Fall of the Berlin Wall

• East Germany was slow to adopt perestroika and glasnost.
• The German government banned Russian publications during the 1980s because they were too liberal.
• The Communist government was unable to contain its citizens’ desire for freedom once neighbouring states had abandoned Communism.
• As soon as democratic elections were announced in Hungary there was a mass movement of East German citizens through Hungary to West Germany.
• As a result, the East German government was forced to announce much greater freedom of travel for East German citizens.
• As part of this decision, on 9th November 1989 the East German government announced that East Germans would be allowed to cross the border with West Berlin
• On hearing this news thousands of East Berliners flooded the checkpoints in the wall, demanding entry into West Berlin.
• The border guards let them pass- the Berlin Wall had fallen. Over 1 million people a day had crossed the border.
• Many people started to chip away and dismantle parts of the wall, and ten new border crossings were created by the East German government in the following days. Many people were reunited with friends and relatives they had been separated from since the wall had been built 30 years before.
• Tension seemed to ease by the day as the power of the Soviet Union reduced.