Cold War Veterans Blog

Let's Save Teufelsberg!

The Field Station Berlin Vets Group (FSBVG) has started a campaign SAVE TEUFELSBERG!

Comment: Letter from Mark Hooker

The U.S. Field Station Berlin Veterans Group has launched a campaign to save the Field Station building located atop the Teufelsberg in Berlin and turn it into the “Major Arthur D. Nicholson” Cold War Memorial. The choice of name for the memorial is in memory of the last casualty of the Cold War, the USMLM tour officer who was killed by a Russian sentry near Ludwigslust March 24, 1985. The purpose of the memorial is to recognize the countless men and women of the Allied Western Armed Forces who resolutely stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the West Berliners during the Cold War, ensuring that the island of freedom known as “West Berlin” remained free. The facility stands on one of the highest points in Berlin, and can be seen for miles in every direction. It is hoped that it will serve as a constant visible reminder of the resolve of the Western Allies to defend Berlin during the Cold War, and of our friendship with the newly reunited Germany. Berlin already has an Allied Museum in the former American Sector of Berlin, located in the re-purposed U.S. military movie theater known as “The Outpost.” The new memorial atop the Teufelsberg would make an excellent annex for the museum in the former British Sector of Berlin. This multi-sector approach would serve to underscore the joint effort of the Western Allies that was required to keep Berlin free. John F. Kennedy was not the only Westerner to say “Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’.” The men and women of the Allied Western Armed forces felt this same sense of pride in being Berliners, perhaps, even more strongly than Kennedy, because they actually lived in Berlin, sharing the fate of those whom it was their duty to defend. While in Kennedy’s day, the Wall was “the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the Communist system, for all the world to see,” today is it gone. Kennedy looked forward to the day “when this city will be joined as one, and this country, and this great Continent of Europe, in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost [four and a half] decades.” Though Kennedy did not live to see it, that day has come. The memorial is intended to replace the Wall as the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the “sober satisfaction” felt not just by the members of the forces who defended West Berlin, but also by the Berliners themselves, a number of whom have approached the Field Station Berlin Veterans Group seeking their help in preserving the Field Station facility on Teufelsberg. In Kennedy’s view, “all free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin,” and, therefore, the monument is for all those who, like Kennedy, “take pride in the words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’.” The “Save Teufelsberg!” page can be viewed at: http://fsbvg.homestead.com/save_teufelsberg.html

Letters and Articles about the effort to
SAVE TEUFELSBERG
[The Berlin Chapter of the Cold War Museum
http://www.coldwar.org/BerlinChapter
was very active for the 60th Anniversary of the Berlin Airlift.]

From: Baerbel Elisabeth Simon baerbelsimon at hotmail.com
Subject: RE: Save Teufelsberg
Date: Thursday, January 1, 2009, 9:02 AM

I am really interested to work with you together.
I am the German representative of the Cold War Museum Berlin Chapter.
Best to you and a Happy New Year.
Kind regards Baerbel Simon
German Affairs -- The Cold War Museum Berlin Chapter

-- Baerbel

E. Simon
German Affairs
Skarbinastrasse 67D 12309
Berlin/Germany
Tel./Fax 011.4930.745.1980