Big rewards can come from thinking big
Commentary
By Charles L. Overby
Chairman and CEO, The Freedom Forum
10.15.99
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Nearly six years ago, The New York Times ran an article from Berlin on page A4.
The story began: "An ugly two-story border tower from which East German agents surveyed and controlled the tense Checkpoint Charlie crossing, a building that once stood at the very center of world politics, is now on the collector's market. What's more, it's free to the right bidder."
This landmark of oppression, along with an East German watchtower from the Berlin Wall, was about to be bulldozed into rubble to make way for new businesses in Berlin.
Enter Maurice Fliess and Chris Wells, Freedom Forum executives who saw the potential for this landmark in the Washington, D.C., area.
Fliess, who was associate director of the Newseum in its concept phase, tore out the Times article and sent it to me with this note: "Dare I suggest it ... investigate the feasibility of situating one or both (towers) in Freedom Park? It would be a heck of a drawing card for visitors to the D.C. area. And they'd surely visit the Newseum."
I sent a note back that was only slightly encouraging: "Worth a preliminary inquiry."
Fliess took that small opening and made the best of it. He called Rainer Hildebrandt, the director of the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin who had been given a month by officials to find a home for the towers before the bulldozers moved in.
Hildebrandt, then 79 years old, spoke little English, and Fliess spoke little German. Fliess persevered, first on the phone, next with a letter and then with a personal visit to Berlin. He convinced Hildebrandt that The Freedom Forum would preserve the tower and give it a visible home with educational outreach.
But officials from Harrisburg, Pa., told Hildebrandt they wanted the landmark, too. They pledged to place the tower properly and maintain it on a permanent basis.
Chris Wells, senior vice president for international operations, joined the discussions. Wells is persuasive and persistent throughout the world on behalf of Freedom Forum priorities.
Hildebrandt cared only about preserving the history of the towers so future generations could learn about the cost of freedom. He told The New York Times: "These two towers are full of meaning for the 20th century, especially for those who suffered under the effects of the division of the world. They are trophies. They mark the victory of a political idea."
Today, one of the "trophies" — the Berlin Wall watchtower from near Checkpoint Charlie — stands in Freedom Park, part of a permanent educational exhibit that includes the largest number of original pieces of the Berlin Wall outside of Germany.
Wells discovered the Berlin Wall pieces while visiting with Hildebrandt about the tower. "I went into this big storage place that looked like an airport hangar. And there were these pieces to the Berlin Wall. At one time, we had talked about getting a piece of the Berlin Wall. Instead we got 12 pieces."
Wells, who oversees Freedom Forum offices in London, Hong Kong, Johannesburg and Buenos Aires, recalls, "I knew we would need them sometime somewhere."
Assisted by former Newseum staffer Ann Farrington, Wells spent more than a week watching the tower come down so that it could be shipped to the United States. Farrington painstakingly marked every piece as the tower was taken apart so that it could be restored faithfully.
The pieces arrived intact in the United States and sat in a warehouse for five years until the Berlin Wall exhibit was ready. The exhibit will teach future generations important lessons about the universal struggle for freedom.
But the behind-the-scenes story offers some lessons, too. Good ideas surface from many different sources, often when you least expect them. Fliess could have read The New York Times story and moved on to the sports pages. But he followed his good instincts. He could have given up on his idea because of the language barrier or the geographical distance.
Wells could have passed on her follow-up inspection because it wasn't her idea. She could have shown less interest and persistence and never discovered the 12 pieces of the Berlin Wall.
"I never considered the idea harebrained," Fliess said. "It was a dream. The Freedom Forum allows you to dream and then allows you to see your dreams become a reality."
The freedom to dream isn't in the U.S. Constitution. But it's one of our most precious freedoms.
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