This year marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Department of German Studies commemorated the occasion by erecting a replica of a wall segment on the Arts Quad, and observant students found their friends wearing shirts with the slogan: “Freedom Without Walls.”

I might be going out on a limb here, but I don’t think the plural “Walls” was chosen by mistake.

“It’s also a political symbol,” said a professor quoted by this paper. “There are other walls separating people in this world. I just want people to reflect on the political divisions.”

The subtext becomes explicit on The Sun’s website, where an anonymous comment complains that the news story does not even mention “Israel’s Apartheid Wall.”

When the Berlin Wall was knocked down in 1989, many Cornell students had not even been born. Regardless, the Department of German Studies and the German Embassy is sponsoring a week of festivities in honor of the 20th anniversary of the destruction of the Berlin Wall, building a replica wall on the Arts Quad and giving many a chance to learn about the recent past.

Cornell is one of the 30 schools chosen by the German Embassy to participate in the nationwide “Freedom Without Walls Campaign.”

“The turnout, despite the rain, was incredible,” said Prof. Anette Schwarz, chair of the Department of German Studies and principal organizer of the week’s events.