Editing Berlin Wall (section)

==Comments by politicians==
{{Main|Ich bin ein Berliner|Tear down this wall!}}
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|title= ''Ich bin ein Berliner'' (I am a Berliner) speech
| description = Speech from the [[Rathaus Schöneberg]] by [[John F. Kennedy]], 26 June 1963. Duration 9:01.
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| title2 = ''Ich bin ein Berliner'' ("I am a Berliner") speech (audio)
|description2=Audio-only version (Duration 9:22)
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[[File:President Ronald Reagan's Speech at the Berlin Wall, June 12, 1987.webm|thumb|upright=1.15|start=11:10|Complete speech by [[Ronald Reagan]] at the [[Brandenburg Gate]], 12 June 1987. "Tear down this wall" passage begins at 11:10 into this video.]]

On 26 June 1963, 22 months after the erection of the Berlin Wall, [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[John F. Kennedy]] visited West Berlin. Speaking from a platform erected on the steps of [[Rathaus Schöneberg]] for an audience of 450,000 and straying from the prepared script,<ref>{{Harvnb|Daum|2008|pp=140–144}}</ref> he declared in his ''[[Ich bin ein Berliner]]'' speech the support of the United States for West Germany and the people of West Berlin in particular:

{{blockquote|Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was ''[[civis Romanus sum]]'' ["I am a Roman citizen"]. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is ''"Ich bin ein Berliner!"''... All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!"}}

The message was aimed as much at the Soviets as it was at Berliners and was a clear statement of U.S. policy in the wake of the construction of the Berlin Wall. The speech is considered one of Kennedy's best, both a significant moment in the [[Cold War]] and a high point of the [[New Frontier]]. It was a great morale boost for West Berliners, who lived in an [[exclave]] deep inside East Germany and feared a possible East German occupation.<ref>{{Harvnb|Daum|2008|pp=136–156, 223–226}}</ref>

British prime minister [[Margaret Thatcher]] commented in 1982:

{{blockquote|Every stone bears witness to the moral bankruptcy of the society it encloses.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/30/world/mrs-thatcher-visits-the-berlin-wall.html Mrs. Thatcher Visits the Berlin Wall] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171113165654/http://www.nytimes.com/1982/10/30/world/mrs-thatcher-visits-the-berlin-wall.html |date=13 November 2017 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]'', 30 October 1982</ref>}}

In a speech at the [[Brandenburg Gate]] commemorating the 750th anniversary of Berlin<ref name="USATODAY">{{cite news |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-06-12-reagan-speech_N.htm |title=Reagan's 'tear down this wall' speech turns 20 |access-date=19 February 2008 |work=[[USA Today]] |date=12 June 2007 |archive-date=14 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314041230/http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-06-12-reagan-speech_N.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> on 12 June 1987, U.S. President [[Ronald Reagan]] challenged [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], then the [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]], to tear down the Wall as a symbol of increasing freedom in the [[Eastern Bloc]]:

{{blockquote|We welcome change and openness; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek [[liberalization]], come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall!<ref name="text">{{cite web |url=http://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan/speeches/wall.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080622043537/http://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan/speeches/wall.asp |archive-date=22 June 2008 |title=Remarks at the Brandenberg Gate |access-date=9 February 2008 |publisher=Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation |url-status=dead}}</ref>}}

In January 1989, GDR leader [[Erich Honecker]] predicted that the Wall would stand for 50 or 100 more years<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/6527092/Berlin-Wall-anniversary-key-dates-in-the-history-of-Germanys-Wall.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/6527092/Berlin-Wall-anniversary-key-dates-in-the-history-of-Germanys-Wall.html |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Berlin Wall anniversary: key dates in the history of Germany's Wall |date=9 November 2009 |work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]] |access-date=10 March 2020 |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}{{cbignore}}</ref> if the conditions that had caused its construction did not change.