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Ronald Reagan's Son Visits Germany: Berlin! Build My Dad a Memorial! - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

Two decades after his father's famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate, Michael Reagan pushes for the erection of a memorial to honor the former US President. In a 1987 speech in Berlin, Ronald Reagan famously implored, "Mr. Gorbachev! Tear down this wall!"

 Should monument-saturated Berlin build a memorial to Ronald Reagan? The backdrop was Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate. But US President Ronald Reagan had a different structure in mind when he gave his famed speech on June 17, 1987. Just behind him ran the Berlin Wall, the concrete, barbed-wire and fortified barricade that had sliced through the city since August 1961. Reagan wanted it gone and issued a direct challenge to the leader of the Soviet Union: "Mr. Gorbachev! Tear down this wall!"

Of course, these words alone did not bring about the end of Soviet Communism. Mikhail Gorbachev has even privately joked that it was women angered by a shortage of panty hose in Moscow that caused the Iron Curtain's fall.

Ronald Reagan wasn't the first American president to leave his mark on a divided Berlin. In 1963, John F. Kennedy, on a visit to West Berlin, memorably pledged his solidarity, declaring, "I am a Berliner." Berlin has a school, a university department, a museum and a plaza named after Kennedy, but the capital has nothing commemorating Ronald Reagan.

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Wed Jul 2nd, 2008 at 03:37:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
This is rich.  As an American tourist in Berlin I would gladly piss all over a Reagan statue.
by paving on Wed Jul 2nd, 2008 at 03:39:51 PM EST
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As an amurkan ex-pat in Deutschland, i would join you in our disrespect.  As a former Californicator, in homage to Reagan's stint as Gub'nor, i'd piss twice.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
by Crazy Horse on Wed Jul 2nd, 2008 at 03:56:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Once Thatcher dies, I can see this becoming a new kind of tourism.
by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Thu Jul 3rd, 2008 at 05:37:24 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Renaud - Miss Maggie lyrics | LyricsMode.com

Moi je me changerai en chien
Si je peux rester sur la terre
Et comme réverbère quotidien
Je m'offrirai Madame Thatcher

I'll change myself into a dog
If I can stay on earth
And as a daily street lamp to piss on
I'll offer myself Mrs Tatcher


Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Thu Jul 3rd, 2008 at 05:56:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Perhaps part of the design could include a circular pattern of French style "pissoirs" around the statue, with the resulting product being collected and used to regularly "bathe" the statue to cleanse it of bird shit.  Then Michael Reagan might be more likely to get his wish.

As the Dutch said while fighting the Spanish: "It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Wed Jul 2nd, 2008 at 04:19:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I wonder if that would upset right wing Texans as much as the Ozzy Osbourne/ Alamo event?

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Wed Jul 2nd, 2008 at 04:22:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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