Key takeaways
- The Berlin Wall Foundation dates the Wall from its construction on 13 August 1961 to its fall on 9 November 1989.
- Hungary's opening of its border, including the Pan-European Picnic of 19 August 1989, let East Germans escape west through neighbouring countries.
- At a press conference on 9 November, Günter Schabowski said new travel rules took effect 'immediately', which Wikipedia calls a premature announcement.
- Crowds gathered at the checkpoints and the Bornholmer Strasse crossing opened at 22:45 (alternatively given as 23:30) that night.
- The Berlin Wall Foundation counts at least 140 people killed or who died at the Wall in connection with the border regime; Germany reunified on 3 October 1990.
The Berlin Wall fell on the night of 9 November 1989, when East Berlin border guards, faced with crowds who had heard on television that they could now travel freely, opened the crossings to the West. The US State Department's Office of the Historian describes it as the moment "thousands of jubilant Germans brought down the most visible symbol of division at the heart of Europe," and notes that just as the Wall had represented the division of Europe, "its fall came to represent the end of the Cold War."
Why 1989, and why that night? The answer has a long cause, a medium one and a short, almost accidental one.
What the Wall was, and what it cost
The Berlin Wall Foundation, which runs the memorial on Bernauer Strasse, dates the Wall from its construction on 13 August 1961 to its fall on 9 November 1989 — 28 years. Wikipedia describes two concrete walls about 4 metres tall around the 155 km border of West Berlin, separated by a mined "death strip" with 302 watchtowers by 1989, and guards authorised to shoot people trying to cross.
The Foundation's count of the dead is careful and categorised:
| Group | Deaths, 1961–1989 |
|---|---|
| People trying to flee: shot, died in accidents or took their own lives | 101 |
| People from East and West not trying to flee, shot or killed in accidents | 30 |
| A Soviet soldier | 1 |
| On-duty East German border soldiers, killed by deserters, comrades, a refugee, an escape helper or a West Berlin policeman | 8 |
| Total | at least 140 |
The categories add up exactly: 101 + 30 + 1 + 8 = 140. The Foundation is explicit about what that number leaves out: at least 251 travellers who died during or after passing through checkpoints, and "unknown numbers of people" who suffered and died from the distress the Wall caused. Wikipedia's opening line speaks of "hundreds" killed trying to cross the Iron Curtain — a figure for the whole fortified border, not just Berlin. Being clear which border a number refers to is most of the work.
The long cause: a Soviet Union that would no longer intervene
The Office of the Historian stresses that the peaceful collapse "was by no means pre-ordained." Soviet tanks had crushed demonstrators in East Berlin in June 1953, in Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968. What changed after 1985 was Mikhail Gorbachev, whose reforms legitimised calls for change, and who made clear — first privately, then publicly — that the Soviet Union had abandoned military intervention to support communist regimes. In Poland, Round Table talks opened on 6 February 1989, and Solidarity won elections on 4 June. The wider frame is in the Cold War explained.
The medium cause: a hole in the Iron Curtain
East Germans found a way around the Wall rather than through it. Wikipedia describes Hungary removing its border fence in May 1989, and the Pan-European Picnic on the Austrian–Hungarian border on 19 August setting off "a peaceful chain reaction." Tens of thousands of East Germans headed for Hungary, and thousands more crowded into the West German embassy in Prague. On 30 September, the West German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher told the Prague refugees from the embassy balcony that they could leave; his words were drowned out by cheers.
At home the regime buckled. Erich Honecker stepped down on 18 October in favour of Egon Krenz; protests continued; the Alexanderplatz demonstration took place on 4 November; and a draft travel law published on 6 November was denounced as "complete trash" by West Berlin's mayor. On 7 November Prime Minister Willi Stoph and two-thirds of the Politburo resigned.
The short cause: a press conference on 9 November
The final trigger was a briefing that went wrong. Wikipedia reconstructs it: Günter Schabowski, the party's spokesman, began an hour-long live press conference at 18:00, having been handed a note about new travel rules shortly beforehand without instructions on how to present it. At 18:53, prompted by a question from the Italian journalist Riccardo Ehrman, he read out that a new regulation allowed permanent emigration at any crossing. Asked when it took effect, he replied, after hesitating, "As far as I know, it takes effect immediately." He ended the conference at 19:00.
The news spread at once. Wikipedia records that West Germany's dpa agency issued a bulletin at 19:04, and West German television ran excerpts that evening. Crowds gathered at the six Berlin checkpoints demanding to be let through. At the Bornholmer Strasse crossing, the commander Harald Jäger finally let his guards open the gates at 22:45 — a time Wikipedia notes is "alternatively given as 23:30." It also cites an account that another officer, Heinz Schäfer, may have opened the Waltersdorf-Rudow crossing a couple of hours earlier. Small conflicts of testimony like these are exactly what how we know what historical figures did deals with.
From an open border to one Germany
The Wall's physical end took longer than its political end. Wikipedia says the East German Border Troops officially began dismantling it on 13 June 1990, continuing until December, producing an estimated 1.7 million tonnes of rubble. Free elections in spring 1990 showed support for reunification; the Deutsche Mark arrived in July; and on 3 October 1990 five new states joined the Federal Republic, with reunited Berlin as a sixteenth. From 9 November 1989 to 3 October 1990 is under eleven months. The first unification of 1871, built by war rather than by crowds, is told in the unification of Germany.
Whether the opening of a checkpoint counts as a turning point or merely marks one is a good question for this night in particular.
World History Timeline Sim, our app, lets you browse 1989 by year and country, and its world map shows where events happened. Its Time Travel Mode explores what-if decisions whose outcomes are simulated, not historical, and the app is a companion to coursework. More history is in education and brain training.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
Why did the Berlin Wall fall in 1989?
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Sources
- Victims at the Berlin Wall (opens in a new tab)Berlin Wall Foundation (Stiftung Berliner Mauer) — accessed
- The Collapse of the Soviet Union and the Fall of Communism (opens in a new tab)Office of the Historian, US Department of State — accessed
- Fall of the Berlin Wall (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
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