[AGL] Happy Fourth of July 4, Y'all...

[Jon Ford]

Hans-- Happy 5th! I just read a big article about the opening of the US Embassy in Berlin! Sounds like a great event-- I read the whole history of its closing  during the Nazi regime and its eventual demolition under the East Berlin government. A great piece of history.

Europe News 
United States opens new embassy in Berlin
U.S.
tourists party after the Grand Opening of the new U.S. Embassy in
Berlin, Germany, 05 July 2008. The Embassy threw a 'Welcome Home' party
for visitors to the new abode. The United States invited 4,500 people,
including Chancellor Angela Merkel, to the US Independence Day opening
party, which spilled out into cordoned-off areas outside the pale
sandstone building, yesterday. EPA/WOLFGANG KUMM



Jul 5, 2008, 15:38 GMT








 

Berlin - The United States opened a monumental new embassy in Berlin on
Friday, returning the diplomats to their rightful place, 67 years after
Washington declared war on the Nazis. 
Former US president George HW Bush, the ambassador to Germany
William Timken, and his wife Sue Timken together cut a ribbon to
symbolically let VIP guests enter the 130-million-dollar chancery. 
The multi-storey building occupies a commanding site between the Holocaust Memorial and Brandenburg Gate. 
US diplomats had left the site in 1941. During the decades of
communism, the empty land had been part of a desolate no-man's land
along the Berlin Wall. After the Wall fell in 1989, wrangles over
anti-terrorist barriers held up reconstruction for many years. 
At the celebrations, German Chancellor Angela Merkel recalled how
late US president Ronald Reagan had once stood up nearby and appealed
to the Soviet Union's last communist leader in Moscow: 'Mr Gorbachev,
open this gate! Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!' 
Germany and the United States remained firm friends, said Merkel. 
'We have many challenges ahead of us that we can only master together,' she said. 
Former president Bush, father of current President George W Bush,
praised Germans for reunifying their country in 1990. The people of
East and West Germany had never forgotten that they were one people
with one language. 
Recalling the fall of the Wall, one of the most dramatic events of
his own presidency, he said, 'It ended the division of Europe.' 
The United States invited 4,500 people to the opening party, which
was combined with US Independence Day, July 4. As evening arrived, rain
fell and Berliners outside listened under umbrellas. 
US-style food including cheesecake and chili con carne were served in the courtyard of the pale sandstone building. 
An opening festival for the public was to begin Saturday in tents
set up near the Brandenburg Gate. Diplomats moved several weeks ago
into the building, raising the flag over the German capital's grandest
address, Pariser Platz. 
The surroundings are full of history. The US embassy occupied the
site in the 1930s. The Holocaust Memorial - a stark expanse of
tomb-like stones - is next door and commemorates the 6 million Jews who
died under the Nazis. 
On the other side is the Reichstag. It was the arson attack on the
home of the German parliament weeks after he took power in 1933 that
allowed Adolf Hitler to pass the first laws giving him dictatorial
powers. 
The embassy architects, the Californian practice Moore Ruble Yudell,
have come in for some criticism over the building with its simple
sandstone facade, which fills one of the last gaps in the rebuilding of
Berlin. 
Berlin critic Gerwin Zohlen called the building a 'boring' example
of a 1980s style of post-modernism that was already out of date. 
Inside the building, the restrained exterior gives way to splashes of colour from art on the walls and garden spaces. 
Abandoned by the United States in 1941, the former embassy was badly
damaged in World War II and torn down by the East Berlin communist
authorities in 1957. Then the Berlin Wall went up in 1961. 
A US embassy to East Germany was later set up in a former Prussian
officers' club not far away. It had a permanent police presence outside
- mainly to ensure dissidents did not slip inside to seek asylum. 
When the capital moved from Bonn to Berlin, this became the US embassy of the newly reunified Germany. 
Rebuilding on the pre-War site was held up by US security demands,
which are laid down in law but were in conflict with the traditional
street layout that the city authorities were determined to retain. 
Under a compromise, scarcely visible concrete barriers were placed
on the street outside and the roadway was re-aligned so that terrorists
could never approach the building with car bombs. 

From: hpophotog at mac.com
To: frances_morey at yahoo.com; austin-ghetto-list at pairlist.net
Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2008 06:45:59 +0200
Subject: Re: [AGL] Happy Fourth of July 4, Y'all...

Thanks Frances, wonderful film. Berlin is hot today also.4th of July celebration on the Fan mile.Tomorrow the opening of the New Embassyat its prewar location.Happy 4th Ya´llhansberlin
     cell +49 127 321 5956 Tel +49 30 6677545 0   Skype:   hpoPhotog
 
On 4.Jul 2008, at 02:12, Frances Morey wrote:Really spectacular.
  http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iCz3BA-oNlY


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