The famous Berlin Wall, an emblem of separatism and oppression around the world, is marked as an important figure of the history of the Wall. During the Cold War, it separated East from the West, and, literally, stood for the ideological clash between communism and capitalism. When its flag fell on November 9, 1989 — a moment in history that saw it finally become history — it was the beginning of the end for the Cold War and the end of the beginning for German reunification.
Berlin Wall Construction
On the night of August 12, 13, 1961 it the world was suddenly caught off guard by the Berlin Wall, it was being built. Tensions between the Soviet Union and the Western Allies (who ran West Germany after World War II) go much of the way towards explaining how the wall came to be born. But in the years before its construction, millions of East Germans looked for a better living, and political freedom, in the West, which forced the East German government to take drastic measures.
First there was barbed wire and makeshift barriers, then concrete elements, trenches and watchtowers, becoming a wall. The route is a total of 155 kilometers long and cut off East Berlin from the rest of the city, effectively.
The Impact on Berliners
The Berlin Wall struck immediately and essentially changed the lives of Berliners. Loved ones were being ripped apart, families torn apart and the separation divide was set between the survivors and the dead. Those near the border woke up to see streets closed off and routines undone. The wall seemed to give life to a fear, uncertainty, and despair.
Many attempts to escape in the years to follow led to tragedy. However, the wall came to symbolise the very iron curtain which separated Western Europe from the East, dominated by the oppressive regime of the Eastern bloc, and the leaders of the ‘free world’ from the communist party bloc to their east, whom many of them had fought against in the Second World War.
Factors Leading to the Fall
Dissent Growing in East Germany
As East Germany was aso strickly governed by the East German government, discontent and opposition were increasingly rised within East Germany. Of course it wasn’t just one person, there was a growing desire for political freedom which was being really fed and people were hungry for change.
East Germans began to look at neighbouring countries, such as Hungary and Czechoslovakia that were undergoing political reforms. The chance of a better life, they were all longing for, the same changes in their own country.
The Changing Foreign Policy of the Soviet Union
In the 1980s a new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, came on the scene, speaking for openness, for reform. Glansaot and perestroika were his policies, which sought to restore the Soviet Union’s smoldering economy and increase political freedom.
The fall of the Berlin Wall was, in part, driven by the most critical turn of the Soviet Union’s foreign policy. By creating such an environment, Gorbachev’s reforms encouraged East Germans to demand a change, reassured that superpower support of their government was also in the process of reform.
Mass Migration and Peaceful Protests
In the summer of 1989, tens of thousands of East Germans crossed over Hungary’s open border with Austria to reach West Germany. This mass migration showed that the East German regime was not liked and put pressure on the authorities to solve a problem.
Besides that, mass protests erupted across East Germany asking for political reform, freedom of speech and the right to travel. They spread through the country and evolved into a significant event that could be termed peaceful demonstrations.
November 9, 1989: The Fall of the Wall
The Press Conference Mishap
On November 9, 1989 evening, East German government Official Günter Schabowski organised a press conference and announced that the travel regulations were going to be changed. But in a misunderstanding, he said the immediate travel restrictions were lifted, and East Germans could cross to the west without arrest. His declaration went viral, and suddenly everyone ran towards the wall.
A Moment of Unity
When border guards found themselves suddenly overwhelmed and at a loss of what to do as thousands of East Berliners flocked to the wall, they simply had no idea how to react to the situation. So the guards eventually gave in and let people pass through freely as the already tense crowd got increasingly tense and angry.
History was made with scenes of East and West Berliners clambering together atop the wall. Champagne bottles popped, people embraced and the division that the city had lived with for 29 years started to crack down.
The Aftermath
Series of Trasformative events sparked when the Berlin Wall fell. It was symbolically the end of the Cold War, of the Iron Curtain. Just a few months later, they reunified Germany, the official reunification took place on October 3, 1990.
During those years, the Berlin wall transformed into a force for freedom, unity and, ultimately hope. Today, fragments of that wall stand as monuments in many parts of the world in word and memory in any form that we may sustain that hope, that spirit; that’s what I came here to see.
The fall of the Berlin Wall is a reminder to us all that the people have the power, that they want freedom and that they help define our world. It is a turning point in history, an emblem of the forces of democracy and for human rights.
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