Ronald Reagan’s son seeks memorial for father’s’87 Berlin Wall speech

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This article was published 30/06/2008 (6371 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BERLIN – John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan both made landmark Cold War speeches in Berlin, but while Kennedy is remembered with a city square, a museum and a school, traces of Reagan are harder to find.

Michael Reagan, his son, hopes to change that.

Reagan wants Berlin to build a memorial to his father, who as U.S. president from’81-1989 exhorted Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.

In a June 12,’87 speech at the Brandenburg Gate, Ronald Reagan stood before throngs of West Berliners in front of the wall and implored Gorbachev to end the Cold War.

“Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate,” he said. “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

Michael Reagan, in an e-mail interview, said the idea for a memorial to the speech was part of his work through the Reagan Legacy Foundation. He was to formally announcing the idea at a news conference later Monday in what once was East Berlin.

Reagan hoped to work with Berlin city leaders on “a large statue or bust” and had already talked with director of a Berlin Wall museum at Checkpoint Charlie about it. He did not directly address the question of how it would be funded.

Reagan said one possible site for the memorial could be the Tiergarten, a sprawling city park across the street from the Brandenburg Gate but added the final location “remains an open question that we will work on with Berliners.”

Marko Rosteck, a spokesman for Berlin’s development ministry, was noncommittal.

“The president did a great deal for Berlin,” Rosteck said. “But there are many initiatives to build memorials in Berlin. We will have to look into it.”

Reagan’s five-hour visit in’87 is remembered as much for the protests it drew as for his speech. Tens of thousands marched through the city while he spoke, protesting U.S. foreign policy.

In contrast, when Kennedy visited in’63 and declared “Ich bin ein Berliner” – a legendary statement of solidarity with besieged West Berliners – they greeted him with exultation.

“The small plaque … commemorating the ‘I am a Berliner’ speech next to the front of Rathaus Schoeneberg is located on a much larger city square that bears Kennedy’s name,” Michael Reagan noted.

“There is no square, street, Platz, statue or bust, or other commemorative site in Berlin named for my father,” he said.