BERLIN: From Seoul to the Vatican, the archipelago of Tonga to Los Angeles, remnants of the Berlin Wall have been installed around the world as paradoxical symbols of freedom 25 years after its fall.
As late as January 1989, communist East Germany’s leader Erich Honecker confidently declared the Wall, officially built as an “Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart” 28 years earlier, would still be standing in 50 or even 100 years’ time. Ten months later, it would be gone, figuratively at least, and people armed with chisels would gleefully set to work literally chipping away at the graffiti-covered concrete slabs that had cruelly divided Berliners.
“Aspirations of freedom, of democracy and of unity were so strong, it was necessary to make the traces of the thing recalling this terrible history disappear,” said Anna Kaminsky, who compiled the photographic book, “Die Berliner Mauer In Der Welt” (The Berlin Wall in the World).
But after the turn of the millennium Berlin city officials became mindful that what still remained of the Cold War symbol should be preserved as a historical monument.
The so-called East Side Gallery, which artists covered with murals in early 1990 including the famous “Fraternal Kiss” depicting Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and Honecker, is the longest remaining stretch of Wall, at 1.3 km (nearly one mile).
The threatened removal of a segment of that stretch as part of development plans nearby last year sparked a major opposition campaign. Hundreds of often brightly-colored and weighty segments of the Wall are now scattered around the world, recalling “victory over the division of the world and the fight for liberty and democracy,” Kaminsky said.
There has also been a movement to reclaim and preserve slabs of the Wall that were knocked down after 1989.
French painter Thierry Noir, known for brightly-colored, big-lipped figures, is credited with being the first artist to have painted the Wall as early as 1984.
Noir is part of a project based on the banks of Berlin’s Spree river which offers people the chance to decorate and own an original 3.6-meter (12-foot) high panel of the Wall by first reserving it online, daubing it in paint and finally buying it or selling it on.
“You’re totally free to paint what you want, everyone has their personal history with the Wall,” the head of the project, Elmer Prost, said.
The organization behind the scheme receives a third of the sale price, set at a minimum of 1,500 euros ($1,860).
“Before, one was painting it to make it fall. Now one paints the Wall to preserve it like a tribute to Europe’s re-found freedom,” Noir said.
Berlin Wall becomes global symbol of liberty
Berlin Wall becomes global symbol of liberty
Tensions flare in Minnesota as protesters and federal agents repeatedly square off
- The Trump administration has repeatedly defended the immigration agent who shot Good, saying he acted in self-defense
- With the Department of Homeland Security pledging to send more than 2,000 immigration officers into Minnesota, the state, joined by Minneapolis and St. Paul, sued President Donald Trump’s administration Monday to halt or limit the surge
MINNEAPOLIS: Federal officers dropped tear gas and sprayed eye irritant at activists Tuesday during another day of confrontations in Minneapolis while students miles away walked out of a suburban school to protest the Trump administration’s bold immigration sweeps.
The government’s immigration crackdown is next headed to a federal court where Minnesota and two mayors are asking a judge to immediately suspend the operation. No hearing has been set on the request.
Gas clouds filled a Minneapolis street near where Renee Good was fatally shot in the head by an immigration agent last week. A man scrubbed his eyes with snow and screamed for help while agents in an unmarked Jeep sprayed an orange irritant and drove away.
It’s common for people to boo, taunt and blow orange whistles when they spot heavily armed agents passing through in unmarked vehicles or walking the streets, all part of a grassroots effort to warn the neighborhood and remind the government that they’re watching.
“Who doesn’t have a whistle?” a man with a bag of them yelled.
Brita Anderson, who lives nearby and came to support neighborhood friends, said she was “incensed” to see agents in tactical gear and gas masks, and wondered about their purpose.
“It felt like the only reason they’d come here is to harass people,” Anderson said.
Separately, a judge heard arguments and said she would rule by Thursday or Friday on a request to restrict the use of force, such as chemical irritants, on people who are observing and recording agents’ activities. Government attorneys argued that officers are acting within their authority and must protect themselves.
In Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, students protesting the immigration enforcement operation walked out of school, as students in other communities have done this week.
With the Department of Homeland Security pledging to send more than 2,000 immigration officers into Minnesota, the state, joined by Minneapolis and St. Paul, sued President Donald Trump’s administration Monday to halt or limit the surge.
The lawsuit says the Department of Homeland Security is violating the First Amendment and other constitutional protections by focusing on a progressive state that favors Democrats and welcomes immigrants.
“This is, in essence, a federal invasion of the Twin Cities in Minnesota, and it must stop,” state Attorney General Keith Ellison said.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said: “What we are seeing is thousands — plural — thousands of federal agents coming into our city. And, yeah, they’re having a tremendous impact on day-to-day life.”
Dozens of protests or vigils have taken place across the US to honor Good since the 37-year-old mother of three was killed.
Homeland Security says it has made more than 2,000 arrests in the state since early December and is vowing to not back down. Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, responding to the lawsuit, accused Minnesota officials of ignoring public safety.
“President Trump’s job is to protect the American people and enforce the law — no matter who your mayor, governor, or state attorney general is,” McLaughlin said.
The Trump administration has repeatedly defended the immigration agent who shot Good, saying he acted in self-defense. But that explanation has been widely panned by Frey, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and others based on videos of the confrontation.
Two Democratic lawmakers from Massachusetts announced Tuesday they are sponsoring a bill to make it easier for people to sue and overcome immunity protections for federal officers who are accused of violating civil rights. The bill stands little chance of passage in the Republican-controlled Congress.
In Wisconsin, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez is proposing that the state ban civil immigration enforcement around courthouses, hospitals, health clinics, schools, churches and other places. She is hoping to succeed Gov. Tony Evers, a fellow Democrat, who is not running for a third term.
“We can take a look at that, but I think banning things absolutely will ramp up the actions of our folks in Washington, D.C.,” Evers said, referring to the Trump administration. “They don’t tend to approach those things appropriately.”
