Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall: A New German National Pride and Founding Myth

This paper examines the sense of pride developed by Chancellor Angela Merkel, Bundestag President Norbert Lammert, and other German politicians surrounding the celebrations for the 20^th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 2009. After years of trying not to pay great attention to the history of the Wall and feeling largely uneasy about the Wall due to its key significance for the ‘second German dictatorship of the 20^th century’, German leaders and others changed tack and drew on the positive history of the Wall from 1989 when it was brought down peacefully. In the fall of 2009, German leaders declared that “Germany finally has something positive in its history, something to be proud of.” German officials used the 20^th anniversary of the fall of the Wall to create a grand and new narrative or founding myth for the new Germany: the nation was born from a peaceful, democratic revolution that toppled the Wall and then pushed for unification. After largely ignoring the leaders and followers of the East German opposition in 1989, German public officials now celebrated them as courageous German heroes who created the ‘Peaceful Revolution’, capital P, capital R. The nationally-televised celebration with Merkel and world leaders at the Brandenburg Gate on the night of 9 November 2009 culminated in fireworks as Germany celebrated a great moment in its history. Germans felt new confidence now that they had joined the community of nations with democratic revolutions.