After The Wall

Americans and Germans alike remember well the day in 1963 when a visiting U.S. President, John Kennedy, gave voice to his feelings about the two-year- old Wall that ran like a jagged scar through Berlin: "Ich bin ein Berliner." His message was more than a metaphoric statement of solidarity with the people of that divided city. It was an appeal to the Wall's Communist architects to tear down the 26-mile-long concrete monstrosity. Today the Wall continues to pierce the hearts of Berliners every bit as effectively as its pipes, barbed wires and other sharp obstacles once sliced the bodies of desperate refugees. But for the first time since Kennedy's appeal, it seems possible that the Wall might come tumbling down.

Is it really in the West's best interest, however, to see it reduced to rubble? On a symbolic level, certainly. The Wall's designer and chief defender, former East German President Erich Honecker, called his creation the "Anti-Fascist Protection Barrier." In this era of glasnost, such rhetoric has about as much standing as the deposed Honecker himself, who was ousted by the East German Politburo three weeks ago after 18 years at the helm.

Yet the literal destruction of the Wall would, in many respects, be redundant. Honecker's successor, Egon Krenz, has promised that most East German travel restrictions will be lifted, making it possible for citizens to travel freely to the West. The thousands who jammed the West German embassy in Prague last week seeking asylum testify to the futility of mere stones to bar the exodus. Johannes Chemnitzer, a member of the East German Communist Party's Central Committee, admitted last week that with the borders open, the Wall's "meaning becomes limited and illusory."

Even if the Wall is stripped of political significance, it still serves a purpose by applying a brake to refugee traffic. An East German official predicts that once free travel wipes out border barriers, about 1.5 million of the country's 16.6 million citizens might head West. Without the Wall, West Berlin will bear the brunt of that great rush. But West Berlin's workers already resent the city's shortages of jobs and housing and the heavy concentration of alien guest workers from Turkey and ethnic Germans from the East bloc. Ironically, unless the burden of a new influx is properly shared, the people on the Western side might not be all that happy to see the monstrosity fall.

Even if such obstacles are satisfactorily addressed, there may still be a peculiar nostalgia to keep portions of the Wall intact. Says Jurgen Schmude, a West German Social Democrat and former Justice Minister: "This thing should be left standing as a memorial so that people in 200 years can study the unbelievable that once was a reality. Except for the Chinese Wall, this is the most famous wall in the world."