34 years ago, the November 9, 1989 the Berlin Wall collapsed which marked the end, in one fell swoop, of the division of Germany and the Cold War between East and West.
That evening thousands of people began to climb over and break down the wall which had separated Berlin and Europe for 28 years, since its construction in 1961. The demolition of the wall symbolized the end of the division between Western world and the communist bloc, already in decline due to Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika and uprisings in other Eastern European countries, such as Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Romania, along with the Tiananmen Square protest in China in 1989.
28 years of division
The Berlin Wall, symbol of the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, has divided Berlin for 28 years, from August 13, 1961 to November 9, 1989. It was a fortified structure 155 kilometers long and 3,6 meters high, with a moat another 3,5 meters deep and two reinforced concrete walls, accompanied by a "death strip" several tens of meters wide, militarily monitored by East Germany with guard dogs, barbed wire, 302 control towers and 14 thousand guards.
During the time the Berlin Wall was erected, they occurred around 5.000 escape attempts crowned with success by East German citizens towards West Berlin. It is estimated, however, that at least 133 people were killed (although some say the number could be higher than 200).
Why was the Wall created?
After the Second World War, during the Yalta Conference in 1945, Berlin was divided into four sectors controlled by the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and France. The Soviet sector, the largest, included the eastern districts of Berlin.
In 1948, the Soviet Union tried to occupy the entire city through the "Berlin blockade", provoking a response from the allies who set up an airlift to supply the western sectors. In 1949, the three western sectors became an integral part of West Germany and were surrounded by East Germany, becoming an island.
Initially, i citizens of Berlin could move freely in all areas, but as relations between East and West deteriorated, their movements were limited. In 1952, the border between East and West Germany was closed, but the attraction of the Western sectors grew for citizens of the East, leading to an influx of over 2,6 million people towards the West between the 1949 and the 1961.
In an attempt to stop theexodus from East Germany, the communist regime began building the Wall of Berlin on the night between 12 and 13 August 1961. Initially it was made of barbed wire, but soon prefabricated concrete and stone elements were used to create the first generation of the wall that completely surrounded West Berlin, transforming the western sectors into an island surrounded by the eastern territories. The USSR succeeded in its aim. Between 1962 and 1989 with the construction of the wall only five thousand people emigrated.
Last symbol of the Cold War
Berlin wall, symbol of the Cold War and of the Iron Curtain, it represented the last fortress to fall, remaining as symbol of the harsh regime of the German Democratic Republic (DDR), made up of limitations on freedom, movement, freedom of thought, thanks to unprecedented espionage and police activity by the feared Stasi.
A system that did not want to resign itself to falling, despite all the unequivocal signals that came from the now former Soviet world and from Gorbachev's own indifference, who isolated the President of the Council of State of the German Democratic Republic Erich Honecker, forcing him to manage the crisis (and the economic collapse) alone and to resign a few days before the fall of the Wall. However, not before having suffered the final humiliation, namely the request for a loan from the "enemy", the prosperous West Germany led by Helmut Kohl, who granted it in exchange for facilitating transit between the two Berlins.
November 9, 1989: the wall collapses
On the afternoon of November 9, 1989, Egon Krenz, general secretary of the East German Communist Party, had decided to open new passage points along the dividing line. A few hours later, Gunter Schabowski, spokesperson for the regime, showed up to answer questions from foreign journalists, including the Italian Riccardo Ehrman, ANSA correspondent at the time. It was he who asked Schabowki the fateful questions: "Why don't you admit that the measures taken to regulate travel don't work and are a mistake?".
During this press conference, in fact, Schabowski announced that the citizens of the East would could cross the border, but did not have detailed information on how and when this would be possible. The spokesperson did not understand that it was an intention and not a fact, and went unbalanced, thus allowing what would have happened sooner or later to happen anyway. So at 18,53,story time, when Ehrman presses with the question that will lead to the end of the GDR (“When will the Wall be torn down?”), Schabowski responds “Ab sofort”, immediately. And he also adds “Unverzueglich”, immediately. This was the moment that led to the final collapse of the Berlin Wall.
The announcement led to a wave of enthusiasm among the citizens of the East who rushed to the border crossings, forcing the border guards to let them pass. In a few minutes all the TV channels in the world documented West Berlin invaded by thousands of incredulous and cheering citizens from the East.
At the foot of the Wall, many citizens they took fragments in memory of this moment. In this festive atmosphere, Beethoven's notes mixed with those of Bach, coming from Checkpoint Charlie, where the famous cellist Mstislav Rostropovich he played a suite on the cello he had brought from Paris. Rostropovich had chartered a private plane to get to Berlin as quickly as possible, from where he had escaped twenty years earlier. No uniform of police of the East or West era visible in the crowd, who moved freely in a space where access was prohibited a few hours earlier, with the risk of arrest and even loss of life.
In the following days and weeks it became a ritual to arrive in Berlin to tear down the wall and take pieces of it: these people were called Mauerspechte (which in German literally means “wall peaks”).
The following year, on July 21, 1990, Roger Waters, leader of Pink Floyd, organized a spectacular concert to celebrate the fall of the Wall, staging a live performance of The Wall.
Germany was officially reunified on 3 October 1990, when the five states in the former GDR territory reconstituted themselves and joined the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany).
