Berlin Wall - Wikipedia Berlin Wall Not to be confused with the Inner German border or the chess moves also known as the Berlin Defence. For the video game, see The Berlin Wall ( video game ). Berlin Wall View from the West Berlin side of graffiti art on the Wall in 1986. The Wall 's `` death strip '', on the east side of the Wall, here follows the curve of the Luisenstadt Canal ( filled in 1932 ). Map of the location of the Berlin Wall, showing checkpoints General information Type Wall Country East Germany East Berlin ( Soviet - occupied sector of Berlin ) Coordinates 52 ° 30 ′ 58 '' N 13 ° 22 ′ 37 '' E ﻿ / ﻿ 52.51611 ° N 13.37694 ° E ﻿ / 52.51611 ; 13.37694 Coordinates : 52 ° 30 ′ 58 '' N 13 ° 22 ′ 37 '' E ﻿ / ﻿ 52.51611 ° N 13.37694 ° E ﻿ / 52.51611 ; 13.37694 Construction started 13 August 1961 Other dimensions Border length around West Berlin : 155 km ( 96 mi ) Border length between West Berlin and East Germany : 111.9 km ( 69.5 mi ) Border length between West and East Berlin : 43.1 km ( 26.8 mi ) Border length through residential areas in East Berlin : 37 km ( 23 mi ) Concrete segment of wall height : 3.6 m ( 11.8 ft ) Concrete segment of wall length : 106 km ( 66 mi ) Wire mesh fencing : 66.5 km ( 41.3 mi ) Anti-vehicle trenches length : 105.5 km ( 65.6 mi ) Contact / signal fence length : 127.5 km ( 79.2 mi ) Column track width : 7 m ( 7.7 yd ) Column track length : 124.3 km ( 77.2 mi ) Number of watch towers : 302 Number of bunkers : 20 Technical details Size 155 km ( 96.3 mi ) Eastern Bloc Soviet Socialist Republics Armenia Azerbaijan Byelorussia Estonia Georgia Kazakhstan Kirghizia Latvia Lithuania Moldavia Russian SFSR Tajikistan Turkmenia Ukraine Uzbekistan Allied states Hungarian People 's Republic Polish People 's Republic Czechoslovak Socialist Republic Socialist Republic of Romania German Democratic Republic People 's Republic of Bulgaria Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia ( to 1948 ) People 's Socialist Republic of Albania ( to 1961 ) Republic of Cuba People 's Revolutionary Government of Grenada People 's Republic of Benin People 's Republic of the Congo People 's Republic of Angola People 's Republic of Mozambique People 's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Somali Democratic Republic ( to 1977 ) People 's Democratic Republic of Yemen Democratic Republic of Afghanistan Mongolian People 's Republic People 's Republic of China ( to 1961 ) Democratic People 's Republic of Korea Socialist Republic of Vietnam Lao People 's Democratic Republic People 's Republic of Kampuchea Related organizations Cominform COMECON Warsaw Pact World Federation of Trade Unions ( WFTU ) World Federation of Democratic Youth ( WFDY ) Dissent and opposition Forest Brothers in Lithuania in Latvia in Estonia Operation `` Jungle '' Ukrainian Insurgent Army Goryani movement ( Bulgaria ) Romanian anti-communism Polish Cursed Soldiers 1953 uprisings in Plzeň in East Germany 1956 protests in Georgia in Poznań Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Novocherkassk massacre ( Russia ) 1968 events Prague Spring Invasion of Czechoslovakia Red Square demonstration Charter 77 ( Czechoslovakia ) Solidarity ( Poland ) Jeltoqsan ( Kazakhstan ) Braşov Rebellion ( Romania ) January Events ( Lithuania ) The Barricades ( Latvia ) April 9 tragedy ( Georgia ) Black January ( Azerbaijan ) Cold War events Marshall Plan 1948 Czechoslovak coup Tito -- Stalin split Berlin Blockade 1961 Berlin Wall crisis Cuban Missile Crisis 1980 Moscow Olympics Decline Singing Revolution Polish Round Table Agreement Revolutions of 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall January 1991 in Lithuania in Latvia Breakup of Yugoslavia Yugoslav Wars End of the Soviet Union Fall of communism in Albania Satellite image of Berlin, with the Wall 's location marked in yellow West and East Berlin borders overlaying a current road map ( interactive map ) The Berlin Wall ( German : Berliner Mauer, pronounced ( bɛʁˈliːnɐ ˈmaʊ̯ɐ ) ( listen ) ) was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Constructed by the German Democratic Republic ( GDR, East Germany ), starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall cut off ( by land ) West Berlin from virtually all of surrounding East Germany and East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989. Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and finished in 1992. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area ( later known as the `` death strip '' ) that contained anti-vehicle trenches, `` fakir beds '' and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc portrayed the Wall as protecting its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the `` will of the people '' in building a socialist state in East Germany. In practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that had marked East Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period. GDR authorities officially referred to the Berlin Wall as the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart ( German : Antifaschistischer Schutzwall ), by implication equating the NATO countries ( and West Germany in particular ) with fascists. The West Berlin city government sometimes referred to it as the `` Wall of Shame '', a term coined by mayor Willy Brandt in reference to the Wall 's restriction on freedom of movement. Along with the separate and much longer Inner German border ( IGB ), which demarcated the border between East and West Germany, it came to symbolize physically the `` Iron Curtain '' that separated Western Europe and the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. Before the Wall 's erection, 3.5 million East Germans circumvented Eastern Bloc emigration restrictions and defected from the GDR, many by crossing over the border from East Berlin into West Berlin ; from there they could then travel to West Germany and to other Western European countries. Between 1961 and 1989 the Wall prevented almost all such emigration. During this period over 100,000 people attempted to escape and over 5,000 people succeeded in escaping over the Wall, with an estimated death toll ranging from 136 to more than 200 in and around Berlin. In 1989 a series of revolutions in nearby Eastern Bloc countries -- Poland and Hungary in particular -- caused a chain reaction in East Germany that ultimately resulted in the demise of the Wall. After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the Wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, euphoric people and souvenir hunters chipped away parts of the Wall ; the governments later used industrial equipment to remove most of what was left. The `` fall of the Berlin Wall '' paved the way for German reunification, which formally took place on 3 October 1990. Contents 1 Background 1.1 Post-war Germany 1.2 Eastern Bloc and the Berlin airlift 1.3 Emigration westward in the early 1950s 2 Erection of the inner German border 2.1 Berlin emigration loophole 2.2 Brain drain 2.3 How Khrushchev -- Kennedy relations affected the construction of the wall 3 Construction begins, 1961 3.1 Immediate effects 3.2 Secondary response 4 Structure and adjacent areas 4.1 Layout and modifications 4.2 Surrounding municipalities 5 Official crossings and usage 5.1 Crossing 5.2 Defection attempts 6 Concerts by Western artists and growing anti-Wall sentiment 6.1 David Bowie, 1987 6.2 Bruce Springsteen, 1988 6.3 David Hasselhoff, 1989 7 `` Ich bin ein Berliner '' and `` Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall. '' 8 Fall of the Berlin Wall 8.1 Demolition 8.2 Opposition 8.3 Celebrations 8.4 20th anniversary celebrations 9 Legacy 9.1 Cultural differences 9.2 Wall segments around the world 9.3 50th anniversary commemoration 10 Related media 11 See also 12 References 13 External links Background Post-war Germany After the end of World War II in Europe, what remained of pre-war Germany west of the Oder - Neisse line was divided into four occupation zones ( as per the Potsdam Agreement ), each one controlled by one of the four occupying Allied powers : the United States, the United Kingdom, France and the Soviet Union. The capital of Berlin, as the seat of the Allied Control Council, was similarly subdivided into four sectors despite the city 's location, which was fully within the Soviet zone. Within two years, political divisions increased between the Soviets and the other occupying powers. These included the Soviets ' refusal to agree to reconstruction plans making post-war Germany self - sufficient and to a detailed accounting of the industrial plants, goods and infrastructure already removed by the Soviets. France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Benelux countries later met to combine the non-Soviet zones of the country into one zone for reconstruction and to approve the extension of the Marshall Plan. Eastern Bloc and the Berlin airlift Further information : Eastern Bloc and Berlin Blockade Play media Brandenburg Gate in 1945, after the end of World War II Following World War II, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin headed a group of nations on his Western border, the Eastern Bloc, that then included Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, which he wished to maintain alongside a weakened Soviet - controlled Germany. As early as 1945, Stalin revealed to German communist leaders that he expected to slowly undermine the British position within the British occupation zone, that the United States would withdraw within a year or two, and that nothing would then stand in the way of a united communist Germany within the bloc. The major task of the ruling communist party in the Soviet zone was to channel Soviet orders down to both the administrative apparatus and the other bloc parties, which in turn would be presented as internal measures. Property and industry was nationalized in the East German zone. If statements or decisions deviated from the described line, reprimands and ( for persons outside public attention ) punishment would ensue, such as imprisonment, torture and even death. Indoctrination of Marxism - Leninism became a compulsory part of school curricula, sending professors and students fleeing to the West. The East Germans created an elaborate political police apparatus that kept the population under close surveillance, including Soviet SMERSH secret police. In 1948, following disagreements regarding reconstruction and a new German currency, Stalin instituted the Berlin Blockade, preventing food, materials and supplies from arriving in West Berlin. The United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and several other countries began a massive `` airlift '', supplying West Berlin with food and other supplies. The Soviets mounted a public relations campaign against the Western policy change. Communists attempted to disrupt the elections of 1948, preceding large losses therein, while 300,000 Berliners demonstrated for the international airlift to continue. In May 1949, Stalin lifted the blockade, permitting the resumption of Western shipments to Berlin. The German Democratic Republic ( East Germany ) was declared on 7 October 1949. By a secret treaty, the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs accorded the East German state administrative authority, but not autonomy. The Soviets permeated East German administrative, military and secret police structures and had full control. East Germany differed from West Germany ( Federal Republic of Germany ), which developed into a Western capitalist country with a social market economy ( `` Soziale Marktwirtschaft '' in German ) and a democratic parliamentary government. Continual economic growth starting in the 1950s fuelled a 20 - year `` economic miracle '' ( `` Wirtschaftswunder '' ). As West Germany 's economy grew, and its standard of living steadily improved, many East Germans wanted to move to West Germany. Emigration westward in the early 1950s Main articles : Eastern Bloc emigration and defection and Eastern Bloc After the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe at the end of World War II, the majority of those living in the newly acquired areas of the Eastern Bloc aspired to independence and wanted the Soviets to leave. Taking advantage of the zonal border between occupied zones in Germany, the number of GDR citizens moving to West Germany totaled 187,000 in 1950 ; 165,000 in 1951 ; 182,000 in 1952 ; and 331,000 in 1953. One reason for the sharp 1953 increase was fear of potential further Sovietization, given the increasingly paranoid actions of Joseph Stalin in late 1952 and early 1953. 226,000 had fled in just the first six months of 1953. Erection of the inner German border Further information : Inner German border and Eastern Bloc emigration and defection By the early 1950s, the Soviet approach to controlling national movement, restricting emigration, was emulated by most of the rest of the Eastern Bloc, including East Germany. The restrictions presented a quandary for some Eastern Bloc states, which had been more economically advanced and open than the Soviet Union, such that crossing borders seemed more natural -- especially where no prior border existed between East and West Germany. Up until 1952, the demarcation lines between East Germany and the western occupied zones could be easily crossed in most places. On 1 April 1952, East German leaders met the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in Moscow ; during the discussions Stalin 's foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov proposed that the East Germans should `` introduce a system of passes for visits of West Berlin residents to the territory of East Berlin ( so as to stop ) free movement of Western agents '' in the GDR. Stalin agreed, calling the situation `` intolerable ''. He advised the East Germans to build up their border defenses, telling them that `` The demarcation line between East and West Germany should be considered a border -- and not just any border, but a dangerous one... The Germans will guard the line of defence with their lives. '' Consequently, the inner German border between the two German states was closed, and a barbed - wire fence erected. The border between the Western and Eastern sectors of Berlin, however, remained open, although traffic between the Soviet and the Western sectors was somewhat restricted. This resulted in Berlin becoming a magnet for East Germans desperate to escape life in the GDR, and also a flashpoint for tension between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1955, the Soviets gave East Germany authority over civilian movement in Berlin, passing control to a regime not recognized in the West. Initially, East Germany granted `` visits '' to allow its residents access to West Germany. However, following the defection of large numbers of East Germans under this regime, the new East German state legally restricted virtually all travel to the West in 1956. Soviet East German ambassador Mikhail Pervukhin observed that `` the presence in Berlin of an open and essentially uncontrolled border between the socialist and capitalist worlds unwittingly prompts the population to make a comparison between both parts of the city, which unfortunately does not always turn out in favour of Democratic ( East ) Berlin. '' Berlin emigration loophole With the closing of the inner German border officially in 1952, the border in Berlin remained considerably more accessible then because it was administered by all four occupying powers. Accordingly, Berlin became the main route by which East Germans left for the West. On 11 December 1957, East Germany introduced a new passport law that reduced the overall number of refugees leaving Eastern Germany. It had the unintended result of drastically increasing the percentage of those leaving through West Berlin from 60 % to well over 90 % by the end of 1958. Those caught trying to leave East Berlin were subjected to heavy penalties, but with no physical barrier and subway train access still available to West Berlin, such measures were ineffective. The Berlin sector border was essentially a `` loophole '' through which Eastern Bloc citizens could still escape. The 3.5 million East Germans who had left by 1961 totalled approximately 20 % of the entire East German population. An important reason that crossing the inner German border was not stopped earlier was that doing so would cut off much of the railway traffic in East Germany. Construction of a new railway bypassing West Berlin, the Berlin outer ring, commenced in 1951. Following the completion of the railway in 1961, closing the border became a more practical proposition. ( See History of rail transport in Germany. ) Brain drain The emigrants tended to be young and well - educated, leading to the `` brain drain '' feared by officials in East Germany. Yuri Andropov, then the CPSU Director on Relations with Communist and Workers ' Parties of Socialist Countries, wrote an urgent letter on 28 August 1958, to the Central Committee about the significant 50 % increase in the number of East German intelligentsia among the refugees. Andropov reported that, while the East German leadership stated that they were leaving for economic reasons, testimony from refugees indicated that the reasons were more political than material. He stated `` the flight of the intelligentsia has reached a particularly critical phase. '' An East German SED propaganda booklet published in 1955 dramatically described the serious nature of ' flight from the republic ' : Both from the moral standpoint as well as in terms of the interests of the whole German nation, leaving the GDR is an act of political and moral backwardness and depravity. Those who let themselves be recruited objectively serve West German Reaction and militarism, whether they know it or not. Is it not despicable when for the sake of a few alluring job offers or other false promises about a `` guaranteed future '' one leaves a country in which the seed for a new and more beautiful life is sprouting, and is already showing the first fruits, for the place that favours a new war and destruction ? Is it not an act of political depravity when citizens, whether young people, workers, or members of the intelligentsia, leave and betray what our people have created through common labour in our republic to offer themselves to the American or British secret services or work for the West German factory owners, Junkers, or militarists ? Does not leaving the land of progress for the morass of an historically outdated social order demonstrate political backwardness and blindness ?... ( W ) orkers throughout Germany will demand punishment for those who today leave the German Democratic Republic, the strong bastion of the fight for peace, to serve the deadly enemy of the German people, the imperialists and militarists. By 1960, the combination of World War II and the massive emigration westward left East Germany with only 61 % of its population of working age, compared to 70.5 % before the war. The loss was disproportionately heavy among professionals : engineers, technicians, physicians, teachers, lawyers and skilled workers. The direct cost of manpower losses to East Germany ( and corresponding gain to the West ) has been estimated at $7 billion to $9 billion, with East German party leader Walter Ulbricht later claiming that West Germany owed him $17 billion in compensation, including reparations as well as manpower losses. In addition, the drain of East Germany 's young population potentially cost it over 22.5 billion marks in lost educational investment. The brain drain of professionals had become so damaging to the political credibility and economic viability of East Germany that the re-securing of the German communist frontier was imperative. The exodus of emigrants from East Germany presented two minor potential benefits : an easy opportunity to smuggle East German secret agents to West Germany, and a reduction in the number of citizens hostile to the communist regime. Neither of these advantages, however, proved particularly useful. How Khrushchev -- Kennedy relations affected the construction of the Wall In April 1961, Khrushchev gained an impression that Kennedy is not very smart when he saw Washington supporting the failed invasion of Cuba by anti-communist exiles which were than left to their fate. Khrushchev decided to alarm rather than appease the president. He soon revealed his intention of signing the separate peace treaty with East Germany that would abolish allied rights in West Berlin. One of his intentions was therefore to get whole of the Berlin. However, this action had risks behind it. The risks that we are taking is justified. If we look at it in the terms of a percentage, there is more than a 95 % chance that there will be no war. It meant that 5 % was an actual chance of having a war. Khrushchev 's assumptions about Kennedy were false. He made clear that the chance of having a war was bigger that 5 %. He showed the unpredictability of US 's policy. All though Soviet forces were not on high alert, the plans were nonetheless changed to deal with the consequences of the Kennedy 's actions. It was then decided to block the access of the West Berlin from the East. That is when the construction of the wall started. Construction begins, 1961 East German Combat Groups of the Working Class close the border on 13 August 1961 in preparation of the Berlin Wall construction. East German construction workers building the Berlin Wall, 20 November 1961. On 15 June 1961, First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party and GDR State Council chairman Walter Ulbricht stated in an international press conference, `` Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten ! '' ( No one has the intention of erecting a wall ! ). `` It was the first time the colloquial term Mauer ( wall ) had been used in this context ''. The transcript of a telephone call between Nikita Khrushchev and Ulbricht on 1 August in the same year, suggests that the initiative for the construction of the Wall came from Khrushchev. However, other sources suggest that Khrushchev had initially been wary about building a wall, fearing negative Western reaction. What is beyond dispute, though, is that Ulbricht had pushed for a border closure for quite some time, arguing that East Germany 's very existence was at stake. Khrushchev had become emboldened upon seeing US President John F. Kennedy 's youth and inexperience show as weakness against Khrushchev 's brutal, undiplomatic aggression. This feeling of miscalculation and failure is admitted by Kennedy in the U.S. ambassador 's residence with New York Times columnist James `` Scotty '' Reston. Kennedy made the regrettable error of admitting that the US would not actively oppose this action in the Soviet sector of Berlin. On Saturday, 12 August 1961, the leaders of the GDR attended a garden party at a government guesthouse in Döllnsee, in a wooded area to the north of East Berlin. There Ulbricht signed the order to close the border and erect a wall. At midnight, the police and units of the East German army began to close the border and, by Sunday morning, 13 August, the border with West Berlin was closed. East German troops and workers had begun to tear up streets running alongside the border to make them impassable to most vehicles and to install barbed wire entanglements and fences along the 156 kilometres ( 97 mi ) around the three western sectors, and the 43 kilometres ( 27 mi ) that divided West and East Berlin. The date of 13 August became commonly referred to as Barbed Wire Sunday in Germany. The barrier was built inside East Berlin or East German territory to ensure that it did not encroach on West Berlin at any point. Generally, the Wall was only slightly inside East Berlin, but in a few places it was some distance from the legal border, most notably at Potsdamer Bahnhof and the Lenné Triangle that is now much of the Potsdamer Platz development. Later, the initial barrier was built up into the Wall proper, the first concrete elements and large blocks being put in place on 17 August. During the construction of the Wall, National People 's Army ( NVA ) and Combat Groups of the Working Class ( KdA ) soldiers stood in front of it with orders to shoot anyone who attempted to defect. Additionally, chain fences, walls, minefields and other obstacles were installed along the length of East Germany 's western border with West Germany proper. A huge no man 's land was cleared to provide a clear line of fire at fleeing refugees. Immediate effects US President John F. Kennedy visiting the Berlin Wall on 26 June 1963 With the closing of the East - West sector boundary in Berlin, the vast majority of East Germans could no longer travel or emigrate to West Germany. Berlin soon went from being the easiest place to make an unauthorized crossing between East and West Germany to being the most difficult. Many families were split, while East Berliners employed in the West were cut off from their jobs. West Berlin became an isolated exclave in a hostile land. West Berliners demonstrated against the Wall, led by their Mayor ( Oberbürgermeister ) Willy Brandt, who strongly criticized the United States for failing to respond. Allied intelligence agencies had hypothesized about a wall to stop the flood of refugees, but the main candidate for its location was around the perimeter of the city. In 1961, Secretary of State Dean Rusk proclaimed, `` The Wall certainly ought not to be a permanent feature of the European landscape. I see no reason why the Soviet Union should think it is -- it is to their advantage in any way to leave there that monument to communist failure. '' United States and UK sources had expected the Soviet sector to be sealed off from West Berlin, but were surprised by how long the East Germans took for such a move. They considered the Wall as an end to concerns about a GDR / Soviet retaking or capture of the whole of Berlin ; the Wall would presumably have been an unnecessary project if such plans were afloat. Thus they concluded that the possibility of a Soviet military conflict over Berlin had decreased. The East German government claimed that the Wall was an `` anti-fascist protective rampart '' ( German : `` antifaschistischer Schutzwall '' ) intended to dissuade aggression from the West. Another official justification was the activities of Western agents in Eastern Europe. The Eastern German government also claimed that West Berliners were buying out state - subsidized goods in East Berlin. East Germans and others greeted such statements with skepticism, as most of the time, the border was only closed for citizens of East Germany traveling to the West, but not for residents of West Berlin travelling to the East. The construction of the Wall had caused considerable hardship to families divided by it. Most people believed that the Wall was mainly a means of preventing the citizens of East Germany from entering or fleeing to West Berlin. Secondary response Play media Universal Newsreel of the 1st anniversary of the Berlin Wall The National Security Agency was the only American intelligence agency that was aware that East Germany was to take action to deal with the brain drain problem. On 9 August 1961, the NSA intercepted an advance warning information of the Socialist Unity Party 's plan to close the intra-Berlin border between East and West Berlin completely for foot traffic. The interagency intelligence Berlin Watch Committee assessed that this intercept `` might be the first step in a plan to close the border. '' This warning did not reach U.S. President John F. Kennedy until noon on 13 August 1961, while he was vacationing in his yacht off the Kennedy Compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. While Kennedy was angry that he had no advance warning, he was relieved that the East Germans and the Soviets had only divided Berlin without taking any action against West Berlin 's access to the West. However, he denounced the Berlin Wall, whose erection worsened the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. In response to the erection of the Berlin Wall, a retired general, Lucius D. Clay, was appointed by Kennedy as his special advisor and sent to Berlin with ambassadorial rank. Clay had been the Military Governor of the US Zone of Occupation in Germany during the period of the Berlin Blockade and had ordered the first measures in what became the Berlin Airlift. He was immensely popular with the residents of West Berlin, and his appointment was an unambiguous sign that Kennedy would not compromise on the status of West Berlin. Clay and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson arrived at Tempelhof Airport on the afternoon of Saturday, 19 August 1961. They arrived in a city defended by three Allied brigades -- one each from the UK, the US, and France ( the Forces Françaises à Berlin ). On 16 August, Kennedy had given the order for them to be reinforced. Early on 19 August, the 1st Battle Group, 18th Infantry ( commanded by Colonel Glover S. Johns Jr. ) was alerted. On Sunday morning, U.S. troops marched from West Germany through East Germany, bound for West Berlin. Lead elements -- arranged in a column of 491 vehicles and trailers carrying 1,500 men, divided into five march units -- left the Helmstedt - Marienborn checkpoint at 06 : 34. At Marienborn, the Soviet checkpoint next to Helmstedt on the West German - East German border, US personnel were counted by guards. The column was 160 kilometres ( 99 mi ) long, and covered 177 kilometres ( 110 mi ) from Marienborn to Berlin in full battle gear. East German police watched from beside trees next to the autobahn all the way along. The front of the convoy arrived at the outskirts of Berlin just before noon, to be met by Clay and Johnson, before parading through the streets of Berlin in front of a large crowd. At 04 : 00 on 21 August, Lyndon Johnson left West Berlin in the hands of General Frederick O. Hartel and his brigade of 4,224 officers and men. `` For the next three and a half years, American battalions would rotate into West Berlin, by autobahn, at three month intervals to demonstrate Allied rights to the city ''. The creation of the Wall had important implications for both German states. By stemming the exodus of people from East Germany, the East German government was able to reassert its control over the country : in spite of discontent with the Wall, economic problems caused by dual currency and the black market were largely eliminated. The economy in the GDR began to grow. But, the Wall proved a public relations disaster for the communist bloc as a whole. Western powers portrayed it as a symbol of communist tyranny, particularly after East German border guards shot and killed would - be defectors. Such fatalities were later treated as acts of murder by the reunified Germany. Structure and adjacent areas Layout and modifications The wall overview Length ( km ) Description 156.4 0 Bordering around West Berlin within 3.4 m and 4.2 m in height 111.9 0 Concrete walls 44.5 0 Metal mesh fence ( along death strip ) 112.7 0 Cross attachment in Potsdam 43.7 0 Cross attachment along the border of East and West Berlin 0.5 0 Remains of house fronts, land mansion bricks 58.95 Wall - shaped front wall with a height of 3.40 m 68.42 Expanded metal fence with a height of 2.90 m as a `` front barrier '' 161 00 Light strip 113.85 Limit signal and barrier fence ( GSSZ ) 127.5 0 Contact and signal fence 124.3 0 Border patrol Actual number Descriptions 186 Observation towers ( 302 in West - Berlin ) 31 Implementing agencies 259 Dog runs 20 Bunker East Berlin `` death strip '' of the Berlin Wall, as seen from the Axel Springer AG Building, 1984. This section of the Wall 's `` death strip '' featured Czech hedgehogs, a guard tower and a cleared area, 1977. The top of the Wall was lined with a smooth pipe, intended to make it more difficult to scale. The areas just outside the wall, including the sidewalk, are de jure Eastern Bloc territory. 1984. Structure of the Berlin Wall. Position and course of the Berlin Wall and its border control checkpoints ( 1989 ). The Berlin Wall was more than 140 kilometres ( 87 mi ) long. In June 1962, a second, parallel fence was built some 100 metres ( 110 yd ) farther into East German territory. The houses contained between the fences were razed and the inhabitants relocated, thus establishing what later became known as the death strip. The death strip was covered with raked sand or gravel, rendering footprints easy to notice, easing the detection of trespassers and also enabling officers to see which guards had neglected their task ; it offered no cover ; and, most importantly, it offered clear fields of fire for the Wall guards. Through the years, the Berlin Wall evolved through four versions : Wire fence and concrete block wall ( 1961 ) Improved wire fence ( 1962 -- 1965 ) Improved concrete wall ( 1965 -- 1975 ) Grenzmauer 75 ( Border Wall 75 ) ( 1975 -- 1989 ) The `` fourth - generation Wall '', known officially as `` Stützwandelement UL 12.11 '' ( retaining wall element UL 12.11 ), was the final and most sophisticated version of the Wall. Begun in 1975 and completed about 1980, it was constructed from 45,000 separate sections of reinforced concrete, each 3.6 metres ( 12 ft ) high and 1.2 metres ( 3.9 ft ) wide, and cost DDM 16,155,000 or about US $3,638,000. The concrete provisions added to this version of the Wall were done to prevent escapees from driving their cars through the barricades. At strategic points, the Wall was constructed to a somewhat weaker standard, so that East German and Soviet armored vehicles could easily break through in the event of war. The top of the wall was lined with a smooth pipe, intended to make it more difficult to scale. The Wall was reinforced by mesh fencing, signal fencing, anti-vehicle trenches, barbed wire, dogs on long lines, `` beds of nails '' ( also known as `` Stalin 's Carpet '' ) under balconies hanging over the `` death strip '', over 116 watchtowers, and 20 bunkers with hundreds of guards. This version of the Wall is the one most commonly seen in photographs, and surviving fragments of the Wall in Berlin and elsewhere around the world are generally pieces of the fourth - generation Wall. The layout came to resemble the inner German border in most technical aspects, except that the Berlin Wall had no landmines nor spring - guns. Maintenance was performed on the outside of the wall by personnel who accessed the area outside it either via ladders or via hidden doors within the wall. These doors could not be opened by a single person, needing two separate keys in two separate keyholes to unlock. As was the case with the inner German border, an unfortified strip of Eastern territory was left outside the wall. This outer strip was used by workers to paint over graffiti and perform other maintenance on the outside of the wall Unlike the inner German border, however, the outer strip was usually no more than four meters wide, and, in photos from the era, the exact location of the actual border in many places appears not even to have been marked. Also in contrast with the inner German border, little interest was shown by East German law enforcement in keeping outsiders off the outer strip ; sidewalks of West Berlin streets even ran inside it. Despite the East German government 's general policy of benign neglect, vandals were not unknown to have been pursued in the outer strip, and even arrested. In 1986, defector and political activist Wolfram Hasch and four other defectors were standing inside the outer strip defacing the wall when East German personnel emerged from one of the hidden doors to apprehend them. All but Hasch escaped back into the western sector. Hasch himself was arrested, dragged through the door into the death strip, and later convicted of illegally crossing the de jure border outside the wall. Noted graffiti artist Thierry Noir has reported having often been perused there by East German soldiers. While some graffiti artists were chased off the outer strip, others, such as Keith Haring, were seemingly tolerated. Surrounding municipalities Besides the sector - sector boundary within Berlin itself, the Wall also separated West Berlin from the present - day state of Brandenburg. The following present - day municipalities, listed in counter-clockwise direction, share a border with former West Berlin : Oberhavel : Mühlenbecker Land ( partially ), Glienicke / Nordbahn, Hohen Neuendorf, Hennigsdorf Havelland : Schönwalde - Glien, Falkensee, Dallgow - Döberitz Potsdam ( urban district ) Potsdam - Mittelmark : Stahnsdorf, Kleinmachnow, Teltow Teltow - Fläming : Großbeeren, Blankenfelde - Mahlow Dahme - Spreewald : Schönefeld ( partially ) Official crossings and usage See also : Berlin border crossings A You Are Leaving sign at a border of the American sector Road sign delimiting the British zone of occupation in Berlin, 1984 There were nine border crossings between East and West Berlin. These allowed visits by West Berliners, other West Germans, Western foreigners and Allied personnel into East Berlin, as well as visits by GDR citizens and citizens of other socialist countries into West Berlin, provided that they held the necessary permits. These crossings were restricted according to which nationality was allowed to use it ( East Germans, West Germans, West Berliners, other countries ). The most famous was the vehicle and pedestrian checkpoint at the corner of Friedrichstraße and Zimmerstraße, also known as Checkpoint Charlie, which was restricted to Allied personnel and foreigners. Several other border crossings existed between West Berlin and surrounding East Germany. These could be used for transit between West Germany and West Berlin, for visits by West Berliners into East Germany, for transit into countries neighbouring East Germany ( Poland, Czechoslovakia, Denmark ), and for visits by East Germans into West Berlin carrying a permit. After the 1972 agreements, new crossings were opened to allow West Berlin waste to be transported into East German dumps, as well as some crossings for access to West Berlin 's exclaves ( see Steinstücken ). Four autobahns connected West Berlin to West Germany, the most famous being the Berlin - Helmstedt autobahn, which entered East German territory between the towns of Helmstedt and Marienborn ( Checkpoint Alpha ), and which entered West Berlin at Dreilinden ( Checkpoint Bravo for the Allied forces ) in southwestern Berlin. Access to West Berlin was also possible by railway ( four routes ) and by boat for commercial shipping via canals and rivers. Non-German Westerners could cross the border at Friedrichstraße station in East Berlin and at Checkpoint Charlie. When the Wall was erected, Berlin 's complex public transit networks, the S - Bahn and U-Bahn, were divided with it. Some lines were cut in half ; many stations were shut down. Three western lines traveled through brief sections of East Berlin territory, passing through eastern stations ( called Geisterbahnhöfe, or ghost stations ) without stopping. Both the eastern and western networks converged at Friedrichstraße, which became a major crossing point for those ( mostly Westerners ) with permission to cross. Crossing Travel orders to go to Berlin as used by U.S. forces in the 1980s. West Germans and citizens of other Western countries could generally visit East Germany, often after applying for a visa at an East German embassy several weeks in advance. Visas for day trips restricted to East Berlin were issued without previous application in a simplified procedure at the border crossing. However, East German authorities could refuse entry permits without stating a reason. In the 1980s, visitors from the western part of the city who wanted to visit the eastern part had to exchange at least DM 25 into East German currency at the poor exchange rate of 1 : 1. It was forbidden to export East German currency from the East, but money not spent could be left at the border for possible future visits. Tourists crossing from the west had to also pay for a visa, which cost DM 5 ; West Berliners did not have to pay this. West Berliners initially could not visit East Berlin or East Germany at all -- all crossing points were closed to them between 26 August 1961 and 17 December 1963. In 1963, negotiations between East and West resulted in a limited possibility for visits during the Christmas season that year ( Passierscheinregelung ). Similar, very limited arrangements were made in 1964, 1965 and 1966. In 1971, with the Four Power Agreement on Berlin, agreements were reached that allowed West Berliners to apply for visas to enter East Berlin and East Germany regularly, comparable to the regulations already in force for West Germans. However, East German authorities could still refuse entry permits. East Berliners and East Germans could not, at first, travel to West Berlin or West Germany at all. This regulation remained in force essentially until the fall of the Wall, but over the years several exceptions to these rules were introduced, the most significant being : Elderly pensioners could travel to the West starting in 1965 Visits of relatives for important family matters People who had to travel to the West for professional reasons ( for example, artists, truck drivers, musicians, writers, etc. ) For each of these exceptions, GDR citizens had to apply for individual approval, which was never guaranteed. In addition, even if travel was approved, GDR travellers could exchange only a very small amount of East German Marks into Deutsche Marks ( DM ), thus limiting the financial resources available for them to travel to the West. This led to the West German practice of granting a small amount of DM annually ( Begrüßungsgeld, or welcome money ) to GDR citizens visiting West Germany and West Berlin to help alleviate this situation. Citizens of other East European countries were in general subject to the same prohibition of visiting Western countries as East Germans, though the applicable exception ( if any ) varied from country to country. Allied military personnel and civilian officials of the Allied forces could enter and exit East Berlin without submitting to East German passport controls, purchasing a visa or being required to exchange money. Likewise, Soviet military patrols could enter and exit West Berlin. This was a requirement of the post-war Four Powers Agreements. A particular area of concern for the Western Allies involved official dealings with East German authorities when crossing the border, since Allied policy did not recognize the authority of the GDR to regulate Allied military traffic to and from West Berlin, as well as the Allied presence within Greater Berlin, including entry into, exit from, and presence within East Berlin. The Allies held that only the Soviet Union, and not the GDR, had authority to regulate Allied personnel in such cases. For this reason, elaborate procedures were established to prevent inadvertent recognition of East German authority when engaged in travel through the GDR and when in East Berlin. Special rules applied to travel by Western Allied military personnel assigned to the Military Liaison Missions accredited to the commander of Soviet forces in East Germany, located in Potsdam. Allied personnel were restricted by policy when travelling by land to the following routes : Transit between West Germany and West Berlin Road : the Helmstedt - Berlin autobahn ( A2 ) ( checkpoints Alpha and Bravo respectively ). Soviet military personnel manned these checkpoints and processed Allied personnel for travel between the two points. Military personnel were required to be in uniform when traveling in this manner. Rail : Western Allied military personnel and civilian officials of the Allied forces were forbidden to use commercial train service between West Germany and West Berlin, because of GDR passport and customs controls when using them. Instead, the Allied forces operated a series of official ( duty ) trains that traveled between their respective duty stations in West Germany and West Berlin. When transiting the GDR, the trains would follow the route between Helmstedt and Griebnitzsee, just outside West Berlin. In addition to persons traveling on official business, authorized personnel could also use the duty trains for personal travel on a space - available basis. The trains traveled only at night, and as with transit by car, Soviet military personnel handled the processing of duty train travelers. ( See History of the Berlin S - Bahn. ) Entry into and exit from East Berlin Checkpoint Charlie ( as a pedestrian or riding in a vehicle ) As with military personnel, special procedures applied to travel by diplomatic personnel of the Western Allies accredited to their respective embassies in the GDR. This was intended to prevent inadvertent recognition of East German authority when crossing between East and West Berlin, which could jeopardize the overall Allied position governing the freedom of movement by Allied forces personnel within all Berlin. Ordinary citizens of the Western Allied powers, not formally affiliated with the Allied forces, were authorized to use all designated transit routes through East Germany to and from West Berlin. Regarding travel to East Berlin, such persons could also use the Friedrichstraße train station to enter and exit the city, in addition to Checkpoint Charlie. In these instances, such travelers, unlike Allied personnel, had to submit to East German border controls. Defection attempts Further information : List of deaths at the Berlin Wall NVA soldier Conrad Schumann defecting to West Berlin during the Wall 's early days in 1961. During the years of the Wall, around 5,000 people successfully defected to West Berlin. The number of people who died trying to cross the Wall, or as a result of the Wall 's existence, has been disputed. The most vocal claims by Alexandra Hildebrandt, Director of the Checkpoint Charlie Museum and widow of the Museum 's founder, estimated the death toll to be well above 200. A historic research group at the Center for Contemporary Historical Research ( ZZF ) in Potsdam has confirmed at least 140 deaths. Prior official figures listed 98 as being killed. The East German government issued shooting orders ( Schießbefehl ) to border guards dealing with defectors, though such orders are not the same as `` shoot to kill '' orders. GDR officials denied issuing the latter. In an October 1973 order later discovered by researchers, guards were instructed that people attempting to cross the Wall were criminals and needed to be shot : `` Do not hesitate to use your firearm, not even when the border is breached in the company of women and children, which is a tactic the traitors have often used ''. Early successful escapes involved people jumping the initial barbed wire or leaping out of apartment windows along the line, but these ended as the Wall was fortified. East German authorities no longer permitted apartments near the Wall to be occupied, and any building near the Wall had its windows boarded and later bricked up. On 15 August 1961, Conrad Schumann was the first East German border guard to escape by jumping the barbed wire to West Berlin. On 22 August 1961, Ida Siekmann was the first casualty at the Berlin Wall : she died after she jumped out of her third floor apartment at 48 Bernauer Strasse. The first person to be shot and killed while trying to cross to West Berlin was Günter Litfin, a twenty - four - year - old tailor. He attempted to swim across the Spree Canal to West Germany on 24 August 1961, the same day that East German police had received shoot - to - kill orders to prevent anyone from escaping. Another dramatic escape was carried out on April 1963 by Wolfgang Engels, a 19 - year - old civilian employee of the Nationale Volksarmee. Engels stole a Soviet armored personnel carrier from a base where he was deployed and drove it right into the Wall. He was fired at and seriously wounded by border guards. But a West German policeman intervened, firing his weapon at the East German border guards. The policeman removed Engels from the vehicle, which had become entangled in the barbed wire. Memorial to the Victims of the Wall, with graffiti, 1982. East Germans successfully defected by a variety of methods : digging long tunnels under the Wall, waiting for favorable winds and taking a hot air balloon, sliding along aerial wires, flying ultralights and, in one instance, simply driving a sports car at full speed through the basic, initial fortifications. When a metal beam was placed at checkpoints to prevent this kind of defection, up to four people ( two in the front seats and possibly two in the boot ) drove under the bar in a sports car that had been modified to allow the roof and windscreen to come away when it made contact with the beam. They lay flat and kept driving forward. The East Germans then built zig - zagging roads at checkpoints. The sewer system predated the Wall, and some people escaped through the sewers, in a number of cases with assistance from the Unternehmen Reisebüro. An airborne escape was made by Thomas Krüger, who landed a Zlin Z 42 M light aircraft of the Gesellschaft für Sport und Technik, an East German youth military training organization, at RAF Gatow. His aircraft, registration DDR - WOH, was dismantled and returned to the East Germans by road, complete with humorous slogans painted on it by RAF airmen, such as `` Wish you were here '' and `` Come back soon ''. DDR - WOH is still flying today, but under the registration D - EWOH. If an escapee was wounded in a crossing attempt and lay on the death strip, no matter how close they were to the Western wall, Westerners could not intervene for fear of triggering engaging fire from the ' Grepos ', the East Berlin border guards. The guards often let fugitives bleed to death in the middle of this ground, as in the most notorious failed attempt, that of Peter Fechter ( aged 18 ). He was shot and bled to death, in full view of the Western media, on 17 August 1962. Fechter 's death created negative publicity worldwide that led the leaders of East Berlin to place more restrictions on shooting in public places, and provide medical care for possible `` would - be escapers ''. The last person to be shot and killed while trying to cross the border was Chris Gueffroy on 6 February 1989, while the final person to die in an escape attempt was Winfried Freudenberg who was killed when his homemade natural gas - filled balloon crashed on 8 March 1989. The Wall gave rise to a widespread sense of desperation and oppression in East Berlin, as expressed in the private thoughts of one resident, who confided to her diary `` Our lives have lost their spirit... we can do nothing to stop them. '' Concerts by Western artists and growing anti-wall sentiment Every stone bears witness to the moral bankruptcy of the society it encloses -- Margaret Thatcher commenting about the wall, West Berlin, 1982 David Bowie, 1987 On 6 June 1987, David Bowie, who earlier for several years lived and recorded in West Berlin, played a concert close to the Wall. This was attended by thousands of Eastern concertgoers across the Wall, followed by violent rioting in East Berlin. According to Tobias Ruther, these protests in East Berlin were the first in the sequence of riots that led to those of November 1989. Although other factors were probably more influential in the fall of the Wall, on his death, the German Foreign Office tweeted `` Good - bye, David Bowie. You are now among # Heroes. Thank you for helping to bring down the # wall. '' Bruce Springsteen, 1988 On 19 July 1988, 16 months before the Wall came down, Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, played Rocking the Wall, a live concert in East Berlin, which was attended by 300,000 in person and broadcast delayed on television. Springsteen spoke to the crowd in German, saying : `` I 'm not here for or against any government. I 've come to play rock ' n ' roll for you in the hope that one day all the barriers will be torn down ''. East Germany and its FDJ youth organization were worried they were losing an entire generation. They hoped that by letting Springsteen in, they could improve their sentiment among East Germans. However, this strategy of `` one step backwards, two steps forwards '' backfired and the concert only made East Germans hungrier for more of the freedoms that Springsteen epitomized. While John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan delivered their famous speeches from the safety of West Berlin, Springsteen 's speaking out against the Wall in the middle of East Berlin added to the euphoria. David Hasselhoff, 1989 On 31 December 1989, American TV actor and pop music singer David Hasselhoff was the headlining performer for the Freedom Tour Live concert, which was attended by over 500,000 people on both sides of the Wall. The live concert footage was directed by music video director Thomas Mignone and aired on broadcast television station Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen ZDF throughout Europe. During shooting film crew personnel pulled people up from both sides to stand and celebrate on top of the wall. Hasselhoff sang his Number One hit song `` Looking For Freedom '' on a platform at the end of a twenty - meter steel crane that swung above and over the Wall adjacent to the Brandenburg Gate. `` Ich bin ein Berliner '' and `` Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall. '' Main articles : Ich bin ein Berliner and Tear down this wall ! Ich bin ein Berliner ( I am a Berliner ) speech Play media Speech from the Rathaus Schöneberg by John F. Kennedy, 26 June 1963. Duration 9 : 01. Ich bin ein Berliner ( `` I am a Berliner '' ) speech ( audio ) Audio - only version ( Duration 9 : 22 ) Problems playing these files ? See media help. Play media Complete speech by Ronald Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate, 12 June 1987. Famous passage begins at 11 : 10 into this video. On 26 June 1963, 22 months after the erection of the Berlin Wall, U.S. President John F. Kennedy visited West Berlin. Speaking from a platform erected on the steps of Rathaus Schöneberg for an audience of 450,000 he declared in his Ich bin ein Berliner speech the support of the United States for West Germany and the people of West Berlin in particular : Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was civis romanus sum ( `` I am a Roman citizen '' ). Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is `` Ich bin ein Berliner ! ''... All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words `` Ich bin ein Berliner ! '' The message was aimed as much at the Soviets as it was at Berliners and was a clear statement of U.S. policy in the wake of the construction of the Berlin Wall. The speech is considered one of Kennedy 's best, both a notable moment of the Cold War and a high point of the New Frontier. It was a great morale boost for West Berliners, who lived in an exclave deep inside East Germany and feared a possible East German occupation. In a speech at the Brandenburg Gate commemorating the 750th anniversary of Berlin on 12 June 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan challenged Mikhail Gorbachev, then the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to tear down the Wall as a symbol of increasing freedom in the Eastern Bloc : We welcome change and openness ; for we believe that freedom and security go together, that the advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall ! Fall of the Berlin Wall In June 1989 the Hungarian government began dismantling the electrified fence along its border with Austria ( with Western TV crews present ), and then, in September, more than 13,000 East German tourists escaped through Hungary to Austria. This set up a chain of events. The Hungarians prevented many more East Germans from crossing the border and returned them to Budapest. These East Germans flooded the West German embassy and refused to return to East Germany. The East German government responded by disallowing any further travel to Hungary, but allowed those already there to return to East Germany. This triggered similar events in neighboring Czechoslovakia. This time, however, the East German authorities allowed people to leave, provided that they did so by train through East Germany. This was followed by mass demonstrations within East Germany itself. Protest demonstrations spread throughout East Germany in September 1989. Initially, protesters were mostly people wanting to leave to the West, chanting `` Wir wollen raus ! '' ( `` We want out ! '' ). Then protestors began to chant `` Wir bleiben hier ! '' ( `` We are staying here ! '' ). This was the start of what East Germans generally call the `` Peaceful Revolution '' of late 1989. The protest demonstrations grew considerably by early November. The movement neared its height on 4 November, when half a million people gathered to demand political change, at the Alexanderplatz demonstration, East Berlin 's large public square and transportation hub. The longtime leader of East Germany, Erich Honecker, resigned on 18 October 1989 and was replaced by Egon Krenz that day. Honecker had predicted in January of that year that the Wall would stand for 50 or 100 more years if the conditions that had caused its construction did not change. The wave of refugees leaving East Germany for the West kept increasing. By early November refugees were finding their way to Hungary via Czechoslovakia, or via the West German Embassy in Prague. This was tolerated by the new Krenz government, because of long - standing agreements with the communist Czechoslovak government, allowing free travel across their common border. However this movement of people grew so large it caused difficulties for both countries. To ease the difficulties, the politburo led by Krenz decided on 9 November to allow refugees to exit directly through crossing points between East Germany and West Germany, including between East and West Berlin. Later the same day, the ministerial administration modified the proposal to include private, round - trip, travel. The new regulations were to take effect the next day. Günter Schabowski, the party boss in East Berlin and the spokesman for the SED Politburo, had the task of announcing the new regulations. However, he had not been involved in the discussions about the new regulations and had not been fully updated. Shortly before a press conference on 9 November, he was handed a note announcing the changes, but given no further instructions on how to handle the information. These regulations had only been completed a few hours earlier and were to take effect the following day, so as to allow time to inform the border guards. But this starting time delay was not communicated to Schabowski. At the end of the press conference, Schabowski read out loud the note he had been given. One of the reporters, ANSA 's Riccardo Ehrman, asked when the regulations would take effect. After a few seconds ' hesitation, Schabowski assumed it would be the same day based on the wording of the note and replied, `` As far as I know, it takes effect immediately, without delay ''. After further questions from journalists, he confirmed that the regulations included the border crossings through the Wall into West Berlin, which he had not mentioned until then. Excerpts from Schabowski 's press conference were the lead story on West Germany 's two main news programs that night -- at 7 : 17 p.m. on ZDF 's heute and at 8 p.m. on ARD 's Tagesschau. This meant that the news was broadcast to nearly all of East Germany as well. Later that night, on ARD 's Tagesthemen, anchorman Hanns Joachim Friedrichs proclaimed, `` This 9 November is a historic day. The GDR has announced that, starting immediately, its borders are open to everyone. The gates in the Wall stand open wide. '' After hearing the broadcast, East Germans began gathering at the Wall, at the six checkpoints between East and West Berlin, demanding that border guards immediately open the gates. The surprised and overwhelmed guards made many hectic telephone calls to their superiors about the problem. At first, they were ordered to find the `` more aggressive '' people gathered at the gates and stamp their passports with a special stamp that barred them from returning to East Germany -- in effect, revoking their citizenship. However, this still left thousands of people demanding to be let through `` as Schabowski said we can ''. It soon became clear that no one among the East German authorities would take personal responsibility for issuing orders to use lethal force, so the vastly outnumbered soldiers had no way to hold back the huge crowd of East German citizens. Finally, at 10 : 45 p.m., Harald Jäger, the commander of the Bornholmer Straße border crossing yielded, allowing for the guards to open the checkpoints and allowing people through with little or no identity checking. As the Ossis swarmed through, they were greeted by Wessis waiting with flowers and champagne amid wild rejoicing. Soon afterward, a crowd of West Berliners jumped on top of the Wall, and were soon joined by East German youngsters. They danced together to celebrate their new freedom. Walking through Checkpoint Charlie, 10 November 1989 Germans stand on top of the Wall in the days before it was torn down At the Brandenburg Gate, 10 November 1989 Juggling on the Wall on 16 November 1989 `` Mauerspecht '' ( November 1989 ) The Fall of the Wall ( November 1989 ) Another border crossing to the south may have been opened earlier. An account by Heinz Schäfer indicates that he also acted independently and ordered the opening of the gate at Waltersdorf - Rudow a couple of hours earlier. This may explain reports of East Berliners appearing in West Berlin earlier than the opening of the Bornholmer Straße border crossing. Demolition Play media A Berlin Wall segment in Los Angeles at 5900 Wilshire Boulevard. The fall of the Berlin Wall ( German : Mauerfall ) began the evening of 9 November 1989 and continued over the following days and weeks, with people nicknamed Mauerspechte ( wall woodpeckers ) using various tools to chip off souvenirs, demolishing lengthy parts in the process, and creating several unofficial border crossings. Television coverage of citizens demolishing sections of the Wall on 9 November was soon followed by the East German regime announcing ten new border crossings, including the historically significant locations of Potsdamer Platz, Glienicker Brücke, and Bernauer Straße. Crowds gathered on both sides of the historic crossings waiting for hours to cheer the bulldozers that tore down portions of the Wall to reconnect the divided roads. While the Wall officially remained guarded at a decreasing intensity, new border crossings continued for some time, including the Brandenburg Gate on 22 December 1989. Initially the East German military attempted repairing damage done by the `` Wall peckers '' ; gradually these attempts ceased, and guards became more lax, tolerating the increasing demolitions and `` unauthorized '' border crossing through the holes. West Germans and West Berliners were allowed visa - free travel starting 23 December. Until then, they could only visit East Germany and East Berlin under restrictive conditions that involved application for a visa several days or weeks in advance and obligatory exchange of at least 25 DM per day of their planned stay, all of which hindered spontaneous visits. Thus, in the weeks between 9 November and 23 December, East Germans could actually travel more freely than Westerners. On 13 June 1990, the East German military officially began dismantling the Wall, beginning in Bernauer Straße and around the Mitte district. From there, demolition continued through Prenzlauer Berg / Gesundbrunnen, Helligensee and throughout the city of Berlin until that December 1990. According to estimates by the border troops, a total of around 1.7 million tonnes of building rubble wasfall. Unofficially, the demolition of the Bornholmer Straße began because of construction work on the railway. This involved a total of 300 GDR border guards and - after 3 October 1990 - 600 Pioneers of the Bundeswehr. These were equipped with 175 trucks, 65 cranes, 55 excavators and 13 bulldozers. Virtually every road that was severed by the Berlin Wall ( that links from West Berlin to East Berlin ) was reconstructed and reopened by 1 August 1990. In Berlin alone, 184 km of wall, 154 km border fence, 144 km signal systems and 87 km barrier ditches were removed. What remained were six sections that were to be preserved as a memorial. Various military units dismantled the Berlin / Brandenberg border wall, completing the job in November 1991. Painted wall segments with artistically valuable motifs were auctioned in auctions in 1990 in Berlin and Monte Carlo. On 1 July, the day East Germany adopted the West German currency, all de jure border controls ceased, although the inter-German border had become meaningless for some time before that. The fall of the Wall marked the first critical step towards German reunification, which formally concluded a mere 339 days later on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of East Germany and the official reunification of the German state along the democratic lines of the West German Basic Law. An East German guard talks to a Westerner through a broken seam in the wall in late November 1989. A crane removes a section of the Wall near Brandenburg Gate on 21 December 1989. Almost all of the remaining sections were rapidly chipped away. December 1990. West Germans peer at East German border guards through a hole in the wall on 5 January 1990. Short section of the Berlin Wall at Potsdamer Platz, March 2009 Souvenir chunk of concrete from the Wall Opposition In some European capitals at the time, there was a deep anxiety over prospects for a reunified Germany. In September 1989, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher pleaded with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev not to let the Berlin Wall fall and confided that she wanted the Soviet leader to do what he could to stop it. `` We do not want a united Germany. This would lead to a change to postwar borders and we can not allow that because such a development would undermine the stability of the whole international situation and could endanger our security, '' Thatcher told Gorbachev. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, French President François Mitterrand warned Thatcher that a unified Germany could make more ground than Adolf Hitler ever had and that Europe would have to bear the consequences. Celebrations On 21 November 1989, Crosby, Stills & Nash performed the song `` Chippin ' Away '' from Graham Nash 's 1986 solo album Innocent Eyes in front of the Brandenburg Gate. On 25 December 1989, Leonard Bernstein gave a concert in Berlin celebrating the end of the Wall, including Beethoven 's 9th symphony ( Ode to Joy ) with the word `` Joy '' ( Freude ) changed to `` Freedom '' ( Freiheit ) in the lyrics sung. The poet Schiller may have originally written `` Freedom '' and changed it to `` Joy '' out of fear. The orchestra and choir were drawn from both East and West Germany, as well as the United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States. On New Year 's Eve 1989, David Hasselhoff performed his song `` Looking for Freedom '' while standing atop the partly demolished wall. Roger Waters performed the Pink Floyd album The Wall just north of Potsdamer Platz on 21 July 1990, with guests including Bon Jovi, Scorpions, Bryan Adams, Sinéad O'Connor, Cyndi Lauper, Thomas Dolby, Joni Mitchell, Marianne Faithfull, Levon Helm, Rick Danko and Van Morrison. Over the years, there has been a repeated controversial debate as to whether 9 November would make a suitable German national holiday, often initiated by former members of political opposition in East Germany, such as Werner Schulz. Besides being the emotional apogee of East Germany 's peaceful revolution, 9 November is also the date of the 1918 abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II and declaration of the Weimar Republic, the first German republic. However, 9 November is also the anniversary of the execution of Robert Blum in following the 1848 Vienna revolts, the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch and the infamous Kristallnacht pogroms of the Nazis in 1938. Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel criticized the first euphoria, noting that `` they forgot that 9 November has already entered into history -- 51 years earlier it marked the Kristallnacht. '' As reunification was not official and complete until 3 October, that day was finally chosen as German Unity Day. 20th anniversary celebrations On 9 November 2009, Berlin celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall with a `` Festival of Freedom '' with dignitaries from around the world in attendance for an evening celebration around the Brandenburg Gate. A high point was when over 1,000 colourfully designed foam domino tiles, each over 8 feet ( 2.4 m ) tall, that were stacked along the former route of the Wall in the city center were toppled in stages, converging in front of the Brandenburg Gate. A Berlin Twitter Wall was set up to allow Twitter users to post messages commemorating the 20th anniversary. The Chinese government quickly shut down access to the Twitter Wall after masses of Chinese users began using it to protest the Great Firewall of China. In the United States, the German Embassy coordinated a public diplomacy campaign with the motto `` Freedom Without Walls '', to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The campaign was focused on promoting awareness of the fall of the Berlin Wall among current college students. Students at over 30 universities participated in `` Freedom Without Walls '' events in late 2009. First place winner of the Freedom Without Walls Speaking Contest Robert Cannon received a free trip to Berlin for 2010. An international project called Mauerreise ( Journey of the Wall ) took place in various countries. Twenty symbolic Wall bricks were sent from Berlin starting in May 2009, with the destinations being Korea, Cyprus, Yemen, and other places where everyday life is characterised by division and border experience. In these places, the bricks will become a blank canvas for artists, intellectuals and young people to tackle the `` wall '' phenomenon. To commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Twinity reconstructed a true - to - scale section of the Wall in virtual Berlin. The MTV Europe Music Awards, on 5 November, had U2 and Tokio Hotel perform songs dedicated to, and about the Berlin Wall. U2 performed at the Brandenburg Gate, and Tokio Hotel performed `` World Behind My Wall ''. Palestinians in the town of Kalandia, West Bank pulled down parts of the Israeli West Bank barrier, in a demonstration marking the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. The International Spy Museum in Washington DC hosted a Trabant car rally where 20 Trabants gathered in recognition of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Rides were raffled every half - hour and a Trabant crashed through a Berlin Wall mock up. The Trabant was the East German people 's car that many used to leave DDR after the collapse. The Allied Museum in the Dahlem district of Berlin hosted a number of events to mark the Twentieth Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. The museum held a Special Exhibition entitled `` Wall Patrol -- The Western Powers and the Berlin Wall 1961 -- 1990 '' which focused on the daily patrols deployed by the Western powers to observe the situation along the Berlin Wall and the fortifications on the GDR border. A sheet of `` Americans in Berlin '' Commemorative Cinderella stamps designed by T.H.E. Hill, the author of Voices Under Berlin, was presented to the Museum by David Guerra, Berlin veteran and webmaster of the site www.berlinbrigade.com. The stamps splendidly illustrate that even twenty years on, veterans of service in Berlin still regard their service there as one of the high points of their lives. Legacy Remaining stretch of the Wall near Ostbahnhof in Friedrichshain called East Side Gallery, August 2006 Remains of the Wall adjacent to the Topography of Terror, August 2007 A memorial of over a thousand crosses and a segment of the Wall for those who died trying to cross. The memorial stood for ten months in 2004 and 2005 before it was removed. A `` BERLINER MAUER 1961 -- 1989 '' plaque near Checkpoint Charlie signifying where the Wall stood Display of two sections of the Wall and a `` You are leaving '' sign at Fort Gordon, Georgia The Berlin Wall from the East Berlin side, 1967 A sign reading `` Until we see each other again in the capital of the GDR '' Czech hedgehog antitank obstacles and the Wall An exhibition dedicated to the 25th anniversary to the Berlin Wall destruction was located at Potsdamer Platz Arkaden Line indicating where the Wall once stood, just off Potsdamer Platz, in 2015 Little is left of the Wall at its original site, which was destroyed almost in its entirety. Three long sections are still standing : an 80 - metre - long ( 260 ft ) piece of the first ( westernmost ) wall at the Topography of Terror, site of the former Gestapo headquarters, halfway between Checkpoint Charlie and Potsdamer Platz ; a longer section of the second ( easternmost ) wall along the Spree River near the Oberbaumbrücke, nicknamed East Side Gallery ; and a third section that is partly reconstructed, in the north at Bernauer Straße, which was turned into a memorial in 1999. Other isolated fragments, lampposts, other elements, and a few watchtowers also remain in various parts of the city. The former leadership in the Schlesischen Busch in the vicinity of the Puschkinallee -- the listed, twelve - meter high watchtower stands in a piece of the wall strip, which has been turned into a park, near the Lohmühleninsel The former `` Kieler Eck '' ( Kieler Eck ) on Kieler Strasse in Mitte, close to the Berlin - Spandau Schifffahrtskanal -- the tower is protected as a historic monument and now surrounded on three sides by new buildings. It houses a memorial site named after the Wallopfer Günter Litfin, who was shot at Humboldthafen in August 1961. The memorial site, which is run by the initiative of his brother Jürgen Liftin, can be viewed after registration. The former management office at Nieder Neuendorf, in the district of Hennigsdorf of the same name -- here is the permanent exhibition on the history of the border installations between the two German states. The former management station at Bergfelde, today the district of Hohen Neuendorf -- The tower is located in an already reforested area of the border strip and is used together with surrounding terrain as a nature protection tower by the Deutschen Waldjugend. The only one of the much slimmer observation towers ( BT - 11 ) in the Erna - Berger - Strasse also in Mitte -- however, was moved by a few meters for construction work and is no longer in the original location ; There is an exhibition about the wall in the area of the Potsdamer Platz in planning. Nothing still accurately represents the Wall 's original appearance better than a very short stretch at Bernauer Straße associated with the Berlin Wall Documentation Center. Other remnants are badly damaged by souvenir seekers. Fragments of the Wall were taken and some were sold around the world. Appearing both with and without certificates of authenticity, these fragments are now a staple on the online auction service eBay as well as German souvenir shops. Today, the eastern side is covered in graffiti that did not exist while the Wall was guarded by the armed soldiers of East Germany. Previously, graffiti appeared only on the western side. Along some tourist areas of the city centre, the city government has marked the location of the former Wall by a row of cobblestones in the street. In most places only the `` first '' wall is marked, except near Potsdamer Platz where the stretch of both walls is marked, giving visitors an impression of the dimension of the barrier system. After the fall of Berlin Wall, there were initiatives that they want to preserve the death strip walkways and redevelop it into a hiking and cycling area, known as Berliner Mauerweg. It is part of the initiative by Berlin Senate since 2005. Cultural differences For many years after reunification, people in Germany talked about cultural differences between East and West Germans ( colloquially Ossis and Wessis ), sometimes described as Mauer im Kopf ( The wall in the head ). A September 2004 poll found that 25 percent of West Germans and 12 percent of East Germans wished that East and West should be separated again by a `` Wall ''. A poll taken in October 2009 on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall indicated, however, that only about a tenth of the population was still unhappy with the unification ( 8 percent in the East ; 12 percent in the West ). Although differences are still perceived between East and West, Germans make similar distinctions between North and South. A 2011 poll conducted by Russia 's VTsIOM, found that more than half of all Russians do not know who built the Berlin Wall. Ten percent of people surveyed thought Berlin residents built it themselves. Six percent said Western powers built it and four percent thought it was a `` bilateral initiative '' of the Soviet Union and the West. Fifty - eight percent said they did not know who built it, with just 24 percent correctly naming the Soviet Union and its then - communist ally East Germany. Wall segments around the World Segment of the Berlin wall in the Sanctuary of Fátima, Portugal Main article : List of Berlin Wall segments Not all segments of the Wall were ground up as the Wall was being torn down. Many segments have been given to various institutions in the world. They can be found, for instance, in presidential and historical museums, lobbies of hotels and corporations, at universities and government buildings, and in public spaces in different countries of the world. Remains of the Berlin wall, still in its original spot, 2016 50th anniversary commemoration On 13 August 2011, Germany marked the 50th anniversary of East Germany beginning the erection of the Berlin Wall. Chancellor Angela Merkel joined with President Christian Wulff and Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit at the Bernauer Straße memorial park to remember lives and liberty. Speeches extolled freedom and a minute of silence at noon honored those who died trying to flee to the West. `` It is our shared responsibility to keep the memory alive and to pass it on to the coming generations as a reminder to stand up for freedom and democracy to ensure that such injustice may never happen again, '' entreated Mayor Wowereit. `` It has been shown once again : Freedom is invincible at the end. No wall can permanently withstand the desire for freedom '', proclaimed President Wulff. '' Related media Documentary films specifically about the Berlin Wall : The Tunnel, a NBC News Special documentary film broadcast in December 1962 The Road to the Wall, a 1962 documentary film Something to Do with the Wall, 1991 documentary about the fall of the Berlin Wall by Ross McElwee and Marilyn Levine, originally conceived as a commemoration of the 25th anniversary of its construction. Rabbit à la Berlin, a 2009 documentary film, directed by Bartek Konopka, told from point of view of a group of wild rabbits that inhabited the zone between the two walls Fictional films featuring the Berlin Wall have included : The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, 1965 -- Cold War classic set on both sides of The Wall, from the book by John le Carré, directed by Martin Ritt The Boy and the Ball and the Hole in the Wall, Spanish - Mexican co-production, 1965 Funeral in Berlin, 1966 -- Spy movie starring Michael Caine, directed by Guy Hamilton Casino Royale, 1967 -- featuring a segment centred on a house apparently bisected by the Wall. The Wicked Dreams of Paula Schultz, 1968 -- Cold War spy farce about an Olympic athlete who defects. Director George Marshall Berlin Tunnel 21, 1981 -- A made - for - TV movie about a former American officer leading an attempt to build a tunnel underneath The Wall as a rescue route. The Soldier, 1982 -- A renegade KGB team put nuclear weapons in Saudi Arabia to force America to make the Israelis pull out of the West Bank or the bomb will make 50 % of the world 's oil radioactive for decades. The title character of the movie has a team break into a missile silo in Smith Center, Kansas to obtain independent launch capability, then he and an Israeli security agent drive an automobile from West Germany over the Berlin Wall into East Germany where he informs the KGB agents that if the nuke goes off in Saudi Arabia, his team in Kansas will nuke Moscow. The Innocent, 1993 -- About the joint CIA / MI6 operation to build a tunnel under East Berlin in the 1950s. Directed by John Schlesinger The Tunnel, 2001 -- Dramatization of a collaborative tunnel under the Wall. Film by Roland Suso Richter In the 2015 film Bridge of Spies, Frederic Pryor, an American economics graduate student, visits his German girlfriend in East Berlin just as the Berlin Wall is being built. He tries to bring her back into West Berlin, but is stopped by Stasi agents and arrested as a spy. Some novels specifically about the Berlin Wall : John le Carré, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, 1963 -- Classic Cold War spy fiction Len Deighton, Berlin Game, 1983 -- Classic Cold War spy fiction T.H.E. Hill, The Day Before the Berlin Wall : Could We Have Stopped It ? -- An Alternate History of Cold War Espionage, 2010 -- based on a legend told in Berlin in the 1970s John Marks, The Wall, 1999 NYT Review -- an American spy defects to the East just hours before the Wall falls Marcia Preston, West of the Wall ( published as Trudy 's Promise in North America ), 2008 -- Left behind in East Berlin, the heroine waits for news of her husband after he makes his escape over the Berlin Wall Peter Schneider, The Wall Jumper, 1984 ( German : Der Mauerspringer, 1982 ) -- the Wall plays a central role in this novel set in Berlin of the 1980s Music related to the Berlin Wall `` West of the Wall, a 1962 top 40 hit by Toni Fisher, told the tale of two lovers separated by the newly - built Berlin Wall. `` Holidays in the Sun '', a song by the English punk rock band The Sex Pistols prominently mentions the Wall, specifically singer Johnny Rotten 's fantasy of digging a tunnel under it. David Bowie 's `` Heroes '' was inspired by the image of a couple kissing at the Berlin Wall ( in reality, the couple was his producer Tony Visconti and backup singer Antonia Maaß ). The song ( which, along with the album of the same name, were recorded in Berlin ), makes lyrical references to the kissing couple, and to the `` Wall of Shame '' ( `` the shame was on the other side '' ). Upon his death, the German Foreign Office paid homage to Bowie on Twitter, : see also above Over de muur ( nl ), a 1984 song by Dutch pop band Klein Orkest ( nl ), about the differences between East and West Berlin during the period of the Berlin Wall. `` Chippin ' Away '', a song by Tom Fedora, as performed by Crosby, Stills & Nash on the Berlin Wall appeared on Graham Nash 's 1986 solo album Innocent Eyes. The music video for Liza Fox 's song `` Free '' ( 2013 ) contain video clips of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Art related to the Berlin Wall In the year 1982 the West - German artist Elsner ( de ) created about 500 artworks along the former border strip around West - Berlin as part of his work series `` Border Injuries ''. On one of his actions he even tore down a large part of the Wall, installed a prepared foil of 3x2m in it and finished the painting there before the border soldiers on patrol could detect him. This performance was even recorded on video. His actions are well - documented both in newspapers from that time and in recent scientific publications. Video games related to the Berlin Wall 1999 's SimCity 3000 featured a scenario taking place at the end of the Cold War, where the player must demolish the wall and re-unite East and West Berlin, being given 5 years in the game to complete the task. The longer it takes to complete the goals results in riots in the city. The `` First Strike '' downloadable content pack for 2010s Call of Duty : Black Ops includes a multiplayer map that takes place at the Berlin Wall ( `` Berlin Wall '' ) The introductory video to the Rise and Fall expansion for Civilization VI depicts a woman striking the wall with a sledgehammer. In April 2018 game publisher Playway S.A. announced that Polish game studio K202 is working on The Berlin Wall game that will be published in December 2018. See also The Berlin Wall ( video game ) Brandenburg Gate Chapel of Reconciliation Checkpoint Charlie Checkpoint Charlie stand - off ( October 1961 ) Dissolution of the Soviet Union ( 1991 ) Green Line ( Beirut ) Inner German Border Korean Demilitarized Zone Military Demarcation Line List of walls Operation Gold Ostalgie Peace Lines ( Belfast ) Reunification of Jerusalem The Wall -- Live in Berlin ( rock opera / concert, 21 July 1990 ) References Notes ^ Jump up to : `` Untangling 5 myths about the Berlin Wall ''. 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Jump up ^ Gélin, Daniel ; Varela, Yolanda ; Arco, Nino Del ; Block, Karin ( 15 July 1965 ), The Boy and the Ball and the Hole in the Wall, retrieved 12 May 2017 Jump up ^ `` The Day Before The Berlin Wall : Could We have Stopped It ? ''. Voicesunderberlin.com. Retrieved 26 March 2013. Jump up ^ `` Cold War Reheated ''. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 26 March 2013. Jump up ^ Administrator. `` View the author 's website ''. Retrieved 1 November 2014. Jump up ^ Kollmeyer, Barbara ( 11 January 2016 ). `` David Bowie death triggers tributes from Iggy Pop, Madonna -- even the Vatican and the German government ''. MarketWatch. Retrieved 23 January 2016. Jump up ^ `` Klein Orkest biography ''. Sweetslyrics.com. Archived from the original on 24 September 2011. Retrieved 6 August 2011. Jump up ^ Crosby, Stills & Nash 1990 -- Chippin ' Away on YouTube Jump up ^ `` Liza Fox -- FREE ( Music Video ) ''. YouTube. Jump up ^ `` Die Mauer als Muse ''. The Wall fell on July 18th 1982. Lars von Törne in Der Tagesspiegel. Retrieved 13 March 2007. Jump up ^ `` ELSNER 's Border Injuries ''. artworks & video documentation. galerie son. Jump up ^ `` ELSNER ''. press archive. galerie son. Bibliography Böcker, Anita ( 1998 ). Regulation of Migration : International Experiences. Het Spinhuis. ISBN 90 - 5589 - 095 - 2. Buckley, William F., Jr. ( 2004 ). The Fall of the Berlin Wall. Hoboken, New Jersey : John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 0 - 471 - 26736 - 8. Cate, Curtis ( 1978 ). `` The Ides of August : The Berlin Wall Crisis -- 1961 ''. New York City : M. Evans. Childs, David ( 2001 ) The Fall of the GDR : Germany 's Road To Unity, Longman, Pearsoned.co.uk 2001. ISBN 978 - 0 - 582 - 31569 - 3, ISBN 0 - 582 - 31569 - 7 Childs, David, The GDR : Moscow 's German Ally, ( Second Edition 1988, First Edition 1983, George Allen & Unwin, London ) ISBN 0 - 04 - 354029 - 5, ISBN 978 - 0 - 04 - 354029 - 9. Childs, David, ( 2001 ) The Fall of the GDR, Longman. ISBN 0 - 582 - 31569 - 7 Amazon.co.uk Childs, David, ( 2000 ) The Two Red Flags : European Social Democracy & Soviet Communism Since 1945, Routledge. Informaworld.com Childs, David, ( 1991 ) Germany in the Twentieth Century, ( From pre-1918 to the restoration of German unity ), Batsford, Third edition. ISBN 0 - 7134 - 6795 - 9 Childs, David, ( 1987 ) East Germany to the 1990s Can It Resist Glasnost ?, The Economist Intelligence Unit. ISBN 0 - 85058 - 245 - 8, ISBN 978 - 0 - 85058 - 245 - 1. Worldcat.org Dale, Gareth ( 2005 ). Popular Protest in East Germany, 1945 -- 1989 : Judgements on the Street. Routledge. ISBN 0 - 7146 - 5408 - 6. Dowty, Alan ( 1989 ). Closed Borders : The Contemporary Assault on Freedom of Movement. Yale University Press. ISBN 0 - 300 - 04498 - 4. Gaddis, John Lewis ( 2005 ). The Cold War : A New History. Penguin Press. ISBN 1 - 59420 - 062 - 9. Harrison, Hope Millard ( 2003 ). Driving the Soviets Up the Wall : Soviet - East German Relations, 1953 -- 1961. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0 - 691 - 09678 - 3. Catudal, Honoré M. ( 1980 ). `` Kennedy ''. West Berlin : Berlin Verlag. Hertle, Hans - Hermann ( 2007 ). `` The Berlin Wall ''. Bonn : Federal Centre for Political Education. Kennedy, John F. `` July 25, 1961 speech ''. Archived from the original on 29 April 2009. Retrieved 20 October 2009. Loescher, Gil ( 2001 ). The UNHCR and World Politics : A Perilous Path. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0 - 19 - 829716 - 5. Maclean, Rory ( 1992 ). `` Stalin 's Nose : Across the Face of Europe ''. London : HarperCollins. Miller, Roger Gene ( 2000 ). To Save a City : The Berlin Airlift, 1948 -- 1949. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 0 - 89096 - 967 - 1. Mynz, Rainer ( 1995 ). `` Where Did They All Come From ? Typology and Geography of European Mass Migration In the Twentieth Century ; European Population Conference Congress European de Démographie ''. United Nations Population Division. Pearson, Raymond ( 1998 ). The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire. Macmillan. ISBN 0 - 312 - 17407 - 1. Schneider, Peter ( 2005 ). `` The Wall Jumper ''. London : Penguin Classics. Schulte, Bennet ( 2011 ). The Berlin Wall. Remains of a Lost Border. ( Die Berliner Mauer. Spuren einer verschwundenen Grenze ). be. bra verlag, Berlin. ISBN 978 - 3 - 8148 - 0185 - 8. Taylor, Frederick. The Berlin Wall : 13 August 1961 -- 9 November 1989. Bloomsbury 2006 Thackeray, Frank W. ( 2004 ). Events that changed Germany. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0 - 313 - 32814 - 5. Friedrich, Thomas ( 1996 ). Wo die Mauer War / Where was the Wall ?. Harry Hampel ( photos ). Berlin : Nicolai. ISBN 3 - 87584 - 695 - 8. Turner, Henry Ashby ( 1987 ). The Two Germanies Since 1945 : East and West. Yale University Press. ISBN 0 - 300 - 03865 - 8. Wettig, Gerhard ( 2008 ). Stalin and the Cold War in Europe. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0 - 7425 - 5542 - 9. Luftbildatlas. Entlang der Berliner Mauer. Karten, Pläne und Fotos. Hans Wolfgang Hoffmann / Philipp Meuser ( eds. ) Berlin 2009. ISBN 978 - 3 - 938666 - 84 - 5 Sarotte, Mary Elise, Collapse : The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall, New York : Basic Books, 2014 Sarotte, Mary Elise, 1989 : The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe ( Second Edition ) Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2014 Crozier, Brian ( 1999 ). The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire. Forum. pp. 170 -- 171. ISBN 0 - 7615 - 2057 - 0. Further reading Hockenos, Paul ( 2017 ). Berlin calling : a story of anarchy, music, the Wall, and the birth of the new Berlin. New York : The New Press. ISBN 978 - 1 - 62097 - 195 - 6. OCLC 959535547. External links Wikiquote has quotations related to : Berlin Wall Wikimedia Commons has media related to Berlin Wall. Look up Berlin Wall in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Official website `` Berlin Wall Memorial ''. Berlin Wall Foundation. `` Chronicle of the Berlin Wall ''. Deutschlandradio. `` The Berlin Wall : a Multimedia Story ''. Rundfunk Berlin - Brandenburg ( RRB ). `` Berlin Wall collected news and commentary ''. The New York Times. Works about Berlin Wall in libraries ( WorldCat catalog ) `` Berlin Wall ( newsreel archives ) '' ( Adobe Flash video ) ). Multimedia. British Pathe. Berlin Wall on OpenStreetMap ( zoomable and scrollable ) Other resources : Berlin Wall at Curlie ( based on DMOZ ) Berlin Wall image group on Flickr Berlin Wall Online, historical chronicle Nail, Norbert. `` Meine Mauer -- Deutsche Bilder aus der Vergangenheit '' ( My Wall -- German Pictures from the past ) ( in German ). University of Marburg. Berlin Wall Main articles Berlin Wall Inner German border Iron Curtain Wall of Shame East Berlin West Berlin German reunification Eastern Bloc emigration and defection Republikflucht Berlin Crisis of 1961 Memorials, museums and galleries White Crosses East Side Gallery Checkpoint Charlie Museum Topography of Terror Mauerpark Chapel of Reconciliation Crossings Berlin border crossings Bornholmer Straße Checkpoint Charlie Checkpoint Bravo Berlin Friedrichstraße station Glienicke Bridge Invalidenstraße Oberbaum Bridge Sonnenallee Tränenpalast, Friedrichstrasse station Died breaching the Wall List of deaths at the Berlin Wall Klaus Brueske Peter Fechter Winfried Freudenberg Christian - Peter Friese Chris Gueffroy Marienetta Jirkowsky Cengaver Katrancı Erna Kelm Czesław Kukuczka Günter Litfin Dorit Schmiel Olga Segler Ida Siekmann Heinz Sokolowski Hildegard Trabant Rudolf Urban Christel and Eckhard Wehage Others associated with the Wall Günter Schabowski Riccardo Ehrman Erich Honecker Conrad Schumann Walter Ulbricht The Wall in speeches Ich bin ein Berliner `` Tear down this wall ! '' In popular culture The Tunnel ( NBC documentary ) The Wall ( 1962 film ) The Road to the Wall Das Versprechen The Tunnel ( 2001 film ) Rabbit à la Berlin ( 2009 documentary ) Good Bye, Lenin ! Sonnenallee The Berlin Wall ( video game ) `` Nikita '' `` West of the Wall '' `` The Soldier '' Funeral in Berlin Gotcha ! Judgment in Berlin ( novel ) Judgment in Berlin ( film ) Stop Train 349 The Spy Who Came in from the Cold ( novel ) The Spy Who Came in from the Cold ( film ) Bridge of Spies Atomic Blonde Other List of Berlin Wall segments Ghost station Steinstücken Grenzgänger ( Cross-border commuters ) Book : Berlin Wall Cold War USA USSR ANZUS NATO Non-Aligned Movement SEATO Warsaw Pact Cold War II 1940s Morgenthau Plan Hukbalahap Rebellion Dekemvriana Percentages agreement Yalta Conference Guerrilla war in the Baltic states Forest Brothers Operation Priboi Operation Jungle Occupation of the Baltic states Cursed soldiers Operation Unthinkable Operation Downfall Potsdam Conference Gouzenko Affair Division of Korea Operation Masterdom Operation Beleaguer Operation Blacklist Forty Iran crisis of 1946 Greek Civil War Baruch Plan Corfu Channel incident Turkish Straits crisis Restatement of Policy on Germany First Indochina War Truman Doctrine Asian Relations Conference May 1947 Crises Marshall Plan Comecon 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état Tito -- Stalin Split Berlin Blockade Western betrayal Iron Curtain Eastern Bloc Western Bloc Chinese Civil War ( Second round ) Malayan Emergency Albanian Subversion 1950s Papua conflict Bamboo Curtain Korean War McCarthyism Egyptian Revolution of 1952 1953 Iranian coup d'état Uprising of 1953 in East Germany Dirty War ( Mexico ) Bricker Amendment 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état Partition of Vietnam Vietnam War First Taiwan Strait Crisis Geneva Summit ( 1955 ) Bandung Conference Poznań 1956 protests Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Suez Crisis `` We will bury you '' Operation Gladio Arab Cold War Syrian Crisis of 1957 1958 Lebanon crisis Iraqi 14 July Revolution Sputnik crisis Second Taiwan Strait Crisis 1959 Tibetan uprising Cuban Revolution Kitchen Debate Sino - Soviet split 1960s Congo Crisis 1960 U-2 incident Bay of Pigs Invasion 1960 Turkish coup d'état Soviet -- Albanian split Berlin Crisis of 1961 Berlin Wall Portuguese Colonial War Angolan War of Independence Guinea - Bissau War of Independence Mozambican War of Independence Cuban Missile Crisis Sino - Indian War Communist insurgency in Sarawak Iraqi Ramadan Revolution Eritrean War of Independence Sand War North Yemen Civil War Aden Emergency 1963 Syrian coup d'état Vietnam War Shifta War Guatemalan Civil War Colombian conflict Nicaraguan Revolution 1964 Brazilian coup d'état Dominican Civil War South African Border War Transition to the New Order Domino theory ASEAN Declaration Laotian Civil War 1966 Syrian coup d'état Argentine Revolution Korean DMZ Conflict Greek military junta of 1967 -- 74 Years of Lead ( Italy ) USS Pueblo incident Six - Day War War of Attrition Dhofar Rebellion Al - Wadiah War Protests of 1968 French May Tlatelolco massacre Cultural Revolution Prague Spring 1968 Polish political crisis Communist insurgency in Malaysia Invasion of Czechoslovakia Iraqi Ba'athist Revolution Goulash Communism Sino - Soviet border conflict CPP -- NPA -- NDF rebellion Corrective Move 1970s Détente Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Black September in Jordan Corrective Movement ( Syria ) Cambodian Civil War Koza riot Realpolitik Ping - pong diplomacy Uganda -- Tanzania War 1971 Turkish military memorandum Corrective Revolution ( Egypt ) Four Power Agreement on Berlin Bangladesh Liberation War 1972 Nixon visit to China North Yemen - South Yemen Border conflict of 1972 Yemenite War of 1972 NDF Rebellion Eritrean Civil Wars 1973 Chilean coup d'état Yom Kippur War 1973 oil crisis Carnation Revolution Spanish transition Metapolitefsi Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Rhodesian Bush War Angolan Civil War Mozambican Civil War Oromo conflict Ogaden War Ethiopian Civil War Lebanese Civil War Sino - Albanian split Cambodian -- Vietnamese War Sino - Vietnamese War Operation Condor Dirty War ( Argentina ) 1976 Argentine coup d'état Korean Air Lines Flight 902 Yemenite War of 1979 Grand Mosque seizure Iranian Revolution Saur Revolution New Jewel Movement 1979 Herat uprising Seven Days to the River Rhine Struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union 1980s Soviet -- Afghan War 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics boycotts 1980 Turkish coup d'état Peruvian conflict Casamance conflict Ugandan Bush War Lord 's Resistance Army insurgency Eritrean Civil Wars 1982 Ethiopian -- Somali Border War Ndogboyosoi War United States invasion of Grenada Able Archer 83 Star Wars Iran -- Iraq War Somali Rebellion 1986 Black Sea incident 1988 Black Sea bumping incident South Yemen Civil War Bougainville Civil War 8888 Uprising Solidarity Soviet reaction Contras Central American crisis RYAN Korean Air Lines Flight 007 People Power Revolution Glasnost Perestroika Nagorno - Karabakh War Afghan Civil War United States invasion of Panama 1988 Polish strikes Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 Revolutions of 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall Velvet Revolution Romanian Revolution Peaceful Revolution Die Wende 1990s Mongolian Revolution of 1990 German reunification Yemeni unification Fall of communism in Albania Breakup of Yugoslavia Dissolution of the Soviet Union Dissolution of Czechoslovakia Frozen conflicts Abkhazia China - Taiwan Korea Nagorno - Karabakh South Ossetia Transnistria Sino - Indian border dispute North Borneo dispute Foreign policy Truman Doctrine Containment Eisenhower Doctrine Domino theory Hallstein Doctrine Kennedy Doctrine Peaceful coexistence Ostpolitik Johnson Doctrine Brezhnev Doctrine Nixon Doctrine Ulbricht Doctrine Carter Doctrine Reagan Doctrine Rollback Sovereignty of Puerto Rico during the Cold War Ideologies Capitalism Chicago school Keynesianism Monetarism Neoclassical economics Reaganomics Supply - side economics Thatcherism Communism Marxism -- Leninism Castroism Eurocommunism Guevarism Hoxhaism Juche Maoism Trotskyism Naxalism Stalinism Titoism Other Fascism Islamism Liberal democracy Social democracy Third - Worldism White supremacy Apartheid Organizations ASEAN CIA Comecon EEC KGB MI6 Non-Aligned Movement SAARC Safari Club Stasi Propaganda Active measures Crusade for Freedom Izvestia Pravda Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty Red Scare TASS Voice of America Voice of Russia Races Arms race Nuclear arms race Space Race See also Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War Soviet espionage in the United States Soviet Union -- United States relations USSR -- USA summits Russian espionage in the United States American espionage in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation Russia -- NATO relations Brinkmanship CIA and the Cultural Cold War Cold War II Commons Portal Timeline List of conflicts Revolutions of 1989 Internal background Era of Stagnation Communism Anti-communism Criticism of communist party rule Eastern Bloc Eastern Bloc economies Eastern Bloc politics Eastern Bloc media and propaganda Eastern Bloc emigration and defection KGB Nomenklatura Shortage economy Totalitarianism Eastern European anti-Communist insurgencies International background Active measures Cold War List of socialist states People Power Revolution Predictions of the dissolution of the Soviet Union Reagan Doctrine Soviet Empire Terrorism and the Soviet Union Vatican Opposition Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia Reforms Uskoreniye Perestroika Democratization in the Soviet Union Khozraschyot 500 Days Sinatra Doctrine Glasnost Socialism with Chinese characteristics Đổi mới Government leaders Ramiz Alia Nicolae Ceaușescu Mikhail Gorbachev Károly Grósz Erich Honecker János Kádár Miloš Jakeš Egon Krenz Wojciech Jaruzelski Slobodan Milošević Mathieu Kérékou Mengistu Haile Mariam Ne Win Denis Sassou Nguesso Heng Samrin Deng Xiaoping Todor Zhivkov Siad Barre Opposition methods Civil resistance Demonstrations Human chains Magnitizdat Polish underground press Protests Samizdat Strike action Opposition leaders Lech Wałęsa Václav Havel Alexander Dubček Ion Iliescu Liu Gang Wu'erkaixi Chai Ling Wang Dan Feng Congde Tank Man Joachim Gauck Sali Berisha Sanjaasürengiin Zorig Vladimir Bukovsky Boris Yeltsin Viacheslav Chornovil Vytautas Landsbergis Zianon Pazniak Zhelyu Zhelev Aung San Suu Kyi Meles Zenawi Isaias Afwerki Viktor Orbán Ronald Reagan George H.W. Bush Pope John Paul II Opposition movements Beijing Students ' Autonomous Federation Charter 77 New Forum Civic Forum Democratic Party of Albania Democratic Russia Initiative for Peace and Human Rights Sąjūdis Peaceful Revolution People 's Movement of Ukraine Solidarity Popular Front of Latvia Popular Front of Estonia Public Against Violence Belarusian Popular Front National League for Democracy National Salvation Front Unification Church political activities Union of Democratic Forces Events by location Central and Eastern Europe Albania Bulgaria Czechoslovakia East Germany Hungary Poland Romania Soviet Union Yugoslavia Soviet Union Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Chechnya Estonia Georgia Latvia Lithuania Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Moldova Russia Tajikstan Turkmenistan Ukraine Uzbekistan Elsewhere Afghanistan Angola Benin Burma Cambodia China Congo - Brazzaville Ethiopia Mongolia Mozambique Somalia South Yemen Individual events 1988 Polish strikes April 9 tragedy Black January Baltic Way 1987 -- 89 Tibetan unrest Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 Removal of Hungary 's border fence with Austria Polish Round Table Agreement Hungarian Round Table Talks Pan-European Picnic Monday Demonstrations Alexanderplatz demonstration Malta Summit German reunification January Events in Lithuania January Events in Latvia 1991 protests in Belgrade August Coup Dissolution of the Soviet Union Later events Colour revolution Decommunization Lustration Democratization Economic liberalization Post-Soviet conflicts Neo-Sovietism Neo-Stalinism Post-communism Yugoslav Wars Eastern Bloc Soviet Union Communism Formation Secret Molotov -- Ribbentrop Pact protocol Soviet invasion of Poland Soviet occupations Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina Baltic states Hungary Romania Yalta Conference Annexed as, or into, SSRs Eastern Finland Estonia Latvia Lithuania Memel East Prussia West Belarus Western Ukraine Moldavia Satellite states Hungarian People 's Republic Polish People 's Republic Czechoslovak Socialist Republic Socialist Republic of Romania German Democratic Republic People 's Republic of Albania ( to 1961 ) People 's Republic of Bulgaria Federal People 's Republic of Yugoslavia ( to 1948 ) Annexing SSRs Russian SFSR Ukrainian SSR Byelorussian SSR Organizations Cominform COMECON Warsaw Pact World Federation of Trade Unions ( WFTU ) World Federation of Democratic Youth ( WFDY ) Revolts and opposition Welles Declaration Goryani Movement Forest Brothers Ukrainian Insurgent Army Operation Jungle Baltic state continuity Baltic Legations ( 1940 -- 1991 ) Cursed soldiers Rebellion of Cazin 1950 1953 uprising in Plzeň 1953 East German uprising 1956 Georgian demonstrations 1956 Poznań protests 1956 Hungarian Revolution Novocherkassk massacre 1965 Yerevan demonstrations Prague Spring / Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia Brezhnev Doctrine 1968 Red Square demonstration 1968 student demonstrations in Belgrade 1968 protests in Kosovo 1970 Polish protests Croatian Spring 1972 unrest in Lithuania SSR June 1976 protests Solidarity / Soviet reaction / Martial law 1981 protests in Kosovo Reagan Doctrine Jeltoqsan Karabakh movement April 9 tragedy Romanian Revolution Black January Cold War events Marshall Plan Berlin Blockade Tito -- Stalin split 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état 1961 Berlin Wall crisis Conditions Emigration and defection ( list of defectors ) Sovietization of the Baltic states Information dissemination Politics Economies Telephone tapping Decline Revolutions of 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall Romanian Revolution Fall of communism in Albania Singing Revolution Collapse of the Soviet Union Dissolution of Czechoslovakia January 1991 events in Lithuania January 1991 events in Latvia Post-Cold War topics Baltic Assembly Collective Security Treaty Organization Commonwealth of Independent States Craiova Group European Union European migrant crisis Eurasian Economic Union NATO Post-Soviet states Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Visegrad Group Lists of damaged, destroyed or looted heritage Human - caused Armenian cemetery in Julfa Destruction of early Islamic heritage sites in Saudi Arabia List of destroyed landmarks in Spain Buddhas of Bamiyan Destruction of cultural heritage by ISIL Kashi Vishwanath Temple Kesava Deo Temple Looting and burning of the Summer Palaces Shuri Castle Bolshevik Revolution Church of the Tithes St. Nicholas Military Cathedral Brotherhood Monastery St. Michael 's Golden - Domed Monastery Somnath temple Transfiguration Cathedral Sogwang and Singye Temple Hungarian Revolution Stalin Monument, Budapest Afghanistan Nalanda Ram Janmabhoomi Revolutions of 1989 Berlin Wall Dzerzynski Vijayanagara Euromaidan Vladimir Lenin monument, Kiev Decommunization in Ukraine Iraq War archaeological looting Firdos Square statue destruction Croatian War Kosovo War Albanian and Serbian Syrian Civil War ISIL World War II Art theft and looting Libraries Planned destruction of Warsaw Nazi plunder Natural 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake Art destruction List of destroyed libraries Lost artworks Vandalism of art Unite4Heritage BNF : cb119380937 ( data ) GND : 4094837 - 7 LCCN : sh85013357 NARA : 10637994 SUDOC : 084361409 VIAF : 244103871 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Berlin_Wall&oldid=843537822 '' Categories : Berlin Wall 1961 establishments in East Germany 1961 establishments in Germany 1961 in military history 1961 in politics 20th century in Berlin Allied occupation of Germany Buildings and structures completed in 1961 Buildings and structures demolished in 1989 Buildings and structures demolished in 1990 Cold War in popular culture Destroyed landmarks in Germany Eastern Bloc Former buildings and structures in Germany History of East Germany Inner German border Separation barriers Walls in Germany Hidden categories : Pages containing links to subscription - only content Webarchive template wayback links CS1 German - language sources ( de ) Articles containing German - language text All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from May 2016 Wikipedia indefinitely semi-protected pages Wikipedia indefinitely move - 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Question: who started the fall of the berlin wall
Answer: the Hungarian government