019. (Photo by Kay Nietfeld / dpa / AFP) / Germany OUT

epa07969362 The mural 'Vaterland' (fatherland) by artist Guenther Schaefer is vandalized with grafitti reading 'Free Plaestine' and a covered Star of David at the East Side Gallery in Berlin, Germany, 03 November 2019. The painting depicting elements of the Israeli flag onto the German flag, has been a target of vandalism since it was painted in 1990, in remmembrence of the 50th anniversary of the Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht). EPA-EFE/OMER MESSINGER

(FILES) In this file photo taken on November 12, 1989 East and West German Police contain the crowd of East Berliners flowing through the recent opening made in the Berlin wall at Potsdamer Square. - Guenter Schabowski scratches his head, puts on his glasses, hesitates, then fumbles with his handwritten notes. He seems to be trying to understand what he is reading and haltingly responds to a question about when a measure giving East Germans more freedom to travel would take effect: "As far as I know... as of now." History's train has left the station. It is around 7 pm on November 9, 1989. (Photo by Patrick HERTZOG / AFP)

How a picnic in Europe brought down Iron Curtain 30 years ago

East Germans surprise Hungarian border guards and rush through a gate into Moerbisch, Austria in 1989. File photo: AP

(FILES) This file photo taken on November 11, 1989 shows West Berliners who are crowded in front of the Berlin Wall early 11 November 1989 as they watch East German border guards demolishing a section of the wall in order to open a new crossing point between East and West Berlin, near the Potsdamer Square. - The Iron Curtain was at first an ideological and then a physical separation of communist Eastern Europe from the West from the 1940s after World War II. (Photo by GERARD MALIE / AFP)

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY ESZTER BALAZS 'EEUROPE-HUNGARY-20YEARS-HISTORY' --- A print showing photos from the Pan-European Picnic in 1989 is pictured as part of a permanent open-air exhibition at the Austrian-Hungarian border near Fertorakos, some 220kms west of Budapest on April 29, 2009 where Eastern Germans broke across the border from the Hungarian side on August 19, 1989. Virtually on the border with Austria, the village of Fertorakos used to be one of the most guarded settlements in Hungary, keeping the citizens of the communist block behind the Iron Curtain -- the almost impenetrable border between the Eastern communist regimes and the Western European countries. AFP PHOTO / ATTILA KISBENEDEK (Photo by ATTILA KISBENEDEK / AFP)

A refugee from East Germany driving across the border at Sopron, Hungary, in September 1989, displays pieces of the "Iron Curtain" from the dismantled barbed wire between Hungary and Austria on his Trabant car. Following several weeks of unsucessful talks with the authorities of the GDR and the FRG as well as between the two German States the Hungarian Government decided to let citizens of the GDR unwilling to return to their country and staying in Hungary to leave for any destination they wished to move. From midnight of September 10th thousands of GDR-citizens crossed the border station of Hegyeshalom and Sopron, heading for the FRG through Austria. AFP PHOTO (Photo by P.E VARKONY / INTERFOTO MTI / AFP)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban pose after their news conference as they visit the Hungarian border town of Sopron, to mark the beginning of the fall of the Iron Curtain thirty years ago, in Hungary, August 19, 2019. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo

An installation is seen at the Pan-European Picnic Memorial Park in Sopronkohida, Hungary, August 16, 2019. Picture taken August 16, 2019. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo

FILE- This Oct. 16, 1961 file photo shows a refugee from the German Democratic Republic (DDR) during his attempt to escape from the East German part of Berlin to West Berlin by climbing over the Berlin Wall. (AP Photo/File)

That time Putin terrified Merkel with his dog, and other reasons they won’t get along at G20 summit

Vladimir Putin's dog Konnie enters a meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Russian President at his Sochi residence in 2007. Merkel has a famous and deathly fear of dogs; Putin later said he was unaware of this at the time. Photo: AFP

Vladimir Putin's dog Konnie sniffs German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a meeting with the Russian president at his Sochi residence in 2007. Merkel has a famous and deathly fear of dogs; Putin later said he was unaware of this at the time. Photo: AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a meeting at the Bocharov Ruchei state residence in Sochi on May 2, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / POOL / Alexander Zemlianichenko

Joshua Wong says Hong Kong is like Berlin in ‘new cold war’ as he arrives in Germany

Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong (centre) arrives at Tegel Airport in Berlin on Monday. Photo: EPA-EFE

epa07831251 Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong (L) shakes hands with German Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, in the 'BILD100 summer party' event in Berlin, Germany, 09 September 2019. 100 of the most important decision-makers from politics and business as well as well-known personalities from sports, art and culture are expected at the event held by Germany's highest-circulation newspaper BILD. EPA-EFE/FELIPE TRUEBA

Joshua Wong Chi-fung, co-founder of the group Scholarism joins the protest in Causeway Bay demanding the government to let the public to nominate chief executive candidates.01JAN14

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Barriers and divisions are back, 30 years after the Berlin Wall came tumbling down



When the Berlin Wall came tumbling down 30 years ago, many in Germany hoped its demise portended an end to divisions.


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Brexit, Trump, Russia: why the mood in Germany is sombre 30 years after Berlin Wall fell

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Barriers and divisions are back, 30 years after the Berlin Wall came tumbling down

Barriers and divisions are back, 30 years after the Berlin Wall came tumbling down