Freedom in Berlin

I visited East Berlin in 1968.  The contrast between free West Germany and communist East Germany was stark.  It was sobering experience on the east side of the Berlin Wall.

East Berlin was in decay and depressing at every corner.  There was still a lot of war damage around the city even though World War II had ended over 20 years before.  The rubble had never been cleaned up.

The people of East Berlin were also in the dark.  They had no real understanding of what it was like in the West or in the United States.  I remember a member of our group telling our East German guide what the income of the average American was.  There was a look of disbelief and denial on her face.  That could not be true.  It had to be the propaganda she had been warned about from talking to Westerners. 

The big thing that struck me was that people with the same background, brains, heritage and innate humanity existed within yards of each other.  The only physical thing that separated them was a wall. However, the difference in individual, political and economic freedom was immense.  One group prospered. The other group was in the depths of poverty.

That experience left a profound impression on me.

Communist, collectivist and socialist economic models do not work. It did not work in East Germany.  It did not work in Russia.  It did not work in China. It is not working in North Korea or Cuba. 

Leftist politicians argue that they are champions of the poor.  They will equalize things.  They will insure bread for everyone and everything will be beautiful.  The only thing they end up doing is making everyone poorer.  That is the equality they bring. Everyone is the same except for the government bureaucrats.  They are the only ones who get rich.

My East Berlin experience came back to me today when I saw this photo gallery on Spiegel Online that compares photos taken by Photographer Stefan Koppelkamm in 1991 just after the Berlin Wall fell and what it looked like ten years later.

The only difference- ten years and FREEDOM.   It is amazing how much can be accomplished when the rights of people are put ahead of the rights of government.  Our Founders understood it well.  Why do we think there is a better way?

A courtyard on Markt Strasse in Erfurt, East Berlin, 1991

The same courtyard in 2003

No better example of people who think there is a better way are the Occupy Wall Street crowd.  If you want to see how a Wall Street occupier is literally "schooled" on the subject check out this video of a emigree of the USSR giving a young man a lesson in history, economics and world politics.  How many of the Occupiers know 1/100 of what this man knows about our country, our constitution and capitalism?  It is worth taking the 15 minutes to view the full video.  It is also worth a few moments for all of us to reflect on what we have after hearing from a man who has truly lived in a totalitarian, socialist world.