Letter to Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany - Berlin Wall Anniversary

Letter

Dear Chancellor Merkel,

As the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall nears, I have been reflecting on how captivating those events were and what they all meant.

That night demonstrated for our children what the human spirit can achieve. It showed them that the desire for liberty never dies. This is the great thread that links all of us, no matter where we're from, no matter how dire our situation. Even here in the United States, we are aware of the debt we owe to ordinary German citizens who longed for freedom and risked everything they had for it. You could retrace their steps to the peaceful protests in Leipzig, where you studied, or go all the way back to the uprisings of 1953, and strikes that included Templin, your hometown.

Not long after that, President Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote a letter to the German chancellor, the last paragraph of which reads: "No one can foretell what the unfolding months will bring, but it can certainly be said that the workers of Berlin's Soviet Sector and the workers of East Germany, with the workers of Czechoslovakia, have started something that will have an important place on the pages of history. May the concluding chapter of that history record the reemergence of freedom, of peace, and of happiness."

What a story it turned out to be, and on this proud occasion for your country, allow me to express the gratitude and appreciation of the U.S. House of Representatives for the enduring friendship between our peoples.

Sincerely,

John A. Boehner

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