On one Thursday night twenty years ago, the words “effective immediately,” spoken by accident, served as the tipping point for decades of tension and toppled the Berlin Wall. The wall had stood for 28 years, a symbol of the Cold War, of the battle between the remaining ideologies of Democracy and Communism after Nazism fell in WWII.
Historical Background of the Wall
When the Soviet Union, an ally of the U.S. during WWII, continued to assert their military power after the war, Europe was divided into East and West by the Iron Curtain, with Germany split down the center. The capital city of Berlin, which lies entirely in Germany’s eastern half, was itself split down the center, leaving West Berlin as an island inside the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR).
Since this intra-city border was relatively easy to cross, a wall encircling the whole of West Berlin was erected in 1961 to stop the emigration of East Germans to the more prosperous West Berlin. The wall went through many forms but eventually consisted of two separate concrete walls, topped by smooth pipe and separated by a “death strip” monitored by armed guards. Escapees who were shot trying to cross were often left to bleed to death in this no-man's land, to the horror of western news crews.
Beginnings of Change in East Berlin
In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary of the Soviet Union. His new policies of glasnost and perestroika [openness and reorganization] were an attempt to remedy the economic hardships that were causing increasing numbers of public protests. Gorbachev also allowed more autonomy among the satellite countries, leaving the matter of German reunification entirely up to Germany.
The first Monday in September 1989, weekly non-violent protest marches began in Leipzig, a city southwest of Berlin. The police injured and arrested many protestors, but each week their numbers grew by the thousands. On October 9th, 70 thousand protestors marched, shouting “Wir sind das Volk! [We are the people!]” and the police, realizing they too were the people, did not intervene. On November 4th, there were over a million protestors in East Berlin.
November 9th, 1989 - The Wall "Falls"
After a wave of resignations from high-ranking party members, the new GDR leader realized half measures would no longer work and decided to drop all travel restrictions. However, the spokesperson for the press conference on November 9th had been on vacation and was unaware of this new rule, which he read from a slip of paper he had been given. When asked when it would take effect he said, unsure, “To my knowledge, effective immediately.” This caused a mad rush on the border checkpoints. The guards had also not yet been informed of this decision, but they could not prevent the mob of people from rushing into West Berlin, where they were reunited with loved ones they had not seen in years. The cry changed from “Wir sind das Volk!” to “Wir sind ein Volk! [We are one people!]” On October 3, 1990 Germany was officially reunified and just over a year later the wall was completely dismantled.
After Effects of German Reunification
Though it advanced personal freedoms, the fall of the wall did not universally improve life for East Germans. It was not easy for citizens of a communist government, where jobs are provided by the state, to adjust to capitalism and the “brain drain” of the previous 40 years did not help. Twenty years later, unemployment among East Germans is still much higher than their Western counterparts.
Lingering consequences aside, the fall of the wall was an historic event that reunited a country and heralded the end of the Cold War. The plans for the 20th anniversary celebration in Berlin include constructing a line of 8-ft tall foam dominoes along the entire path of the wall and ceremoniously knocking it over.
Sources:
Offical Site for the 20th Anniversary Celebration
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