The fall of the Berlin Wall

The story

A city cut in two

At the end of the Second World War defeated Germany was divided into four zones, occupied by the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and France. Berlin, the capital, was divided in the same way, even though it lay in the middle of the Soviet zone. With the Cold War the three western zones became West Germany, a democracy with a market economy, while the Soviet zone became East Germany, with a one-party communist regime. Berlin stayed divided: the western part in the west, the eastern part in the east.

In the western part life improved quickly, with full shops and higher wages; in the east there were controls, little freedom and low prices but a scarcity of goods. Until 1961 it was still possible to cross from one side of the city to the other. Millions of East Germans, almost three million between 1949 and 1961, chose to move to the west, mostly young and educated people. The government of the east, which risked being left without inhabitants, decided to stop the exodus.

The Wall

In the night between 12 and 13 August 1961 Berliners woke up to find the city closed off by barbed wire and soldiers. Within a few days the wire was replaced by a concrete wall. In the end it was about 155 kilometres long around West Berlin, with watchtowers, ditches, dogs and a strip of empty ground, the “death strip”, where the guards had orders to shoot anyone trying to escape. Families were divided and streets cut off, sometimes in the middle of a neighbourhood: people waved to each other from window to window.

Many people tried to escape: they dug tunnels, hid in cars with false bottoms, crossed the Wall on ropes or in hot-air balloons. At least 140 people died in the attempt, according to researchers. The American president John Kennedy visited the city in 1963 and said, in front of a crowd: “Ich bin ein Berliner”, “I am a Berliner”, to show his closeness. In 1987 Ronald Reagan, in front of the Brandenburg Gate, called on the Soviet leader to “tear down this wall”.

The autumn of 1989

The change came from the Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev, who became leader in 1985, had started reforms and had declared that the countries of the East could choose their own path without Soviet tanks stepping in. In 1989 Hungary opened its border with Austria, and thousands of East Germans began to flee that way. In Leipzig and other cities, every Monday, tens of thousands of people marched in silence with candles and shouted: “We are the people”. The government did not shoot. The party leader, Erich Honecker, resigned on 18 October.

On the evening of 9 November a government spokesman, Günter Schabowski, at a press conference shown on TV, read out the new rules on travel abroad. A journalist asked from when they applied. Schabowski, who had not read his notes properly, answered: “Immediately, without delay.” In fact the rules were due to come into force the next day, and in an orderly way, but by now the news was spreading. Thousands of people rushed to the checkpoints, especially the one at Bornholmer Straße, and demanded that they be opened. Around 23:30 the commander Harald Jäger, overwhelmed by the crowd and without orders, had the barrier raised completely. The East Berliners crossed, and on the other side were welcomed with hugs and toasts. That night many climbed on the Wall and attacked it with pickaxes.

One country

In the following months the Wall was demolished, and its pieces ended up in homes and museums all over the world. On 3 October 1990 Germany was reunified: after forty-five years there was once again one country and one capital, Berlin. Today 3 October is the German national holiday. A double row of cobblestones in the paving marks the route of the old Wall.