It's Going to Take More Than a Few Bombs to Keep This Schnauze Down!
- As Nazi Germany's capital, Berlin had more than 70,000 tons of bombs dropped on it, and had well over 300 air raids, all between 1940 and 1945.
- Reagan isn't exaggerating when he uses the word "devastation." About 1.7 million Berliners fled the city before the end of the war, and we can't say we blame them.
- Reagan plugs the Marshall Plan a couple times in this section (check out the third paragraph here for more on that), making sure to say that it isn't about democracy versus communism.
- It's about fighting evil things that nobody likes, like hunger, poverty, and chaos.
- The Reichstag building, which Reagan mentions visiting, is a historic government building in Berlin. It was pretty much destroyed by fire in the 1930s and partially refurbished in the 1960s. When Reagan was in town, it was still empty. It wasn't really reconstructed until the 1990s, and now the Bundestag, Germany's parliament, meets there.
- Reagan also plugs Japan's economy, which was completely ruined by WWII but was now doing quite well.
- Notice Reagan makes no mention of what caused Japan's devastation: namely, a couple A-bombs dropped by American troops.
- Next we hear a little about the European Community, which was sort of the predecessor to today's European Union.
- It was basically an economic treaty between European countries. Italy, France, and Belgium were all helped out by the treaty's provisions—and, of course, by the Marshall Plan.
- It's a miracle! An economic miracle, that is. That's what Reagan talks about next: Wirtschaftswunder, West Germany's economic miracle that brought the country out of its post-war funk.
- No more "rubble"; now it's all "fine" and "proud" and "great."
- The Soviets may have tried to keep the city down, but West Berlin overcame. Clearly, the Soviets didn't take into consideration the Berliner snout. The what? Yes, the Berliner Schnauze. It's how Berliners' "rudeness" and humor is described. (It's a culture thing, like saying someone is a California driver or shows Southern hospitality.)