Ronald Reagan，the 40th President of the USA
the Brandenburg Gate，June 12th，1987
General Secretary Gorbachev，if you seek peace，if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe，if you seek liberalization：Come here to this gate.Mr.Gorbachev，open this gate.Mr.Gorbachev-Mr.Gorbachev，tear down this wall！
总书记戈尔巴乔夫先生，如果你需要和平，如果你为苏联和东欧人民寻求繁荣，如果你需要人类的解放，请你到这里来，到这扇大门来。戈尔巴乔夫先生，打开这扇大门。戈尔巴乔夫先生……戈尔巴乔夫先生，请推倒这面墙！
Ronald Reagan
演讲赏析
Tear Down This Wall
Ronald Reagan，the 40th President of the USA
the Brandenburg Gate，June 12th，1987
Thank you.Thank you，very much.Chancellor Kohl，Governing Mayor Diepgen，ladies and gentlemen：Twenty four years ago，President John F.Kennedy visited Berlin，and speaking to the people of this city and the world at the city hall.Well，since then two other presidents have come，each in his turn to Berlin.And today，I，myself，make my second visit to your city.We come to Berlin，we American Presidents，because it‘s our duty to speak in this place of freedom.
But I must confess，we’re drawn here by other things as well；by the feeling of history in this city-more than 500years older than our own nation；by the beauty of the Grunewald and the Tiergarten；most of all，by your courage and determination.Perhaps the composer，Paul Linke，understood something about American Presidents.You see，like so many Presidents before me，I come here today because wherever I go，whatever I do：“Ich habe noch einen Koffer in Berlin”，I still have a suitcase in Berlin.
Our gathering today is being broadcast throughout Western Europe and North America.I understand that it is being seen and heard as well in the East.To those listening throughout Eastern Europe，I extend my warmest greetings and the good will of the American people.To those listening in East Berlin，a special word：Although I cannot be with you，I address my remarks to you just as surely as to those standing here before me.For I join you，as I join your fellow countrymen in the West，in this firm，this unalterable belief：Es gibt nur ein Berlin.
Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this city，part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire continent of Europe.From the Baltic South，those barriers cut across Germany in a gash of barbed wire，concrete，dog runs and guard towers.Farther south，there may be no visible，no obvious wall.But there remain armed guards and checkpoints all the same-still a restriction on the right to travel，still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state.
Yet，it is here in Berlin where the wall emerges most clearly；here，cutting across your city，where the news photo and the television screen have imprinted this brutal division of a continent upon the mind of the world.Standing before the Brandenburg Gate，every man is a German separated from his fellow men.Every man is a Berliner，forced to look upon a scar.President Von Weizs？cker has said，“The German question is open as long as the Brandenburg Gate is closed.”Well，today-today I say：As long as this gate is closed，as long as this scar of a wall is permitted to stand，it is not the German question alone that remains open，but the question of freedom for all mankind.
Yet，I do not come here to lament.For I find in Berlin a message of hope，even in the shadow of this wall，a message of triumph.
In this season of spring in 1945，the people of Berlin emerged from their air-raid shelters to find devastation.Thousands of miles away，the people of the United States reached out to help.And in 1947Secretary of State-as you‘ve been told-George Marshall announced the creation of what would become known as the Marshall Plan.Speaking precisely 40years ago this month，he said：“Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine，but against hunger，poverty，desperation and chaos.”
In the Reichstag a few moments ago，I saw a display commemorating this 40th anniversary of the Marshall Plan.I was struck by a sign-the sign on a burnt-out，gutted structure that was being rebuilt.I understand that Berliners of my own generation can remember seeing signs like it dotted throughout the western sectors of the city.The sign read simply：“The Marshall Plan is helping here to strengthen the free world.”A strong，free world in the West-that dream became real.Japan rose from ruin to become an economic giant.Italy，France，Belgium-virtually every nation in Western Europe saw political and economic rebirth；the European Community was founded.
In West Germany and here in Berlin，there took place an economic miracle，the Wirtschaftswunder.Adenauer，Erhard，Reuter and other leaders understood the practical importance of liberty-that just as truth can flourish only when the journalist is given freedom of speech，so prosperity can come about only when the farmer and businessman enjoy economic freedom.The German leaders-the German leaders reduced tariffs，expanded free trade，lowered taxes.From 1950to 1960alone，the standard of living in West Germany and Berlin doubled.Where four decades ago there was rubble，today in West Berlin there is the greatest industrial output of any city in Germany：busy office blocks，fine homes and apartments，proud avenues，and the spreading lawns of parkland.Where a city’s culture seemed to have been destroyed，today there are two great universities，orchestras and an opera，countless theaters and museums.
