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Court circuit – Embassy 20 – November 2009
Europe Minister Chris Bryant, Markus Meckel (former head of the SDP), Dr Peter Hartmann (German Ambassador to France, 1998-2001), Timothy Garton-Ash, Colin Munro (Deputy Head of Mission in East Berlin, 1987-1990), Baron (William) Waldegrave (UK Foreign Minister, 1988-1990) and FCO Chief Historian Professor Patrick Salmon
Hans-Dietrich Genscher (former West German Foreign Minister), Charles Powell (former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Private Secretary), Hermann von Richthofen (former German Ambassador to London, 1989-1993), Roger Morgan, Sir Christopher Mallaby (Ambassador to the Federal German Republic and then the unified Germany from 1988 to 1992), Sir Nigel Broomfield, (Ambassador to the GDR, 1988-1990) and Professor Patrick Salmon
Fathers of the Revolution: Vaclav Havel (Czech Republic), Jan Carnogursky (Slovak Republic), Markus Meckel (Germany), Geza Jeszenszky (Hungary), Jan Krzysztof Bielecki (Poland) and chair Edward Lucas reflect on the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall
Sir John Birch, former Ambassador to Hungary, Geza Jeszenszky, former Hungarian Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the US, and Klara Breuer (Hungarian Embassy)
The Lord Mayor of Westminster Duncan Sandys, German Ambassador Georg Boomgaarden and Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw unveil the Ice Wall sculpture
Lord Hannay, Swedish Ambassador Staffan Carlsson, Mrs Karin Riis-Jorgensen and Danish Ambassador Birgir Riis-Jorgensen
Herbert Quelle (Germany), Brazilian Ambassador Carlos Santos Neves and Portuguese Ambassador Antonio Santana Carlos
Eager fans swarm around the leader of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, Vaclav Havel
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The Ambassador of Belarus Aleksandr Mikhnevich and the Ambassador of Moldova Natalia Solcan
Remembering the fall of the Berlin Wall
It has been a busy month as diplomats all over London attended receptions and conferences to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall and the revolutions that it sparked in several countries in the former Eastern Bloc.
The FCO and German Embassy launched the commemorative season with a witness seminar at Lancaster House, bringing together key figures in British and German politics at the time of the fall of the Wall. This was followed by a conference co-organised by the LSE and the embassies of Germany, Hungary, Poland and the Czech and Slovak Republics, where leaders of the peaceful revolutions in these countries reflected on whether their hopes and dreams had been achieved.
The season came to a climax on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall when the German Embassy unveiled an ice sculpture, symbolic of the Wall, and held a reception where diplomats and politicians gathered to trade memories (to see article please click here).
PHOTOS: PIERRE DE VILLIERS
Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee Mike Gapes MP talks to the Polish Ambassador Barbara Tuge-Erecinska
Latvian Ambassador Eduards Stiprais and Czech Ambassador Michael Zantovsky
German Ambassador Goerg Boomgaarden shakes hands with Austrian Ambassador Gabriele Matzner-Holzer through the Ice Wall
Ice Wall artists Manon Awst and Benjamin Walther
The Ambassador of Bulgaria Lyubomir Kyuchukov and Ukraine Ambassador Ihor Kharchenko
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