Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989): The Night the Border Opened

The fall of the Berlin Wall on the night of 9 November 1989 opened the border that had divided Berlin for 28 years. After a confused announcement by an East German official, thousands of East Berliners gathered at the checkpoints until guards let them cross freely into West Berlin. The event became the most powerful symbol of the end of the Cold War and led within a year to the reunification of Germany.

Background

After the Second World War, defeated Germany was divided into zones occupied by the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union. In 1949 two states emerged: the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the communist German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Berlin, inside East German territory, was likewise divided, with West Berlin tied to the West.

Millions of East Germans left for the West in the 1950s, many through Berlin; estimates for 1949 to 1961 are commonly between about 2.5 and 3 million. To stop this exodus, the East German government began sealing the border on 13 August 1961, first with barbed wire and then with a concrete wall. Over time it became a heavily guarded system of walls, fences, watchtowers and a “death strip”, running about 155 kilometres around West Berlin.

The Wall became the symbol of a divided Europe. In 1963 President John F. Kennedy declared “Ich bin ein Berliner” in West Berlin, and in 1987 President Ronald Reagan called on the Soviet leader: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” At least 140 people were killed or died at the Wall in connection with the border regime. Chris Gueffroy, shot in February 1989, was the last person killed by border guards’ gunfire while trying to cross.

The revolutions of 1989

In the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms, known as glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring), loosened Moscow’s control over Eastern Europe. In 1989 Poland held partly free elections, and Hungary began dismantling its fortified border with Austria. On 11 September Hungary formally allowed East Germans to leave for the West.

Tens of thousands of East Germans used the opening to flee west through Hungary, or sought refuge in West German embassies in Prague and Warsaw. At home, peaceful protests grew, especially the “Monday demonstrations” in Leipzig, where about 70,000 people marched on 9 October 1989 without a violent crackdown. Two days earlier the regime had celebrated the 40th anniversary of East Germany with Gorbachev as guest, amid protests. On 18 October the long-serving leader Erich Honecker was replaced by Egon Krenz, and on 4 November a huge rally filled Alexanderplatz in East Berlin.

The night of 9 November

To ease the pressure, the East German leadership prepared new rules allowing citizens to apply for travel abroad. The rules were meant to take effect the next day, with visas issued in an orderly way. On the evening of 9 November, Politburo spokesman Günter Schabowski announced the rules at a live televised press conference. He had not been fully briefed, and when a journalist asked when they took effect, he replied that, as far as he knew, they applied immediately.

The press conference had been dull for most of its hour, and the travel rules came up only near the end, shortly before 7 p.m. Schabowski read from a note handed to him by Egon Krenz, and he did not mention that the rules were supposed to be released to the public only the following morning. Western news agencies quickly reported that East Germany had opened its borders, and the main West German evening news programmes, widely watched in the East, repeated the story.

West German television reported that the border was open. Crowds quickly gathered at the crossings, demanding to be let through. At Bornholmer Strasse, the overwhelmed officer in charge, Harald Jäger, opened the gate at around 11:30 p.m. Other crossings followed during the night.

People streamed into West Berlin, where they were met with flowers, champagne and tears. Crowds climbed onto the Wall near the Brandenburg Gate, and some began chipping pieces off it with hammers and chisels. No one was killed during the opening. Over the following weekend millions of East Germans visited the West, many collecting the 100 West German marks of “welcome money” offered to each visitor.

Key people

Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader from 1985, made clear that Moscow would no longer use force to keep communist governments in power in Eastern Europe. Soviet troops stationed in East Germany stayed in their barracks throughout the autumn of 1989.

Erich Honecker had led East Germany since 1971 and had overseen the building of the Wall in 1961 as the party official responsible for security. As late as January 1989 he insisted that the Wall would still be standing in 50 or even 100 years.

Egon Krenz replaced Honecker in October 1989 and tried to save the regime through limited reforms, including the new travel law. He resigned as head of state in December 1989.

Günter Schabowski, the party’s Berlin chief and spokesman, made the announcement that set events in motion. Harald Jäger, a Stasi officer in charge of passport control at Bornholmer Strasse, made the first decision to let the crowds through.

Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of West Germany, seized the moment to push for unity. His Ten-Point Plan of 28 November 1989 set out a path towards a single German state.

Aftermath

The border was never closed again. New crossing points were opened in the following weeks, including at the Brandenburg Gate on 22 December 1989. In March 1990 East Germany held its first free parliamentary elections, and a monetary union introduced the West German mark in the east on 1 July 1990.

Official demolition of the Wall began in June 1990. After negotiations between the two German states and the four wartime Allied powers, which produced the Two Plus Four Treaty of September 1990, Germany was reunified on 3 October 1990 under Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Within two years the Soviet Union itself had dissolved, at the end of 1991.

Reunification brought freedom of movement and political liberty to East Germans, but also hardship. Many state-owned factories in the east closed or were sold, unemployment rose sharply, and differences in wages and living standards between east and west persisted for years. Former East German leaders and border guards were later put on trial in connection with the shootings at the border. Krenz was convicted of manslaughter in 1997 and served a prison sentence.

The secret police, the Stasi, had kept files on millions of people. After citizens occupied Stasi offices in late 1989 and early 1990 to stop the destruction of records, a 1991 law allowed individuals to read the files kept on them, a model later studied by other post-communist countries.

The date itself proved awkward to celebrate. In German history 9 November is also the anniversary of the proclamation of the republic in 1918, Hitler’s failed putsch in 1923 and the Kristallnacht pogrom of 1938. For this reason the national holiday, the Day of German Unity, is held on 3 October instead.

Pieces of the Wall were sold or given away as souvenirs, and whole sections now stand in cities around the world. In Berlin itself, a double row of cobblestones marks much of its former route.

Myths and facts

Myth: the Wall was torn down on the night of 9 November. That night the gates were opened and people chipped off fragments, but official demolition did not begin until June 1990 and took months.

Myth: the East German government decided to open the border that night. The opening was largely accidental. The new rules were meant to start the next day with an orderly visa process, and guards opened the gates under pressure from the crowds.

Myth: the Wall only ran between East and West Berlin. Most of its length, about 112 kilometres, separated West Berlin from the East German countryside, enclosing the western half of the city completely.

Myth: Reagan’s speech brought down the Wall. The speech became famous, but historians stress the decisive roles of Gorbachev’s policies, the mass exodus and the protests by East Germans themselves.

Timeline

• 1961, 13 August: East Germany begins sealing the border around West Berlin.
• 1987, 12 June: Ronald Reagan calls on Gorbachev to “tear down this wall”.
• 1989, 11 September: Hungary opens its border to Austria for East Germans.
• 1989, 9 October: About 70,000 people march peacefully in Leipzig.
• 1989, 18 October: Erich Honecker is replaced by Egon Krenz.
• 1989, 9 November: Schabowski’s announcement; the border crossings open overnight.
• 1989, 22 December: The Brandenburg Gate crossing opens.
• 1990, June: Official demolition of the Wall begins.
• 1990, 3 October: Germany is reunified.

Why it matters

The fall of the Berlin Wall ended the physical division of Berlin and opened the way to German reunification and the end of the Cold War in Europe. Like the storming of the Bastille two centuries earlier, it became a lasting symbol of a people’s demand for freedom. Today surviving sections of the Wall, such as the memorial at Bernauer Strasse, recall the lives it shaped and the lives it cost.