On August 13, 1961, the communist regime of the German Democratic Republic began building the wall that surrounded the eastern part of Berlin, isolating it from the western section. It began as a wire fence that soon became something more solid and consistent, made with a mixture of concrete, military surveillance and ideology.
It was called the “Antifaschistischer Schutzwall”, the “anti-fascist protective barrier.” Its objective was to prevent contamination from the West and promote the construction of a promising new society, regardless of the separation of brother peoples.
The wall stood until November 9, 1989, exactly 35 years ago. It is unknown how many people were killed trying to cross it. A wall of ignominy, humiliation and segregation. An icon of pain, death and rejection of the other, it symbolised that we humans easily tend to crush common dignity and universal brotherhood in the name of our ideas, our differences and our fears.
“The Berlin Wall remains the emblem of a culture of division that distances people from each other and paves the way for extremism and violence” said Pope Francis (9 January 2020). Three years later, the Pontiff continued this reflection by saying that the fall of the wall: “opened up new perspectives of freedom for peoples, the reunification of families and hope for a new world peace after the Cold War”. However, today new fears are raising new walls. “And from the wall to the trench the step is, unfortunately, often short” (12 September 2023).
Indeed, walls are built when the reasons for exclusion overshadow the reasons for fraternity and cooperation. Walls are the antithesis of globalization, of solidarity and of the construction of a true international common good.
Of course we all want orderly, fair and dignified migration processes! No one is in favor of the indiscriminate opening of borders! However, true justice springs forth as an adequate response to the recognition of the dignity of every person, regardless of their national origin, race, economic position, political preference, religious affiliation or moral coherence. When dignity becomes irrelevant as a criterion of social order, inequality emerges, and with it, the rule of the violent.
The only authentic limit to the authoritarian exercise of power is the explicit recognition of the dignity of every person in all circumstances. The commitment to the right to life is falsified if monuments are built to the culture of waste and exclusion. Francis is very clear on this point: “We cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to any kind of racism or exclusion and claim to defend the sanctity of every human life” (3 June 2020). Furthermore, “anyone who thinks of building walls, any wall, and not of building bridges, is not a Christian.” “That is not the Gospel” (18 February 2016).
How easy it is to forget the lessons that walls teach us! How easy it is to invent a narrative to set sister societies against each other! In other words, it is worth remembering in order to learn! And not because the new walls are identical to those of the past, but because, as Mark Twain said, history does not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.
