Please visit the page “I Remember the Wall” to share your memories and comments for our commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Twenty years ago, on November 9, 1989, the world watched in amazement as jubilant crowds gathered on both sides of the Berlin Wall around midnight to celebrate the opening of the border crossings between the eastern and western parts of the city. A peaceful revolution in East Germany had finally cracked this grim symbol of Cold War and political oppression. It signaled the beginning of the end of Germany’s postwar division and national unity came less than a year later on October 3, 1990.

Erected on August 13, 1961 by the communist regime in East Germany, the Wall divided Berlin for 28 years. It cut right through the heart of the city, amputating vital traffic links and separating families and friends. Minefields and border police with shoot-to-kill orders thwarted any further attempts by East Germans to look for a better future in the West. While the communists tightened their grip on people’s lives in East Berlin, the western part of the city became a walled-in outpost of freedom and democracy.

Today, Berlin is once again Germany’s vibrant capital. The wounds of history have healed. Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, its vestiges remind us that freedom is precious. Freedom would not have prevailed and reunification would not have been achieved, in Berlin and in Germany as a whole, without the steadfast and unfaltering support of our American friends. We celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in a spirit of deep gratitude and with a desire to share our experience – the vision of hope, of unity, and of Freedom Without Walls.

(courtesy www.germany.info)

BERLIN WALL TIMELINE

1945 – World War II ends: The Allied Powers split Germany into four occupation zones, and its capital Berlin into four sectors.

1949 – Cold War: The Federal Republic of Germany emerges out of the US, British and French zones in the West. The Soviet Union establishes the communist German Democratic Republic (GDR) in their eastern zone, but cannot push the three Western powers out of Berlin.

1950s: Economic success of West Germany, fueled by the US Marshall Plan, and increased political repression at home swell the numbers of East Germans looking for a better life in the West. The GDR seals off the inner German border, leaving Berlin as the last loophole to the West.

1961 – August 13: All crossing points between the East and West Berlin are closed by GDR forces. Construction of the Berlin Walls begins.

1961 – August 22: The Wall claims its first of several hundred victims, when Ida Siekman falls to her death while trying to escape to the West by jumping out of her appartment at Bernauer Strasse. The exact number of Wall victims remains unknown.

1963 – June 26: President John F. Kennedy visits Berlin, reaffirming US support for this outpost of freedom with his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner!” (“I am a Berliner!”)speech.

1987 – June 12: President Ronald Reagan delivers a speech in front of Berlin’s iconic Brandenburg Gate in which he memorably demands: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

1989: Amidst increasing economic failure of the communist regime, the first protesters gather in Leipzig with calls for democratic reforms and individual rights. Their movement quickly spreads to all major cities in the GDR.

1989 – November 9: Unable to suppress this peaceful revolution and hoping to buy time, the GDR leadership lifts all previous travel restrictions to the West. Shortly before midnight, tens of thousands flock to the Berlin Wall. The border guards cannot hold them back. On the other side, jubilant crowds greet the first arrivals.

1990 – October 3: After the Wall fell, it was to be another 11 months before Germany was reunited. In the first (and last) free elections to East Germany’sVolkskammer (parliament) on March 18, 1990 the East German electorate voted by an overwhelming majority for those parties that demanded swift accession to West Germany. In summer 1990 a treaty to this effect was negotiated by the two Germanies. East Germany acceded to West Germany on October 3, 1990, which has since been celebrated as the Day of German Unity and is an official holiday in Germany.