After The Wall

Americans and Germans alike remember well the day in 1963 when a visiting U.S. President, John Kennedy, gave voice to his feelings about the two-year- old Wall that ran like a jagged scar through Berlin: "Ich bin ein Berliner." His message was more than a metaphoric statement of solidarity with the people of that divided city. It was an appeal to the Wall's Communist architects to tear down the 26-mile-long concrete monstrosity. Today the Wall continues to pierce the hearts of Berliners every bit as effectively as its pipes, barbed wires and other sharp obstacles once sliced the bodies of desperate...

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