The weeks leading up to the Berlin Wall coming down were tumultuous and filled with anxiety across both West and East Germany. Protests and demonstrations demanding change in East Germany were occurring nearly every day in the wake of the Glasnost and Perestroika reforms enacted by Soviet Union Premier Mikhail Gorbachev and the successful democratic and reform movements in other Eastern-bloc countries such as Poland and Hungary. East Germany seemed to be the last holdout, avoiding any commitment to actual reforms that would lead to more freedom for its citizens.
It was on November 9, 1989, that Gunter Schabowski, an official in the East German government, at a hastily arranged international press conference, provided an uncertain answer to a question posed by an Italian journalist regarding when it would be lawful for East Germans to travel freely to other parts of Europe, including West Berlin. Schabowski seemed to be caught off guard by the question and began reading from notes he had been handed shortly before opening the press conference. His answer seemed to convey that East Germans were free to transit to any points east and west, including West Germany and as he began to escape from the podium, he answered a follow up question with the words “ab sofort” (effective immediately).
Schabowski’s words spread quickly. Crowds on both sides of the Wall soon began growing and fearlessly climbing parts of the structure to exchange greetings and hugs with those on the other side. East German guards managing crossings from East Berlin to West Berlin were uncertain what to do, as they had received no orders regarding preventing or allowing free transit. They did nothing to stop the flow of East Germans doing something that was forbidden for the past three decades – freely traveling outside of their country. Over the ensuing weekend, more than two million East Germans crossed to the West to celebrate. The physical wall would begin to be torn down in the days ahead. Germany would be united again within a year.
The construction of the Berlin Wall, during 1961, was in reaction to the exodus of East Germans yearning to be free, to West Germany and other parts of Europe that took place from the early days of the German Democratic Republic through the 1950’s. The East Germany government realized the people fleeing were primarily educated and young, draining their country of the talented professionals and laborers the country would need to be an economic engine behind the Iron Curtain.
The Wall soon was viewed globally as an ugly scar on the German landscape and representative of an imposed division between people with a shared culture, heritage and language. The Berlin Wall, however, could not stop the human spirit’s universal yearning to be free. From 1961 through 1989, more than 5,000 people escaped to West Berlin by climbing over the wall, climbing over and through barbed wire at crossing areas, and jumping from buildings adjacent to the Wall. Tragically, more than one hundred seventy people are believed to have been killed while risking everything to cross into West Berlin, most of whom were shot by GDR guards.
November 9, 2024, marks thirty five years since the fall of the Wall, one of the most important events of the 20th century. A united Germany now stands as an important NATO bulwark against Russian aggression in Ukraine and an important global economic and human rights leader.
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Sources:
The Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall; Library of Congress; November 1, 2019 by David Morris
https://blogs.loc.gov/international-collections/2019/11/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-berlin-wall
What Happened The Day the Berlin Wall Fello; Time Magazine; November 7, 2019 by Albinko Hasic
https://time.com/5720386/berlin-wall-fall
The Fall of the Berlin Wall; UVA Miller Center