Segment of the wall on campus represents peace

Segment of the wall on campus represents peace

BY B.J. ALMOND
Rice News Staff

“The segment
of the Berlin Wall on the Rice campus is a tangible reminder
of the physical barrier that separated oppression from freedom
for 28 years and the ultimate victory of freedom and the
rule of law,” Rice President Malcolm Gillis told guests
at a Nov. 10 ceremony dedicating the monument.

Gillis and Juergen
Chrobog, ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to
the United States, unveiled the Berlin Wall Monument to
Rice students, faculty and staff and other guests of the
James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. The 12-foot-high
structure recently was relocated to the southeast corner
of Baker Hall to acknowledge former secretary of state James
A. Baker III’s leadership of America’s foreign
policy in 1989 when the Berlin Wall was taken down and the
subsequent successful effort to unify Germany in peace and
freedom.

The Baker Institute
hosted the dedication and a panel discussion to commemorate
the 11th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Gillis recalled
the wall’s origin. “I remember it well because
I was of draft age,” he said. “In August ’61,
the Soviets took the drastic step of building a wall, not
like the Chinese to keep enemies out, but to keep its own
people in.”

The wall was
erected to stop the mass exodus of people who were fleeing
East Berlin and the Soviet section of Germany in the aftermath
of World War II to pursue better jobs and freedom in West
Berlin and the noncommunist world. The East German government
realized that the continual loss of highly educated professionals
and skilled workers would soon hinder the country’s
economy, so the Soviets created a barrier to restrict their
citizens from leaving. The wall divided West Berlin and
East Germany, and government permission was required to
cross it.

Gillis cited
the symbolic significance of the wall on the campus. “Rice
University always has been dedicated to the freedom of the
human mind and the human experience,” he said. “Let
this historic piece of concrete be a reminder that no physical
barrier is strong enough or big enough or tall enough or
thick enough to confine the human mind and the human spirit
in its quest for freedom.”

Chrobog recalled
the 1989 destruction of the wall that had separated families
and friends for nearly 30 years. Many Germans remember precisely
where they were and what they were doing when they learned
that the Berlin Wall would no longer restrict travel between
the East and West, he said. “It was one of those rare
moments when one could witness history in the making. I
cannot think of anything that better symbolizes the end
of the Cold War.”

Chrobog said
the wall crumbled “because the people of the former
Germany in a display of remarkable courage exerted the will
to be free.”

Noting that
the monument at Rice can give only “a faint idea of
how oppressive and disturbing” the Berlin Wall was,
he said the wall’s concrete face, barbed wire and guards
imprisoned 70 million Germans.

“The fall
of the wall did not automatically usher in unification,”
Chrobog said. He acknowledged the support of the U.S. government
and the role of “farsighted statesmen” like Baker
in unifying Germany (see story on new
exhibit at the Baker Institute).

Baker was scheduled
to speak at the ceremony but had to travel to Florida unexpectedly
when Texas Gov. George W. Bush asked for his assistance
with the presidential election recount. Edward Djerejian,
director of the Baker Institute, presented Baker’s
speech.

“For many
who were not personally involved, the fall of the Berlin
Wall has receded from memory,” Djerejian quoted from
Baker’s speech. “Yet there are important lessons
to be learned from the West’s long struggle with totalitarianism.
The most important is the need for leadership.”

In his speech,
Baker paid tribute to the leadership role of former presidents
Reagan and Bush. “Were it not for the inspiring vision
of Ronald Reagan and the consummate diplomacy of George
Bush, the Cold War would have lasted far longer than it
did, and its end might well not have been peaceful beyond
all our expectations,” Baker wrote.

“Eleven
years after the fall of the wall, hundreds of millions of
people enjoy freedom. But in far too many places around
the world, freedom of speech, religion, association and
the press is only a dream,” Baker wrote. Fulfilling
that dream and advancing freedom’s cause will require
leadership.

“We must
all understand that the fall of the Berlin Wall marked not
just the end of one chapter in the history of human aspiration,
but the beginning of another,” Baker wrote. Djerejian
noted that generations of Rice students will pass the monument
at Baker Hall and be reminded of the historical significance
of the fall of the wall and the end of the Cold War.

After the dedication
ceremony, the Baker Institute hosted a panel discussion
on “Consequences of the Fall of the Wall.” Richard
Stoll, Rice professor of political science and associate
director for academic programs at the Baker Institute, moderated
the panel, which included John Ambler, Rice professor of
political science; Peter Caldwell, Rice associate professor
of history and German studies; Allen Matusow, the William
Gaines Twyman Professor of History at Rice; Gale Stokes,
the Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of History and interim dean
of humanities at Rice; and Susan Scarrow, University of
Houston associate professor of political science.

Music for the
dedication ceremony was provided by a Shepherd School of
Music brass quintet: Sarah Bach on french horn; Zach Enos
and Zeb Upton, both on trumpet; Carson Keeble on trombone;
and Steve Lamb on tuba.

The Shell Oil
Co. Foundation provided support for the commemoration.

Wall travels
fro Berlin to Rice campus

Rice’s Berlin
Wall Monument was originally installed on the campus in
1991 between the Speros P. Martel Center for Continuing
Studies and the Rice Media Center. Weighing
5,000 pounds, the panel is 12 feet high and four feet wide.
It was extracted from the Frohnau district of West Berlin,
on the border with the East German district of Oranienburg,
in April 1990.

ALBA GmbH Corp.,
a German waste-disposal company, obtained the panel and
presented it to Browning-Ferris Industries of Houston as
a token of friendship between the two companies. Browning-Ferris
donated the wall to Rice at the urging of Mary McIntire,
dean of the School of Continuing Studies. The writing on
the monument is actually on the side of the wall that faced
east, which suggests the graffiti was applied after the
wall came down or after people had access to the east side
when the wall was no longer guarded.