Fall of the Berlin Wall: Freedom Rises and Spreads After the Fall

The following article originally appeared in the Fall 2009 Open Society News.

Author, playwright, and the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel was central to the region's transformation.

This year we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the moment when the Iron Curtain finally fell. For four decades, it had divided not only Europe, but also, in a sense, the entire world. Although there were attempts to break free from totalitarian communist domination during the Cold War, in 1989 the changes in Central Europe and later in the countries of Eastern Europe took place almost simultaneously, thanks above all to favorable international circumstances and the political changes in the erstwhile Soviet Union. Perhaps most significant was that the revolutions—the take-over of power and the establishment of new democratic conditions—took place peacefully. None of us knew beforehand when the moment would come, but we all believed that it would.

Human freedom, the human spirit, solidarity, enterprise, natural community, and the yearning to associate cannot be imprisoned behind concrete walls and barbed wire forever. However, the epoch making political changes were not the first manifestation of free civic will; this civic spirit was a constant, natural presence and provided the impetus for change and the driving force of our revolutions. One never ceased to be amazed at how many ideas and how much ingenuity—inexpressible in the conditions of the totalitarian communist state—slumbered within people.

Naturally not everything that happened stayed the course, not everything was felicitous, and not everything was done with good intentions. But what I, for one, found fascinating was the fact that those who had spent most, if not all, of their lives in conditions of "unfreedom" immediately and spontaneously drew inspiration from the traditions that existed here for centuries. It did not need very much: simply removing the restrictions on free civic will.

The first major state visit in what was still Czechoslovakia was by the German President Richard von Weizsacker in 1990. During that visit, he told me that if civil society were to weaken this would in turn weaken the political parties and leadership that grew out of it. He put his finger on what I had always thought about politics, namely that politics is a formulated expression of civil society, from which it derives and to which it relates as its root and meaning, whenever circumstances require. After all, political parties and movements are nothing but a specific expression of civic will and civic positions, and as such they are part and parcel of civil society. In addition, however, there are countless public service organizations, university communities, churches, and cultural, educational, environmental, and humanitarian foundations and civic associations without which the life of society would be inconceivable at the beginning of the 21st century.

I recall vividly—and it's something we should commemorate and give thanks for—that among those who tirelessly supported civil society in Central and Eastern European countries was George Soros and his network of foundations and institutes. Without the contributions from him and his network, the fundamental political changes would not have taken root so quickly in the civic consciousness of people throughout Central and Eastern Europe.

In our part of the world, civil society has undergone a tempestuous development over the past 20 years, and during that period its basic features and conditions have stabilized. Central Europe is now an open and engaged participant in international events, and every single thing that happens elsewhere in the world will sooner or later have an effect on it. Nothing is final or cut and dried, however. New civic structures are emerging in response to fresh challenges. Countless international organizations have established offices and operations here. Their presence is the only way to ensure that states continue to function and do not founder every time a government falls or some political scandal comes to light. This too is an expression of wide-ranging and functioning free civil societies.

I don't know how things will turn out, but I have the feeling that in the next two decades there will be a real need for us to enhance what we have achieved and experienced so far. Thanks to its membership in the European Union, Central Europe and its people have the opportunity, for the first time in centuries, to live in and firmly establish conditions of freedom. It is now largely up to the people to decide how to make the best use of this opportunity.