Pompeo to formally unveil Reagan statue in Berlin

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will formally unveil a statue of former President Reagan in Berlin, 30 years after the Berlin Wall fell in the city. 

During his visit in Germany, Pompeo will reveal the statue of Reagan at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, according to a Facebook post from the U.S. Mission to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The statue will overlook the location where the president gave his speech calling for Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the wall.

{mosads}Pompeo will inaugurate the statue on Friday, the day before the 30th anniversary of the momentous event, The Wall Street Journal reported. 

Artist Chas Fagan, who designed Reagan’s statue in the Capitol Rotunda, created the monument, including pieces of the former wall, according to the Journal. The statue is accompanied by a sign that displays Reagan’s famous quote from his 1987 speech, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

“The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute is thrilled to be able to unveil a statue of President Reagan at the US Embassy in Berlin, within view of where President Reagan so boldly demanded that the wall come down in 1987,” Melissa Giller, chief marketing officer at the foundation, said in a statement to The Hill.

The statue will sit on the U.S. Embassy’s terrace after a years-long debate over placing an American statue on German soil. Berlin politicians have protested the placement because the former president is already a designated citizen of the city. 

Sabine Bangert, the chairwoman of the committee in charge of monuments in Berlin, told the Journal that erecting a monument to Reagan would not be fair to other foreign leaders who also pushed for the fall of the wall that separated East and West Berlin for almost 30 years.