For a number of years (maybe even up to a decade), there had been some public and private efforts to erect a Ronald Reagan statue in Berlin.
You see, there is a John F. Kennedy statue there already. And the emphasis here for the Reagan statue is that speech to push upon the idea of tearing down the Wall.
So, onto the first topic....Kennedy statues or plagues. There are two noted Kennedy statues in Germany. The first is a statue in Bonn. The second is a plague and actual street name in Berlin (John F. Kennedy Platz). This street/platz is over in the Bavarian Quarter of Berlin.
Why the city turned down the public placement of a statue? It's not openly discussed (by the news media or politicians). If you went and measured the public political slant in Berlin....it is left-leaning and I seriously doubt that anyone wants a public statue of Reagan in the city. Maybe if you brought this up in Bavaria, or the Pfalz....it'd be different, but the only place that really fits for a Reagan statue is Berlin.
So what happened in this case? The US embassy finally said enough, and will be unveiling a Reagan statue on their grounds....overlooking the Strasse des 17 Juni.
Odds of the mayor or city council showing up? I'd give it less than 30-percent chance.
Sending a message? German intellectuals might grumble and say 'yes'. The typical working-class German won't care....one way or the other....it's simply another statue on top of 15,000 other statues around Germany today.
Shouldn't there be a Gorbachev statue as well? I might go and argue that point. But rather than put up a bust or statue of both men, in a prominent point in Berlin.....this turned into a anti-Reagan slant. The city leadership missed out on a great opportunity and just created the entry for the embassy to bring in it's own statue.
One might note here....the only way that the US got this premium landscape and location for the embassy....was via former Chancellor Kohl.
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