Walesa: Germany should play leading role in Europe
When the Berlin Wall came down 25 years ago, it was a special day for Lech Walesa. The workers leader and future president of Poland put his country on the road to democracy when he founded the Solidarity trade union.
There was strong opposition to Poland s communist regime at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk. In 1980, it was where electrician Lech Walesa was one of the founders of the Solidarity (Solidarnosc) trade union. Before that, he had been a member of an illegal strike committee. Although Solidarity was banned when martial law was imposed in 1981, it was ultimately invited to the Round Table Talks in early 1989 that led to the end of communist rule in Poland.