How the Canadian Media Memorialized the Fall of the Berlin Wall Karen Brglez, University of Winnipeg On November 9, 1999, television reporter, Peter Mansbridge announced to Canadians on national news that “in Berlin tonight they’re remembering a night no one could forget. The night ten years ago when an explosion of freedom levelled a wall. And changed the world.”1 The commemorations being celebrated marked the collapse of the Berlin Wall in the fall of 1989. The opening of the wall eliminated the central symbol of the Cold War period. The barrier had divided East and West Berlin for twenty-eight years, and its spontaneous opening triggered an upheaval that overturned the postwar order on the European continent. All within a single year the German states were unified, the Warsaw Pact collapsed, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was extended to the East.2 The free democratic world celebrated Western liberation from post- Stalinist oppression. In 1999 and 2009 the Canadian media extensively reported on the transnational event of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Ten and twenty years after the German upheaval of November 9, 1989 the Canadian media commemorated the occasion through the transmission of television programs, interactive webpages, and newspaper articles. This case study will examine, why the Canadian media made the fall of the Berlin Wall such a highly visible media affair on the anniversaries. The cultural constructed productions reveal that the Canadian mass media created a public discourse that celebrated a western democratic victory over the Soviet communist political and economic system. The heroic tale indirectly applauded NATO’s successes on the European continent and commended the advancement of democratization. The Canadian media utilized the German revolution to forge a national narrative that propagated the belief that Canadians should celebrate as victors of the Cold War because of their unwavering commitment to the North Atlantic Alliance and its defeat over its communist opponent. The mass media is one instrument of authority within the nation state that determines collective national narratives. In order to have a collective identity as a nation, the media publishes certain memories of their past to achieve social cohesion.3 The mass media frames the past in a particular way to influence the 1 Don Murray, “Berlin Wall Anniversary,” The National – CBC Television, November 9, 1999. 2 Konrad H. Jarausch, The Rush to German Unity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), 197. 3 Caroline Pearce, Contemporary Germany and the Nazi Legacy: Remembrance, Politics, and the Dialectic of Normality (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 11. Karen Brglez, “How the Canadian Media Memorialized the Fall of the Berlin Wall.” Oral History 1 Forum d’histoire orale 35 (2015), Special Issue on Canada’s Role in Global Politics, 1989-1990 ISSN 1923-0567 present. Henry Steele Commager believes national memory is shaped into a “usable past” by creating “myths” based on aspects of history most significant to the nation. Intended to portray the nation in such a way, and by using myths that most members of the nation can understand, a collective identity can be created. 4 In addition, the messages that are transmitted often promote the interests of those in authority that have access to the transmission of media. According to Geoffrey Cubitt, “Contests of power and interest are woven into every phrase and level of the social memory process. Access to the media through which transmission of information is effected and motivation to use those media to influence the way the past is viewed, are not evenly distributed in society.”5 In this case, the media used their authority to purposely select and produce cultural productions that evoked a national account of Canadians as the victors in the Cold War. Cold War Beginnings Following the defeat of the Third Reich, the four victors of the Second World War, Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union divided the country into four separate territories that were put under military rule. Agreement over how to establish a new German state became virtually impossible as following crises between the western powers and the Soviet Union initiated the East-West conflict. In the fall of 1949, Britain, France, and the U.S. sponsored the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany with its government centered in the western city of Bonn. While in the east the Soviets followed by backing the formation of the German Democratic Republic ruled by the Socialist Unity Party (SED).6 By 1955, the two German states joined opposing military alliances, the FRG aligned with the pro-western NATO and the GDR with the pro-eastern Warsaw Pact.7 The ideological partition materialized in 1961 with the construction of the Berlin Wall. With Soviet and Warsaw Pact approval, the East German politburo decided to construct die Mauer as a desperate attempt to stop the massive population drain to the West.8 For Canadian foreign policy diplomacy, the Cold War period was initially focused on maintaining strong traditional relationships with its wartime allies, the United States and the United Kingdom. The formation of NATO in 1949, which 4 J. Fentress and C. Wickham, Social Memory: New Perspectives on the Past (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), 129 quoted in Caroline Pearce, Contemporary Germany and the Nazi Legacy: Remembrance, Politics, and the Dialectic of Normality (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 11. 5 Geoffrey Cubitt, History and Memory (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007), 176. 6 Jarausch, 8. 7 Philip Zelikow and Condoleezza Rice, Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995), 57. 8 Jarausch, 8. Karen Brglez, “How the Canadian Media Memorialized the Fall of the Berlin Wall.” Oral History 2 Forum d’histoire orale 35 (2015), Special Issue on Canada’s Role in Global Politics, 1989-1990 ISSN 1923-0567 joined ten European nations, Canada and the United States in a military alliance, gave Canada the opportunity to develop bilateral links with other alliance members. This multilateral institution that was developed to safeguard Western security against the Soviet Union changed Canada’s relationship to the FRG. As West Germany experienced the Wirtschaftswunder (economic miracle) of the 1950s and 1960s under West German Chancellor Konrad Adenaurer’s conservative government, closer political and economic ties were established between the two countries. The Canadian commitment to the FRG was cemented when Canadian ground and air forces were deployed to the West German state beginning in 1951. This was in response to the constant Soviet military threat coming from the neighbouring GDR, coupled with the outbreak of the Korean War.9 Roy Rempel explains, “This military pledge, while initially made by Canada to the NATO alliance as a whole, evolved into a commitment by Canada to West Germany most directly.”10 In the Cold War period the FRG held a prominent place in Canada’s hierarchy of external relationships and was viewed as an invaluable link that connected Canada to the European continent. The turbulent year of 1989 signaled the end of the Cold War. Hungary’s decision to open its border to Austria on May 2 initiated a flood of East German refugees attempting to flee to the West. By the end of September some 30,000 East Germans had fled their homes through Hungary’s borders. Throughout the summer months the West German and international media focused on the stories of East Germans attempting to escape their country.11 On November 9, 1989 the world watched as East Germans jubilantly crossed the border into West Berlin after confused border guards opened the German division. Journalists quickly descended on Berlin to capture the excitement of the unforeseen occasion. Some East Germans reunited with family members, some loaded up their cars with Western purchases, while others simply took in the sites with a sense of amazement. At home, Canadians watched the events on their televisions including then Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney. Mulroney told the Toronto Star in 2009 that he remembered watching the evening unfold on his television at 24 Sussex Drive after a long day of challenging meetings with premiers debating the doomed Meech Lake constitutional accord. Although tired from the difficult day, he was engrossed with the events on the screen.12 The opening of the Berlin Wall 9 Roy Rempel, Counterweights: The Failure of Canada’s German and European Policy, 1955- 1995 (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1996), 5. 10 Ibid., 5. 11 Lothar Kettenacker, Germany 1989: In the Aftermath of the Cold War (Harlow: Pearson Education, 2009),101. 12 Allan Woods, “Don’t Go to Berlin, Mulroney Recalls Advising U.S. President.” Toronto Star (November 9, 2009): A.6. Karen Brglez, “How the Canadian Media Memorialized the Fall of the Berlin Wall.” Oral History 3 Forum d’histoire orale 35 (2015), Special Issue on Canada’s Role in Global Politics, 1989-1990 ISSN 1923-0567 stunned the world as the central symbol of the Cold War period had been swiftly dismantled. Media Commemorations in 1999 Ten years later, on November 9, 1999 seven Canadian newspaper corporations and two television networks paid tribute to the destruction of the Berlin Wall. Images from that fateful night were replayed on Canadian televisions across the nation. Michael Ignatieff from the National Post later wrote that, “It is strange and touching to see the old footage again of East Berliners pouring through the razed checkpoints. I doubt there was a happier night in Europe in the whole twentieth century. It was probably the last night when freedom still felt joyful, liberating, and infinitely full of promise.”13 Time has a tendency to revise memories so by reiterating images from that joyful night Canadians were ushered back to the past to be reminded of the cause for celebration.