Wesminster College, UMSL commemorate 20th anniversary of fall of Berlin Wall
The "Breakthrough" sculpture on Westminster College's campus. The sculpture is made from sections of the Berlin Wall.
Westminster College and UMSL will “tear down this wall” next month as they commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
It will be an education for many college students — many of whom were not yet born or were still in diapers when the Wall came down.
Westminster College in Fulton has the largest existing whole section of the Wall outside of Berlin. Eight sections of the wall were shaped into the sculpture “Breakthrough,” which now sits right in the middle of campus. The sculpture was made by Edwina Sandys, the granddaughter of Winston Churchill. The campus, of course, is the site where Winston Churchill gave his famous “Iron Curtain” speech in 1946 about the coming of the Cold War.
Incidentally, the sculpture was one of the targets of a vandal earlier this year. A face with the words “Who are we?” was spray-painted on the sculpture. The vandal also drew a similar design on the facade of a 17th century English church on campus, the home of the Churchill museum, and spray-painted a mustache on a Churchill statue. But the school had the graffiti removed. The vandal “believed the Berlin Wall stood for the downfall of tyranny. He wanted to be a part of that and decided to add his graffiti art to the wall as well,” a police official told reporters back in June.
In any case, Westminster has planned a week full of activities leading up to 6:53 p.m. on Nov. 9, the exact day and time the Wall fell. Events include films, debates, a poster contest, and a special exhibit in its Churchill museum.
The view from the other side of the sculpture.
Members of the Westminster History Club will make replicas of the Wall, which will be dispersed on campus, at nearby William Woods University, in downtown Fulton, at Fulton High School, and rotated through elementary and middle schools in town. This time, graffiti on the replicas will be encouraged.
Then the sections will be assembled on campus and will be torn down at 6:53 p.m. on Nov. 9. Those who attend the event, will go home with an actual piece of the Berlin Wall in hand.
Meanwhile, closer to St. Louis, UMSL has also planned a number of activities around this anniversary. The school is one of three universities in the country to be chosen to be part of the “Freedom Without Walls” celebration, sponsored by the Germany Embassy in Washington, D.C.
UMSL will host a series of events — including an interactive exhibit on the Wall, a musical concert, and film screenings.
And then at noon on Nov. 9, students, staff, and faculty will gather near a replica of the Wall. A human wall of students will extend from it. Student actors will recite quotes from Kennedy, Reagan, and others. Then the Wall will part and hundreds of people will flow through the opening.
On a related note, check out this Wall Street Journal story that ran yesterday about the fall of the Berlin Wall. Like many people, I had always assumed the fall of the Wall had to do with protests and international diplomacy. But actually, it appears it was also a bit of an administrative blunder…Interesting…
The Grade is the St. Louis region’s premier blog on education and child welfare. To read other recent posts, go to www.stltoday.com/thegrade.
Kavita Kumar covers higher education for the Post-Dispatch. 
Lest you forget it was a trade union and a pipeline that led to the Soviet retrenchment. Faced with labor costs on one hand and pipeline revenue on the other the Soviets decided to shed their interests in the Eastern Block. One would be remiss to think for one moment that it was another weapons system all the MX program did was kill Americans from producing it. A reunified Germany does pose a threat to U.S. interests we should have kept that country partitioned a unified German people led to WWII with all its destruction partition is a small price to pay for security. Of course this writer wants the Eastern block dismantled but a reunified Germany is a threat to security. They have nuclear power and the United States really is in no position to make policy decisions for Germany anymore we do not have the manpower there to influence the Germans like we once did.
mullarkey, how is the U.S.’s present imperialism different from what happened in the past? The terroist state of israel is doing the same thing today, practicing apartheid on the Palestinians. But since the winners write the history books, any thing the U.S. and it’s allies do is ok? If the U.S. would eliminate it’s blind support of the zionists, we wouldn’t have to worry about the perceived terrorist threat against this country.
Rainy days sure flush out the weirdos.
I graduated from Westminster in 1964 the year before the Christopher Wren Church was brought to Fulton. I thought that it was suppose to be a symbol of a memorable speech given by one of the greatest leaders of the 19th century, Winston Churchill. If you haven’t made the trip to Fulton to see it you should. I agree with “border guard”, rain is good for crops and the front lawn but not for these supposedly intellectual few.
In my haste to make the comment, I said 19th Century. “Winnie” did his thing in the 20th century. Time flys when your trying to combat the intellectuals.
Wonder if they’re serving beer at this thing?
Yes, a trade union (Solidarity) did bring the Soviets much grief, but the Soviets ordered Gen Jarulzelski to bring martial law to Poland in ‘81. Back in the late-70s there was real reason to fear a Soviet conventional push to the Rhine (The book The Third World War-Aug 85, was more than a novelty, and it was written by senior NATO strategists!), and the Soviets’ upgraded SS-20 posed a theater-wide threat to Western Europe. Reagan created the arms buildup that stalled any Soviet designs on Western Europe, and (after witnessing the death of three Party Secretaries) led to Gorby, who realized that he couldn’t keep pace with Reagan. It was mainly Soviet apathy that led to the demise of the Warsaw Pact, but only after Reagan’s determination to win the Cold War. Mullarkey, I agree that a unified Germany is worth concern, but that’s why this European Union exists: Integrating the Social, Economic and Military structures of the European countries will likely prevent another repeat of the early 20th century.