Dear Commons Community,

Tomorrow celebrates the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall that separated East Germany and West Germany.  It became the physical embodiment of the “Iron Curtain” which the Soviet Unionwas said to have created between East and West Europe.  In addition to news footage from November 9, 1989, the video above includes an interview with Jane Curry, a political science professor, at Santa Clara University.  She recalls well the original tensions between East and West and rightly credits Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet President, for his role in bringing down the Wall.  Gorbachev’s policies of perestroika and glasnost (“openness”)  were critical in moving East Germany to tear down the wall and open up their country to the rest of the world.

Tony

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