It was the moment Germans had awaited for decades.
And while it was Ronald Reagan who famously called for the Berlin Wall to be torn down,
George Bush senior was in office when it finally happened.
Helmut Kohl, the chancellor who oversaw reunification, once described Bush as a "stroke of luck"
in his country's history -- saying that a reunited Germany wouldn't have been possible
without his help.
Described as a tireless diplomat, the forty-first US President helped soften the fronts after
decades of animosity between Washington and the Eastern bloc.
And he vocally supported the idea of German reunification -- when other European countries
were strongly opposed.
On the 20th anniversary of the fall of Berlin wall, Bush, Kohl, and former Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev came together to mark the occasion.
The wall could never erase your dream -- our dream -- of one Germany: a free Germany, a
proud Germany, that has thankfully regained its rightful place among the leading nations
on the Earth.
When news of his death broke, Bush's diplomatic contributions to German unity were at the
forefront of many people's minds.
On the sidelines of a G20 summit in Argentina, German chancellor Angela Merkel expressed
her condolences -- as well as an apparent sentimentality for a different era in transatlantic
relations.
Helmut Kohl could always rely on this ally of the Germans in the White House.
During the presidency of George Bush senior, we experienced the reliability and strength
of the German-American relationship and we will never forget this experience.
George Bush's legacy isn't viewed without controversy in Germany.
Many citizens were deeply opposed to his war in the Gulf, a war that was co-financed by
their government.
Nevertheless, most will remember George Herbert Walker Bush as a friend and a US president
who helped show what's possible when countries work together.