The May Day rally in West Berlin
became an impressive freedom demonstration.
Before a crowd of 500,000, the Governing Mayor Willy Brandt said:
My dear Berliners.
I greet you warmly,
you who came here on this May day
out of your own free will,
out of self-chosen discipline,
and not by any command,
unlike what resounds back to us from the other side
of the Brandenburg Gate.
The day will come
when the Brandenburg Gate is no longer on the border.
On the borderline that cuts through our families,
that tears the nation apart,
that divides our Berlin.
Until that day comes,
we ask,
we cry,
and we demand:
"Open the Gate!"
"Put an end to this unnatural divide!"
On the other side of the Brandenburg Gate, however,
1 May 1959 was all about
the so-called People's Army.
Images that need no comment.
FOR PEACE, HAPPINESS AND PROSPERITY!
Copyright © 2012 TITELBILD, Berlin Subtitles: L. Corper et al.