DISINFO: NATO lies about the reasons for the fall of the Berlin Wall
SUMMARY
NATO lies about the reasons for the fall of the Berlin Wall. The West did not play any role in the unification of East and West Germany 30 years ago. There was no desire for freedom and no revolutions in the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative involving historical revisionism and denials that the Soviet regime was totalitarian. After the speech of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Pro-Kremlin media were outraged by Stoltenberg’s phrase that it was democracy and freedom of thought that helped reunite Europe. At the Berlin Wall Memorial at NATO Headquarters, Stoltenberg emphasised that even then, Europeans were united by basic values: "freedom, democracy and human dignity." Thanks to these, "peace and solidarity can prevail over any adversary." It was freedom that was able to prevail over oppression. These shared values “allowed Europe to develop deep partnerships with friends around the world,” leading to the fall of dictatorship and the spread of democracy, Stoltenberg said. Communist East German authorities built the Berlin Wall in 1961 to stop the flow of residents into the democratic, and free, West. For almost 30 years, the Berlin Wall separated West Berlin from the East German state, the GDR, which was in the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union. When trying to overcome it, hundreds of people were killed. On 9 November 1989, against the backdrop of mass protests in the GDR, among others, the communist authorities announced that they would change the rules for crossing the border. On that same evening, thousands of people headed towards the Berlin Wall, demanding that they be allowed to enter the West. The fall of the Berlin Wall under the pressure of people has become a symbol of peaceful revolutions against the communist dictatorship in Europe.