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- “Nobody has the intention of building a wall.” – GDR head of state Walter Ulbricht, East Berlin, June 15th 1961. Walter Ulb richt at the press conference where he uttered the fatal words.
- “Above all, don't shoot at your fellow countrymen!” – West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt, West Berlin, August 16th 1961. Mayor Willy Brandt in front to the Brandenburg Gate on the day the building of the wall began.
- “I take pride in the words Ich bin ein Berliner.” – US President John F. Kennedy, June 26th 1963, West Berlin. President John F. Kennedy put his hand over his heart during his speech in Berlin.
- “Mister Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” – US President Ronald Reagan, West Berlin, June 12th 1987. Ronald Reagan delivering his powerful speech. Photo: DPA.
Quotations: Germany, Berlin and the Berlin Wall. This page contains a collection of Cold War quotations, made by political leaders, notable figures and historians, pertaining to the two Germanys, the divided Berlin and the Berlin Wall. These quotations have been researched and compiled by Alpha History authors.
Explore 46 Berlin Wall Quotes by authors including Noam Chomsky, Lech Walesa, and Fareed Zakaria at BrainyQuote.
- The Berlin Wall: The Partitioning of Berlin
- The Berlin Wall: Blockade and Crisis
- The Berlin Wall: Building The Wall
- The Berlin Wall: 1961-1989
- The Berlin Wall: The Fall of The Wall
As World War II came to an end in 1945, a pair of Allied peace conferences at Yalta and Potsdam determined the fate of Germany’s territories. They split the defeated nation into four “allied occupation zones”: The eastern part of the country went to the Soviet Union, while the western part went to the United States, Great Britain and (eventually) F...
The existence of West Berlin, a conspicuously capitalist city deep within communist East Germany, “stuck like a bone in the Soviet throat,” as Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev put it. The Russians began maneuvering to drive the United States, Britain and France out of the city for good. In 1948, a Soviet blockade of West Berlin aimed to starve the w...
That night, Premier Khrushchev gave the East German government permission to stop the flow of emigrants by closing its border for good. In just two weeks, the East German army, police force and volunteer construction workers had completed a makeshift barbed wire and concrete block wall–the Berlin Wall–that divided one side of the city from the othe...
The construction of the Berlin Wall did stop the flood of refugees from East to West, and it did defuse the crisis over Berlin. (Though he was not happy about it, President John F. Kennedy conceded that “a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war.”) Almost two years after the Berlin Wall was erected, John F. Kennedy delivered one of the most famou...
On November 9, 1989, as the Cold Warbegan to thaw across Eastern Europe, an East German Communist Party spokesman announced a series of new policies regarding border crossings. When pressed on when the changes would take place, he said “As far as I know... effective immediately, without delay.” East Berliners flocked to border checkpoints, some cha...
May 1, 2018 · Wally McNamee/Corbis/Getty Images. On June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan stood just 100 yards away from the concrete barrier dividing East and West Berlin and uttered some of the most...
- Sarah Pruitt
Mar 12, 2024 · Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall. ~ Ronald Reagan. The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989.
