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The monument to the Peaceful Revolution is located in the middle of Berlin! My guest article for the Tagesspiegel

Today 31 years ago the Berlin Wall fell.

In an essay for the Berlin-based newspaper “Tagesspiegel“, I make a case for the need to improve awareness-raising on the achievements of the Peaceful Revolution. An excellent place for doing this would be the former Stasi headquarters in Berlin-Lichtenberg.

As a politician working on foreign affairs, I frequently talk to people living in countries where the government oppresses the population and the secret service is omnipresent. On numerous occasions, activists have told me about their admiration for the peaceful resistance carried out by the civilian population in the GDR, which led to the end of the regime. This revolution remains a sign of hope for human rights defenders all over the world.

But this part of our history often does not receive the recognition it deserves. The Stasi documentation office, which is very well suited for this purpose, remains a sad, grey place.

My suggestion is therefore: we should turn the grounds into a place of exchange, where history becomes tangible and Berliners as well as guests from all over the world can discuss the lessons history holds for today.

You can read here what exactly this could look like (in German):

My Essay for Tagesspiegel

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