See the video of Timothy Garton Ash speaking at the conference here.<\/a><\/p>\n\u00bbI challenge anyone here to come up with a better example. 1989 was the best year in European history,\u00ab says Timothy Garton Ash. <\/p>\n
A slip that changed everything<\/h2>\n
The occasion is a panel discussion in the University of Copenhagen’s Ceremonial Hall Monday with Minister of Foreign Affairs Per Stig M\u00f8ller and Prorector Lykke Friis. November \u201889, twenty years ago, was when the Berlin wall was opened following a slip of the tongue by spokesman for the East German politburo G\u00fcnter Schabowski at a press conference.<\/p>\n
At the end of a long press release, he happened to mention that East Germans would be allowed to travel directly to West Germany. When questioned, ruffling his papers, he said that the order, as far as he knew, was effectively immediately.<\/p>\n
Within an inch of the use of force<\/h2>\n
Hundreds of thousands of East Germans flocked to the border crossings, as guards stood by incredulous, but without firing a shot.<\/p>\n
Speaking of earlier demonstrations in Leipzig, Timothy Garton Ash, says that \u00bbwe now know from the archives, that we came within an inch of the East German authorities using force\u00ab .<\/p>\n
Minister of Foreign Affairs Per Stig M\u00f8ller, has himself written several works on politics and history. The biggest lesson to be taken from the events of 1989, according to him, is that the events were not inevitable.<\/p>\n
Warns against complacency<\/h2>\n
An inevitability that is, to use a term by Prorector Lykke Friis, \u2018retrospective determinism\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u00bbThe events unfolded to their happy conclusion of an undivided Europe. But the events happened by choice and not by necessity,\u00ab say Per Stig M\u00f8ller .<\/p>\n
He warns against \u00bbcomplacency towards history\u00ab, and warns against the claims like those of political theorist Francis Fukuyama after the downfall of communism, that the victory of liberal democracy was inevitable.<\/p>\n
Doubt is European, and protects us<\/h2>\n
Being European is to insist on a sense of doubt, he reminds us. This doubt should also include an uncertainty about the inevitability and security of our liberal institutions.<\/p>\n
\u00bbDoubt protects us from a false sense of security, history tells us that when we are relaxed, we are actually in a state of danger,\u00ab says Per Stig M\u00f8ller, giving examples of the Europe of 1914, when no-one could conceive of the coming war, and the events of 9\/11 2001.<\/p>\n
miy@adm.ku.dk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The peaceful overthrow of communism was not inevitable, and Europe just happened to be incredibly lucky. So said British historian Timothy Garton Ash and Danish minister Per Stig M\u00f8ller<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":24271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","expression-news_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n
1989 may have been the best year in history<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/1989-may-have-been-the-best-year-in-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"1989 may have been the best year in history\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The peaceful overthrow of communism was not inevitable, and Europe just happened to be incredibly lucky. 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peaceful overthrow of communism was not inevitable, and Europe just happened to be incredibly lucky. So said British historian Timothy Garton Ash and Danish minister Per Stig M\u00f8ller","use_post_excerpt":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"Byline","is_author":false,"contributors":[{"use_registered_user":false,"user":false,"contributor_name":"Mike Young","contributor_title":" ","contributor_image":false}]},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>It is hard to think of another year in which so much that could have gone wrong actually turned out so well. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/universitypost.dk\/article\/89-was-new-type-revolution\">See the article ’89 was a new type of revolution’ here. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is the claim made by British historian and Oxford professor Timothy Garton Ash, a key witness and interpreter of the events that unfolded in the year \u201989 \u2013 actually the years 89-91. <\/p>\n<p>He is, of course, referring to the downfall of communism and the fall of the Berlin Wall.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.webtv.um.dk\/012577813941082\/the_legacy_of_1989\">See the video of Timothy Garton Ash speaking at the conference here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI challenge anyone here to come up with a better example. 1989 was the best year in European history,\u00ab says Timothy Garton Ash. <\/p>\n<h2>A slip that changed everything<\/h2>\n<p>The occasion is a panel discussion in the University of Copenhagen’s Ceremonial Hall Monday with Minister of Foreign Affairs Per Stig M\u00f8ller and Prorector Lykke Friis. November \u201889, twenty years ago, was when the Berlin wall was opened following a slip of the tongue by spokesman for the East German politburo G\u00fcnter Schabowski at a press conference.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of a long press release, he happened to mention that East Germans would be allowed to travel directly to West Germany. When questioned, ruffling his papers, he said that the order, as far as he knew, was effectively immediately.<\/p>\n<h2>Within an inch of the use of force<\/h2>\n<p>Hundreds of thousands of East Germans flocked to the border crossings, as guards stood by incredulous, but without firing a shot.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of earlier demonstrations in Leipzig, Timothy Garton Ash, says that \u00bbwe now know from the archives, that we came within an inch of the East German authorities using force\u00ab .<\/p>\n<p>Minister of Foreign Affairs Per Stig M\u00f8ller, has himself written several works on politics and history. The biggest lesson to be taken from the events of 1989, according to him, is that the events were not inevitable.<\/p>\n<h2>Warns against complacency<\/h2>\n<p>An inevitability that is, to use a term by Prorector Lykke Friis, \u2018retrospective determinism\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThe events unfolded to their happy conclusion of an undivided Europe. But the events happened by choice and not by necessity,\u00ab say Per Stig M\u00f8ller .<\/p>\n<p>He warns against \u00bbcomplacency towards history\u00ab, and warns against the claims like those of political theorist Francis Fukuyama after the downfall of communism, that the victory of liberal democracy was inevitable.<\/p>\n<h2>Doubt is European, and protects us<\/h2>\n<p>Being European is to insist on a sense of doubt, he reminds us. This doubt should also include an uncertainty about the inevitability and security of our liberal institutions.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbDoubt protects us from a false sense of security, history tells us that when we are relaxed, we are actually in a state of danger,\u00ab says Per Stig M\u00f8ller, giving examples of the Europe of 1914, when no-one could conceive of the coming war, and the events of 9\/11 2001.<\/p>\n<p>miy@adm.ku.dk<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"ArticleEnd"},{"acf_fc_layout":"OtherStories","headline":"","hand_picked_posts":false,"references":false,"category":false,"theme":false,"number_of_posts":"4","style":"default"}]},"taxonomyData":{"category":[{"term_id":48,"name":"Politics","slug":"politics","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":48,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":1035,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":[],"post_format":[],"expression":[{"term_id":15,"name":"News Article","slug":"news_article","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":15,"taxonomy":"expression","description":"","parent":0,"count":11489,"filter":"raw"}],"translation_priority":[]},"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Legacy_of_89_Lykke_Friis_Per_Stig_Moller_Timothy_Garton_Ash-1280x960.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39964,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24269\/revisions\/39964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}