Berlin Wall - Cold War - HISTORY.com Berlin Wall A+E Networks Introduction On August 13, 1961, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) began to build a barbed wire and concrete “Antifascistischer Schutzwall,” or “antifascist bulwark,” between East and West Berlin. The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state, but it primarily served the objective of stemming mass defections from East to West. The Berlin Wall stood until November 9, 1989, when the head of the East German Communist Party announced that citizens of the GDR could cross the border whenever they pleased. That night, ecstatic crowds swarmed the wall. Some crossed freely into West Berlin, while others brought hammers and picks and began to chip away at the wall itself. To this day, the Berlin Wall remains one of the most powerful and enduring symbols of the Cold War.

Google The Berlin Wall: The Partitioning of Berlin As World War II came to an end in 1945, a pair of Allied peace conferences at Yalta and Potsdam determined the fate of Germany’s territories. They split the defeated nation into four “allied occupation zones”: The eastern part of the country went to the Soviet Union, while the western part went to the United States, Great Britain and (eventually) France. Did You Know? On October 22, 1961, a quarrel between an East German border guard and an American official on his way to the opera in East Berlin very nearly led to what one observer called "a nuclear-age equivalent of the Wild West Showdown at the O.K. Corral." That day, American and Soviet tanks faced off at Checkpoint Charlie for 16 hours. Photographs of the confrontation are some of the most familiar and memorable images of the Cold War. Even though Berlin was located entirely within the Soviet part of the country (it sat about 100 miles from the border between the eastern and western occupation zones), the Yalta and Potsdam agreements split the city into similar sectors. The Soviets took the eastern half, while the other Allies took the western.

This four-way occupation of Berlin began in June 1945. The Berlin Wall: Blockade and Crisis The existence of West Berlin, a conspicuously capitalist city deep within communist East Germany, “stuck like a bone in the Soviet throat,” as Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev put it. The Russians began maneuvering to drive the United States, Britain and France out of the city for good. In 1948, a Soviet blockade of West Berlin aimed to starve the western Allies out of the city. Instead of retreating, however, the United States and its allies supplied their sectors of the city from the air. This effort, known as the Berlin Airlift , lasted for more than a year and delivered more than 2.3 million tons of food, fuel and other goods to West Berlin. The Soviets called off the blockade in 1949. After a decade of relative calm, tensions flared again in 1958.

For the next three years, the Soviets–emboldened by the successful launch of the Sputnik satellite the year before and embarrassed by the seemingly endless flow of refugees from east to west (nearly 3 million since the end of the blockade, many of them young skilled workers such as doctors, teachers and engineers)–blustered and made threats, while the Allies resisted. Summits, conferences and other negotiations came and went without resolution. Meanwhile, the flood of refugees continued. In June 1961, some 19,000 people left the GDR through Berlin. The following month, 30,000 fled. In the first 11 days of August, 16,000 East Germans crossed the border into West Berlin, and on August 12 some 2,400 followed—the largest number of defectors ever to leave East Germany in a single day. The Berlin Wall: Building the Wall That night, Premier Khrushchev gave the East German government permission to stop the flow of emigrants by closing its border for good.

In just two weeks, the East German army, police force and volunteer construction workers had completed a makeshift barbed wire and concrete block wall–the Berlin Wall–that divided one side of the city from the other. Before the wall was built, Berliners on both sides of the city could move around fairly freely: They crossed the East-West border to work, to shop, to go to the theater and the movies. Trains and subway lines carried passengers back and forth. After the wall was built, it became impossible to get from East to West Berlin except through one of three checkpoints: at Helmstedt (“Checkpoint Alpha” in American military parlance), at Dreilinden (“Checkpoint Bravo”) and in the center of Berlin at Friedrichstrasse (“Checkpoint Charlie”). (Eventually, the GDR built 12 checkpoints along the wall.) At each of the checkpoints, East German soldiers screened diplomats and other officials before they were allowed to enter or leave. Except under special circumstances, travelers from East and West Berlin were rarely allowed across the border. The Berlin Wall: 1961-1989 The construction of the Berlin Wall did stop the flood of refugees from East to West, and it did defuse the crisis over Berlin.

(Though he was not happy about it, President Kennedy conceded that “a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war.”) Over time, East German officials replaced the makeshift wall with one that was sturdier and more difficult to scale. A 12-foot-tall, 4-foot-wide mass of reinforced concrete was topped with an enormous pipe that made climbing over nearly impossible. Behind the wall on the East German side was a so-called “Death Strip”: a gauntlet of soft sand (to show footprints), floodlights, vicious dogs, trip-wire machine guns and patrolling soldiers with orders to shoot escapees on sight. In all, at least 171 people were killed trying to get over, under or around the Berlin Wall. Escape from East Germany was not impossible, however: From 1961 until the wall came down in 1989, more than 5,000 East Germans (including some 600 border guards) managed to cross the border by jumping out of windows adjacent to the wall, climbing over the barbed wire, flying in hot air balloons, crawling through the sewers and driving through unfortified parts of the wall at high speeds.

The Berlin Wall: The Fall of the Wall On November 9, 1989, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin’s Communist Party announced a change in his city’s relations with the West. Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country’s borders. East and West Berliners flocked to the wall, drinking beer and champagne and chanting “Tor auf!” (“Open the gate!”). At midnight, they flooded through the checkpoints. More than 2 million people from East Berlin visited West Berlin that weekend to participate in a celebration that was, one journalist wrote, “the greatest street party in the history of the world.” People used hammers and picks to knock away chunks of the wall–they became known as “mauerspechte,” or “wall woodpeckers”—while cranes and bulldozers pulled down section after section. Soon the wall was gone and Berlin was united for the first time since 1945.

“Only today,” one Berliner spray-painted on a piece of the wall, “is the war really over.” The reunification of East and West Germany was made official on October 3, 1990, almost one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Tags Hundreds of protesters halt demolition of Berlin Wall, scuffle with police (PHOTOS) — RT News Tags Art , Protest , History , Germany Some of Berlin's most famous wall paintings, such as Brezhnev and Honecker's Kiss are under threat if the work goes ahead. Nearly 300 activists gathered in front of the famous East Side Gallery to prevent the demolition of one of Europe's most popular tourist attractions. Protesters carried banners, one of which read "Does culture no longer have any value?", apparently addressed to local authorities. Watch RT’s gallery from Berlin. Several arrests have been reported as protesters scuffled with police officers. Construction crews managed to remove a meter and a half section of the famous monument before the crowd arrived. To replace the missing part of the world-famous Berlin Wall, demonstrators then wheeled in a mock wall section they set up in front of the gap.

Protesters are fighting against allowing private interests to destroy the historic wall as they view the action as a “direct act of destruction towards an artwork,” the newspaper cited Kani Alavi, the head of the artists' initiative East Side Gallery, who led a €2.5m restoration project of the wall four years ago. Activists and artists who painted the murals on the East Side Gallery are now circulating petitions against the demolition, saying it will violate their copyright. French artist Thierry Noir, the author of the famous colorful graffiti "Heads with big lips", has joined protesters to fight for his work not to be removed from the gallery and for the wall's survival. “This is a unique opportunity to preserve a large section of what was once a death strip. If you remove the sections, you're destroying the authenticity of this place," Guardian quotes Noir whose painted section of the wall is to be removed. "It's unbearable to see that the wall here is being so brutally torn down." Opponents also say the removal will insult the memory about those who died in the former infamous “death strip”. During the years of the Wall, an estimated 136 people were shot dead while trying to cross it in attempt to flee to the Western sector.

The East Side segment is the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall, which was separating East and West Berlin for almost 30 years. It was transformed into an open-air gallery months after East Germany opened its borders in November of 1989. Covered with 105 colorful graffiti works painted by some120 artists, the wall attracts up to 800,000 visitors a year - from all over the world. However, despite its popularity, local authorities ruled to sacrifice parts of the 1,3 kilometer Berlin Wall to provide a site for a luxury apartment complex, a 63-meter-high tower of 36 apartments and offices, which is now being built on the nearby banks of the Spree river. The plan is to remove and relocate a 20-meter section. "The investor has a legal right to demand this, so we'll have to do it," the district's mayor, the Green MP Franz Schulz said confirming the removal plan. The Berlin Wall from construction to destruction � History � Skwirk Interactive Schooling Year 9, NSW | Online Education Home Schooling Skwirk Australia 0 Exams The Berlin Wall represented more than just a concrete wall.

It was a symbol of the division of a country and its people. It was also a symbol of the Cold War and of the division in Europe and the world. Between 1948 and 1960 there was a real possibility that disagreements over the city of Berlin would lead to another world war. The building of the wall meant war was no longer likely. The Cold War The two conflicting ideologies of communism and capitalism had been causing tensions in Europe since the Russian Revolution in 1917. Those tensions had been set aside to defeat Germany in World War II, but after the War was over, they surfaced once more. When both the USSR (Russia) and America developed nuclear weapons, the hostility between the two countries evolved into what has become known as the Cold War. There was never any direct conflict between the two superpowers, so the war never became 'hot'. The Cold War was really an arms race between America and the USSR - each side trying to get one step ahead of the other. On occasions between 1947 and 1991 the Cold War nearly did become 'hot', but neither side wished to start a nuclear war.

This division between East (the USSR) and West (America and other capitalist countries) was symbolised by the Berlin Wall. It was erected at the height of the Cold War in 1961 and its demolition in 1989 was the beginning of the end of the Cold War. The division of Germany In 1945, after World War II, Germany was divided into four zones by the Allied powers. America, France, Britain and the USSR also each had a zone in the capital city of Berlin. Berlin was within the communist, Soviet-occupied area of Germany, yet half of the city was under capitalist control. In 1948 Britain, America and France joined their zones together under one currency. Their half of the city began to prosper and it made the communist zone look poor. West Berlin (under capitalist control) began to look like a much better place to live than communist-controlled East Berlin. Many people began moving to West Berlin, especially skilled workers like doctors and engineers. Refer Image1 The building of the Berlin Wall Between 1949 and 1961 over 2.5 million people left East Germany to go to the West.

In 1961 the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, tried to force the Western allies to leave Berlin. When that failed, he decided to build a wall to stop contact between East and West Berlin. On the morning of 13 August 1961, residents of East Berlin woke to find that barbed wire and gun placements had been erected in the middle of the night. They could no longer get to West Berlin. Just a few days later, work began on what would become a five-metre tall, 45 kilometre-long concrete wall. Refer Image2 It was announced that anyone trying to cross the Wall would be shot. Some people, however, were so desperate to get to the West that they took the risk. Many were able to make it across the Wall in the first few weeks, but in the first year that the wall was in place, 41 people died trying to escape East Germany. In the following years the Wall was fortified even further - land mines were placed on the ground in front of the Wall to discourage East Germans from attempting to cross it. The Berlin Wall not only divided the city, it divided families and friends.

Overnight, people lost all contact with their families who were on the other side of the wall. The beginning of a new era By the 1980s a better relationship developed between the USSR and America. Both countries had new leaders who were more willing to talk about reductions in weapons. There was also a new era beginning in the USSR. The Russian leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, implemented the policies of Glasnost and Perestroika. Glasnost meant more openness of government and freedom of speech. Perestroika meant that people in the USSR could set up their own businesses and begin to make an individual profit. Before, under communism, all wealth was supposed to be shared equally among all the people. These two policies created turmoil in the Soviet Union, some people hated the new policies, other people wanted Gorbachev to go further and abandon communism altogether. Between May 1989 and March 1990 many of the Eastern European communist countries also began to fall apart. In the past, the Soviet leadership had always been able to defeat any anti-communist uprisings in Eastern Europe, but now it was too concerned about unrest in Russia to deal with unrest in other countries.

East Germany was not immune to the anti-communist uprisings in Europe. In November 1989 the Berlin Wall began to come down. The Wall comes down At 7:30 pm on Thursday, 9 November 1989, the government of East Germany announced that East German citizens could now travel to West Germany with a special visa. Almost immediately people began queuing at border crossings, asking to be let across. At first the East German border guards would not let them through, but as more and more people began arriving, they opened the barriers. What followed can only be described as a massive party in the streets of Berlin. People in West Germany began pouring out onto the streets to welcome the East Germans. Family and friends were reunited after so many years apart. The most symbolic moments of that night were the young people who climbed up on the Berlin Wall with hammers and chisels and began to pull it down, one piece at a time. In the first 48 hours after the borders were opened, over two million people made their way from East Germany to the West. Refer Image3 East and West Germany were reunited in 1990. The Berlin Wall was not completely destroyed.

Parts of it remain in place as a memorial to those who died trying to cross it, and also as a reminder of what division can lead to. Many people have also kept pieces of the wall for similar reasons. By 1991 the Soviet Union had broken up and communism was all but dead in Europe. The Cold War also finally came to an end. The Berlin Wall had represented division for a long time. When it was pulled down it became a symbol of the process of the reunification of Germany and of Europe. The Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall The mounting tensions between the Allies and Soviets culminated in the Berlin Crisis and the construction of the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall During the early years of the Cold War, West Berlin was a geographical loophole through which thousands of East Germans fled to the democratic West. In response, the Communist East German authorities built a wall that totally encircled West Berlin. It was thrown up overnight, on 13 August 1961. For the next three decades, the city became the hot end of the Cold War as the world's nuclear superpowers faced off across the Wall. Half a century later, we look back on the Wall and its impact through a BBC archive collection.

Photo: West Berliners gather at the Wall whilst an East German soldier patrols the other side, in August 1961. (Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images) More information about: The Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a barrier that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany), starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall completely cut off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989. Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and was completed in 1992. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. The Eastern Bloc claimed that the Wall was erected to protect 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. The Berlin Wall was officially referred to as the "Anti-Fascist Protective Wall" (German: Antifaschistischer Schutzwall) by GDR authorities, implying that the NATO countries and West Germany in particular were considered equal to "fascists" by GDR propaganda. The West Berlin city government sometimes referred to it as the "Wall of Shame"—a term coined by mayor Willy Brandt—while condemning 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 a physical marker of 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 which they could then travel to West Germany and other Western European countries.

Between 1961 and 1989, the Wall prevented almost all such emigration. During this period, around 5,000 people attempted to escape over the Wall, with an estimated death toll ranging from 136 to more than 200 in and around Berlin. In 1989, a series of radical political changes occurred in the Eastern Bloc, associated with the liberalization of the Eastern Bloc's authoritarian systems and the erosion of political power in the pro-Soviet governments in nearby Poland and Hungary. 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. Contrary to popular belief the Wall's actual demolition did not begin until the summer of 1990 and was not completed until 1992.

The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on 3 October 1990. The Berlin Wall's Destruction - The Berlin Wall Debate The Berlin Wall Debate Life After The Wall The Berlin Wall Tumbles On November 9, 1989, the wall started to fall but it was not taken down immediately on that day. Starting that evening and in the weeks that followed, people came to the wall with sledgehammers,hammers,and chisels to take down the wall. These people were nicknamed "Mauerspechte" or wall woodpeckers. The destruction of the wall made the people in Berlin free to do and go where they wanted. The Berlin Wall continued to be destroyed until November, 1991. Only a few short sections and watchtowers were kept for memorials. - Effects of the Destruction of the Berlin Wall The destruction of the Berlin Wall changed many people's lives. Families were separated when the Berlin Wall was built, so all families that were separated were united again when the wall was taken down. People were also free to travel to East or West Germany without having trouble and waiting for weeks to cross.

The destruction also created unity between East and West Germany. Some people were against the country becoming united, but most people wanted the wall to come down. Most people thought that East and West Germany becoming united would create peace among the people. Video: Berlin Wall anniversary: Watch moment wall demolished in 1989 - Telegraph On Sunday, it will be 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall . The wall was a concrete barrier that divided the German city for 28 years from 1961 until 1989. Many people died trying to get across it, others managed to escape by tunnelling under it. It was in May 1949 that the republics of Germany were founded. The US , French and British zones in the west became the Federal Republic and the Soviet zone in the east became the communist German Democratic Republic. Watch the start of the wall's demolition in the video above.

Related Content East Germany begins construction of the Berlin Wall - Aug 12, 1961 - HISTORY.com East Germany begins construction of the Berlin Wall Share this: East Germany begins construction of the Berlin Wall Author East Germany begins construction of the Berlin Wall URL Publisher A+E Networks In an effort to stem the tide of refugees attempting to leave East Berlin, the communist government of East Germany begins building the Berlin Wall to divide East and West Berlin. Construction of the wall caused a short-term crisis in U.S.-Soviet bloc relations, and the wall itself came to symbolize the Cold War. Throughout the 1950s and into the early 1960s, thousands of people from East Berlin crossed over into West Berlin to reunite with families and escape communist repression. In an effort to stop that outflow, the government of East Germany, on the night of August 12, 1961, began to seal off all points of entrance into West Berlin from East Berlin by stringing barbed wire and posting sentries. In the days and weeks to come, construction of a concrete block wall began, complete with sentry towers and minefields around it.

The Berlin Wall succeeded in completely sealing off the two sections of Berlin. The U.S. government responded angrily. Commanders of U.S. troops in West Berlin even began to make plans to bulldoze the wall, but gave up on the idea when the Soviets moved armored units into position to protect it. The West German government was furious with America’s lack of action, but President John F. Kennedy believed that “A wall is a hell of a lot better than a war.” In an attempt to reassure the West Germans that the United States was not abandoning them, Kennedy traveled to the Berlin Wall in June 1963, and famously declared, “Ich bin ein Berliner!” (“I am a Berliner!”). Since the word “Berliner” was commonly referred to as a jelly doughnut throughout most of Germany, Kennedy’s improper use of German grammar was also translated as “I am a jelly doughnut.” However, due to the context of his speech, Kennedy’s intended meaning that he stood together with West Berlin in its rivalry with communist East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic was understood by the German people. In the years to come, the Berlin Wall became a physical symbol of the Cold War.

The stark division between communist East Berlin and democratic West Berlin served as the subject for numerous editorials and speeches in the United States, while the Soviet bloc characterized the wall as a necessary protection against the degrading and immoral influences of decadent Western culture and capitalism. During the lifetime of the wall, nearly 80 people were killed trying to escape from East to West Berlin. In late 1989, with communist governments falling throughout Eastern Europe, the Berlin Wall was finally opened and then demolished. For many observers, this action was the signal that the Cold War was finally coming to an end. Related Videos Berlin Wall: How the Wall came down, as it happened 25 years ago - Telegraph History Berlin Wall: How the Wall came down, as it happened 25 years ago The fall of the Berlin Wall ended 40 years of division between the capitalist west and the communist east. Here, 25 years later to the minute, is how it happened As it happened hour by hour: ........................................ 00:15 (END) By the morning of November 10, the GDR is dead. It may formally cling on for several more months, and Germany will not be united for two years.

But the regime is living on borrowed time. That day, Anatoly Chernyaev, an advisor to Mikhail Gorbachev, writes in his diary: Related Articles Berlin Wall art comes to London 08 Nov 2014 The Berlin Wall has collapsed. This entire era in the history of the socialist system is over. After the PUWP [Polish Communist party] and the HSWP [Hungarian party] went Honecker. Today we received messages about the "retirement" of Deng Xiaopeng and Todor Zhivkov. Only our ‘best friends’ Castro, Ceauşescu, and Kim Il Sung are still around – people who hate our guts. That is what Gorbachev has done. And he has indeed turned out to be a great leader. He has sensed the pace of history and helped history to find a natural channel. Earlier the same morning, Marc Kusnetz, one of Tom Brokaw’s colleagues at NBC, goes back to his hotel to freshen up. As he bends over the bathroom sink and splashes cold water on his face, he notices a thick grey powder washing off him.

Then, of course, it hits him: he is watching the Berlin Wall go down the drain. Demonstrators pull down a segment of the Berlin wall at Brandenburg gate in 1989 00:05 In Britain, Fleet Street has long since sent out its front pages. The Daily Telegraph's headline for November 10, 1989 - written by Daniel Johnson - reads: "The Iron Curtain is swept aside." East German border police at Checkpoint Charlie were surprised to learn yesterday that citizens could now travel to the West freely. "People are going to read this and say 'there must be some mistake', said a young guard, shaken out of his normally severe bearing. "It's not good," another said an hour after the decision was announced. "We will lose our jobs." Traffic was light at the famous crossing, meant for foreign travellers through the Berlin Wall... Early today, hundreds of West Berliners stormed Checkpoint Charlie at the Berlin Wall. They pushed their way across the white demarcation line dividing East from West Berlin shouting: "We want in, we want in." 00:00 It is 1am in united Berlin, and the city will party long into the morning.

ABC's Barrie Dunsmore finally goes live. Far later, on the flagship Nightline programme, his counterpart in the studio will ask if western reporters are getting carried away with the euphoria of the moment. Dunsmore recalls: I said no, adding that he and I would have other stories to cover, but this one – the Cold War – was basically over. In my closing thoughts, I mused that the gods sometimes punish us by giving us what we ask for. I wasn’t predicting anything - just expressing an anxious feeling I had that night. 23:55 Somewhere in the chaos, a young Angela Merkel has made it through the Bornholmer crossing. From the west side of the Wall, she phones her aunt in Hamburg – and then, presumably, joins the celebrations. This is the night that sets Merkel on her path to be chancellor of Germany. She will later join the new East German party, Democratic Awakening, and there begin her political career.

23:50 On the Ku’Damm, Peter Millar and the waitresses pile out of their taxi into what he calls “the carnival that had spread across the centre of West Berlin.” Andrea spots a telephone box, and Millar lends her the Western money to use it. Soon, she is calling her mother: “Mutti, I’m on the Ku’Damm! It’s mad. It’s marvellous. Oh, don’t be cross. I’m coming back.” 23:45 Some individuals are now striking at the Wall with hammers and pick-axes. In the weeks and months following this day, citizens from East and West Berlin will take the demolition of the Wall into their own hands. 'Mauerspechte' - Wall woodpeckers - hack away at it, taking home chunks as souvenirs. The Wall is only finally demolished next year, when the East German government - now racing towards unification - brings in the bulldozers. Picture taken on November 9, 1989. 23:35 Nearby, NBC’s Barrie Dunsmore is supposed to be making a similar live broadcast.

Instead, he can provide only his voice while his staff try to book a video link. At this point in history, satellite lines for video are very limited, and must be booked hours, if not days, in advance. Tonight, for obvious reasons, they are chock-a-block. Nobody had expected this to happen, so nobody had booked a satellite. 23:30 It’s 6:30 pm on the USA’s eastern seaboard, and NBC’s Tom Brokaw goes live. A historic moment tonight. The Berlin Wall can no longer contain the East German people. Thousands pouring across at the Bornholmer bridge. Brokaw will keep reading the news again and again and again, introducing each new version of the programme as it sweeps west across the timezones of the United States. Brokaw reporting, with water jets in the background. 23:20 Eastern officials use a water cannon to try and get people off the Wall at the Brandenburg Gate. Most climbers are forced to get down, but one young man is handed an umbrella which he manages to use as a shield. Long spouts of water bounce off it and into the night. Revellers at the Brandenburg Gate just before midnight.

23:17 Weighed down by crowds, the border checkpoint at Sonnenallee telephones Stasi headquarters to announce that it is “opening everything”. 23:15 Christiane, Janna and Andrea finally make it through the wall, where Petar Millar happens to spot them. As he later writes: Running through a cheering gauntlet of beery West Berliners dancing on the Wall came a ready-made party. These three young waitresses from the Hotel Stadt Berlin, who came whooping through the Wall, spraying Little Read Riding Hood, the fizzy party plonk of the East, at grinning policement, were ready-made feel-good copy. Millar flags down a taxi and offers them fare to the Ku’Damm in return for an interview. 23:10 In the compound reserved for senior officials, Günter Schabowsk's Russian-born wife Irena watches the darkened windows of the other Party houses. All are either asleep or in the city. At one point, her elderly mother wakes up to ask about the fuss on television. “They’ve opened the border", Irina says.

“Does that mean we’ll have capitalism now?” “Yes, it probably does.” “Well, in that case, I’ll hang around for a few more years and see what it’s like.” 23:06 By now, Margaret Thatcher is watching the news from Berlin on TV. The next morning, she says: I think it is a great day for freedom. I watched the scenes on television last night and again this morning because I felt one ought not only hear about them but see them because you see the joy on people's faces and you see what freedom means to them; it makes you realise that you cannot stifle or suppress people's desire for liberty and so I watched with the same joy as everyone else and I hope that they will be a prelude to the Berlin Wall coming down. But amidst all this, Thatcher - who was a young adult throughout the Second World War - was worried. Memos from the next few months show her deep unease about German reunification. If both Germanies were allowed to join, she feared, it would mean the rise of a new and dangerous European power. 23:00 Midnight in Berlin. At a hotel on the Eastern side, three waitresses finish their shift.

Christiane, Janna and Andrea heard the news of Schabowski’s announcement long ago, but together – looking at each other, biting their lips – they decided to finish work first. Now, Andrea turns to the others, giggles, and asks: “Anyone for Ku’damm?” The Ku’damm, of course, stands for Kurfürstendamm – West Berlin’s biggest, glitziest shopping street. 22:58 All along the Berlin Wall, the world’s biggest party has begun. Secret police note that by this time, climbers near the Brandenburg Gate simply aren’t listening anymore. In the glare of the news crews’ floodlights, West Berlin is dancing on the Wall. East Berliners climb the Wall, some time after midnight 22:54 DPA, the West German news agency, puts out the following bulletin: Several thousand GDR citizens have gathered at the East Berlin border crossings to get into West Berlin. At the crossing on BornholmerStrasse there stood hundreds of East Germans who had heard the message that the bordes were open by radio and television. They were let through by East German border guards upon presentation of an identity document. The access roads were jammed for about two kilometres.

Many people said they just wanted to see whether they could reach the other side of town. 22:50 Hundreds of miles away in Cyprus, Bernard Becker, a former citizen of East Berlin, hears the news. As he will later tell The Telegraph: I wasn’t born in East Germany or East Berlin. I had an English mother and a German father. I was 14 when the Wall went up. So for me, it meant that I was stranded behind the wall, and that I couldn’t get out anymore. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t make my own decisions. But I was always determined not to die in East Germany. When I was 18, I was arrested for defacing a postage stamp with the leader’s image on it. I had cut out the middle and pushed it together and put his eyes higher up, so he looked quite funny. I was sentenced for eight months in prison, suspended for two years, and as a result the college where I was to become an architect expelled me. The reason given was that I had damaged the reputation of the institution and all that. Then, in 1968, there was the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Army.

I was in Prague at the time, as a tourist, and I took back some leaflets that some Czech students had made and tried to distribute them in East Germany. I was caught quite quickly, because there were undercover police everywhere, and imprisoned for about 2 years . After that I was a marked person, but it took me another 6 years to get out of East Germany. Not by escaping – I didn’t have the connections or the knowledge – but by applying to be expelled. That night, I was in bed when I received a phone call from my wife, Cherrill, who had heard the news. She was much more emotional than I was. She was in tears of joy seeing this on television. I was ambivalent. Because it didn’t come as a complete surprise to me. It was in the air. But the other feeling was, I have to admit to myself, a kind of mean one. I thought, ‘oh, now everybody is coming. Everybody will come now, including those who hadn’t done anything towards this. Any Stasi man can come and any enthusiastic supporter of the regime can come.’ Of course, the effect of this time is still alive for many people. They never really forget about it.

When you’re talking to me, you’re opening a Pandora’s Box. Years later, on September 11, 2014, Becker receives a letter saying his conviction for the postage stamp has been quashed. Bernard Becker as a student in 1968 22:40 As he watches the crowds flow through his checkpoint, Harald Jäger feels himself start to cry. He ducks inside a building so his men don’t see – only to find one of them already weeping. 22:35 At Checkpoint Charlie, the guards make the same decision. One by one, without any real formation, they retreat. Michael Meyer, who was there, describes what happened next: Among the first to cross to the West…was a woman in hair curlers, a coat thrown hastily over her baby blue bathrobe. I had watched her for hours, bobbing up and down on her toes, trying to keep warm amid the throngs but also too excited to much notice the cold…like a flood suddenly unleashed, a wave of people arose and carried her away. Half riding the tide, she turned her head and shouted to a friend standing to the side, ‘I’ll be back in ten minutes!

I just want to see if it’s real!’ 22:30 Jäger's men begin to open the main gate by hand. Before they’ve got it all the way, the enormous crowd on the Eastern side starts pushing too. As the joyous crowd floes through into West Berlin, the the camera crew Jäger's men detained earlier have a perfect shot of it happening. 22:25 Besieged at the Bornholmer Street checkpoint, Harald Jäger makes a decision. After consulting with his guards, he phones Colonel Zieganhorn to inform him: “I am going to end all controls and let the people out.” Then he slams down the phone. 22:15 The crowd at Bornholmer Street, thousands strong, is becoming uncontrollable. Border guards detain a Western camera crew who are climbing about on their fences to get a better angle. 22:00 It is now 11pm in Berlin. At the Brandenburg Gate crossing, West Berliners are climbing onto the Wall and growing steadily less responsive to orders to come down. Berliners climbing on the Wall at the Brandenburg Gate.

21:50 At another border crossing, Friedrichs’ colleague Robin Lautenbach is not so lucky. Nobody has gotten through the gate yet, so he has nothing to show. “Perhaps the big rush has possibly not happened yet?” he tells his superiors. 21:40 Though very few people have actually gotten through the Wall, the media is covering it as if they have. On the West German network ARD, trusted anchor Hanns-Joachim Friedrichs opens his show: In using superlatives, it is necessary to be cautious, but tonight one is allowed to risk using one. This ninth of November is a historic day. The GDR has announced that its borders are, starting immediately, open for everyone. Hanns-Joachim Friedrichs on air, November 9. 21:35 Meanwhile, Peter Millar finally gets through the Wall. Right up at the Western barrier, East German guards with megaphones ran to and fro, shouting preposterously at photographers to stop taking pictures as families streaming tears kissed and hugged and Western revellers climbed onto the electrically-controlled metal barriers. Going through the pedestrian gate I had used a thousand times before was a strange and unforgettable experience.

I had my hair ruffled by a forest of outstretched hands, was kissed at random by unseen lips and find a can of beer thrust into my hand with the emotional cry ‘Welcome to freedom!’ Dazed, and probably looking as emotional as if I had indeed set foot for the first time in West Berlin, I muttered ‘Danke’ and stumbled on through the crowd who were already embracing the next arrival. 22:30 Gerhard Lauter, who drafted the press release that accidentally opened the wall, returns home after a relaxing evening at the theatre. He is greeted by his son, who tells him that the Interior Minister has called several times. “Oh, and by the way,” the child says, “the Wall is open.” 21:25 At least 20,000 people are now crammed behind the Bornholmer checkpoint. As Harald Jäger later describes: All I was thinking about was now was how to avoid bloodshed. There were so many people and they didn’t have space to move. If a panic started, people would have been crushed. We had pistols. I had been given instructions not to use them, but what if one of the men had lost his nerve?

Even a short in the air…I cannot imagine what reaction that would have provoked. 21:20 Peter Millar arrives at Checkpoint Charlie, where he recognises an East German guard he knows as ‘the Bear’. He is allowed to go through, but the huge, drunken throng of West Berliners makes this difficult: The other side of the checkpoint here was Kreuzberg, home of West Berlin’s disaffected squatters and anarchists, and some in the crowd were hurling abusive insults and beer cans at the border troops, seen close up for the first time, suddenly transformed from sinister armed silhouettes behind searchlights into a close-up human enemy (any uniform was a target for some Kreuzberg characters). The control area between the barriers had meanwhile filled with cars. One party of Third World diplomats, completely uncaring about the history unfolding before them and more concerned about getting to their favourite West Berlin nightclub, fumed at the helpless troops…I was not sure if the crowds dancing in the gap ahead of me were angry or happy, but I knew one thing: I did not want to be responsible for the first casualty of the ngiht by running over someone.

Millar decides to go through on foot, and the Bear offers to look after his car. 21:15 East German state television is making regular announcements. “At the request of many citizens, we inform you again of the new travel regulations…trips must be applied for.” 21:10 Peter Schmid, a sports reporter for South German Radio, races for a phone. As the son of legendary VfB goalkeeper Otto Schmid, he has a particular stake in their historic victory. He gets through to the office in Hamburg and asks how long the winner interviews should be. He is told: “We have no time – the wall has fallen! Almost nobody is interested in VfB’s win anymore!” 21:05 The final whistle blows at the Neckarstadion. For the first time since 1966, and the last time until 2007, VfB Stuttgart have defeated Bayern Munich. But their moment of glory has been surreally overshadowed. Ralph Wild recalls the moment: I’ll never forget that day.

I was with four friends who I had invited earlier, settled in the Untertürkheimer Kurve [one of the stands] in the good old Neckarstadion. And at every goal - this was something my mates had put me up to – I had to drink a shot. Because that November 9th, everything else being normal, it was my 18th birthday. Today, when someone asks me about November 9, 1989, I always answer: ‘A fantastic day, because we defeated Bayern 3-0, I had my 18th birthday, and – oh yes, there was something else – the fall of the Wall! 21:02 Journalist Peter Millar, who has been speeding back to Berlin from the Baltic coast, finally reaches the Bornholmer checkpoint, where thousands of West Berliners and several hundred Easterners have gathered. He can see the guards letting people through in a “trickle” – about 30 or 40 in the space of 15 minutes – but does not realise that they are being permanently ejected.

As he later writes: I spoke to the border guard in charge who would give no further details about the apparent dramatic change in attitude other than to confirm they were letting GDR citizens through. As a foreigner, I would have to go to Checkpoint Charlie. Cursing Prussian pedantry to the last, I ran back to the car and drove the kilometre or so distance, taking with me, piled into the Merc, a group of East Berliners who had despaired of the queue. 21:00 It is now 10pm in Germany. The Central Commitee meeting, which has kept the East German government from realising what's happening, finally concludes. 20:56 Helmut Kohl, the chancellor of West Germany, has been at a state dinner in Poland. Only when the meal is over does he have a chance to speak to his underlings in Bonn. When they tell him that the Wall is falling, he asks if they're drunk. When they say no, he starts considering his return. By the end of the night, he will be on his way back to the West. Right now, his aides crack open a bottle of fine Soviet sparkling wine.

20:47 Meanwhile, Fritz Walter scores a third goal for VfB Stuttgart. There is now little hope that Bayern Munich can catch up. 20:40 George H.W. Bush, the US president, makes a speech . “I've just been briefed by the Secretary of State and my national security adviser on the latest news coming out of Germany. And of course, I welcome the decision by the East German leadership to open the borders to those wishing to emigrate or travel. And if the GDR goes forward now, this wall built in '61 will have very little relevance. And it clearly is a good development in terms of human rights. But Bush tries to keep it cool. He will later say that he doesn’t want to antagonise the Soviets, or any of the Eastern Bloc countries. One journalist says: “You don’t seem elated.” Bush responds: “I’m not an emotional kind of guy.” 20:35 2,000 people have now gathered at Checkpoint Charlie. GDR Colonel Günter Möll deploys a line of reinforcements to hold people back while he waits for orders from above. Checkpoint Charlie, shown later in the night from the Western side.

20:34 In Stuttgart, VfB scores its second goal against Bayern Munich. Jürgen Hartmann picks up the ball from a messy tackle and makes a dash from midfield. It’s almost taken off him, but a comrade flicks it back – only for it to glance off the face of the Bayern player between them. As it comes back down, Hartmann catches it on his right foot, takes his time, then drives it in. 2-0. 20:30 Schabowski, the man who accidentally opened the wall, receives a phone call from a Politburo member asking him what on earth he thinks he’s doing and what they should do now. Schabowski has no idea. 20:27 At the Bornholmer crossing, troublemakers who’ve been let through the Wall start trying to get back – only to be told they can’t go home. A map of the Bornholmer Street crossing, with the 'pre-control area' at 4, the main barrier at 2, and the bridge into West Germany at 3. Everyone remembers the traumatic days of 1961, when the construction of the wall split families in half overnight.

Now it seems to be happening again. Wailed at by grieving parents, Harald Jäger snaps. He disregards his orders and tells the families he’ll let their children back through. Then, when others start asking for the same, he disobeys again. He wonders if he should tell Colonel Ziegenhorn, but then he thinks: “Why bother?” 20:24 Across the Atlantic, the White House gives an early statement welcoming the GDR’s ‘decision’. The Associated Press quotes Senate Republican leader Bob Dole: The Berlin Wall and all that it represents are crumbling, even as the communist state which built it crumbles too. But we should not do anything at this point which might needlessly add fuel to the fire. 20:12 It’s half time with all to play for in Stuttgart, but events intrude. Live images of from the Wall are displayed on the stadium’s giant scoreboard. “I cannot remember anyone who saw these pictures without getting goosebumps,” VfB chairman Hans-Peter Dellwing will later recall. 20:10 At Bornholmer Street, on new orders from above, Harald Jäger begins targeting the most aggressive members of the crowd and letting them through the Wall.

Jäger's superiors call this the 'let off steam solution'. The victims will have their passports stamped, invalidating them, and be thrown out into West Berlin. This, it's hoped, will cool the crowds. But the plan backfires tremendously. Word spreads among the crowd that people are getting through, which only worstens the situation. 20:00 It is now 9pm in Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie, the crowds are becoming more brazen, shouting “open up!” Michael Meyer, a journalist at the scene, recalls: Emboldened by their numbers, they pushed within a few meters of the barricades. Guards stood nervously with their weapons. If things got out of hand, I wondered, would they shoot? Inside his lighted,glass-walled command post, the beefy Doberman of a post commander stood dialling and redialling his telephone… GOAL! Back in Stuttgart, VfB’s match against Bayern Munich enters its 43rd minute. A foul from Alan McInally – a Scots player snapped up from Aston Villa by Bayern for a then-record £1.2m – has put the ball at the home sides feet.

Suddenly, a breakneck run by VfB and poor marking by their opponents transforms into a powerful cross. Fritz Walter leaps up, heads it straight into the goal, and runs off with both fists in the air. 1-0 to the underdogs. 19:50 To pacify his subordinate at the Bornholmer checkpoint, Colonel Zeigenhorn adds him secretly to a conference call with his own bosses up the chain. But when Ziegenhorn explains the situation, one of the ministers asks: “Is this Jäger capable of assessing the situation realistically or is he simply a coward?” Then the phone cuts off. Mary Elise Sarotte, who interviewed Jäger, describes his mindset then: Holding the dead phone in his hand, Jäger felt a wave of anger wash over him. For close to two hours he had been dealing with an unprecedented and threatening situation. He had received no substantive replies to his urgent, repeated requests for guidance. He had been on duty for a dozen hours and would be there, at a minimum, all night…. Jäger felt himself reaching his limit.

He had provided twenty-five years of loyal service at Bornholmer…he also knew the GDR was in trouble, yet he remained willing ton a dark November morning to put on his uniform and report for a twenty-four hour shift. Now his superiors were questioning his ability to provide an accurate situation report and suggesting he was a coward. A man who had not disobeyed an order in nearly three decades had, with that insult, been pushed too far.” Right: Harold Jäger, years after his service as an East German border guard 19:40 At Bornholmer Street, border officer Harald Jäger keeps trying for new orders. He phones Colonel Ziegenhorn repeatedly, but every time, his boss tells him it’s business as usual. At this point Jager is scared of himself and his men. All of them carry pistols, and there are machine-guns ready for use. How long will it be before one of his people gets nervous? 19:32 Sunday Times journalist Peter Millar is hundreds of miles away on the Baltic Coast. He has been in the eastern city of Rostok to cover a demonstration and is still driving back to Berlin. This being East Germany, the roads are empty.

As he later writes: I turned on the car radio and I almost fainted. I felt for a surreal moment as if I had crossed into an alternative universe. It was RIA S Berlin (Radio im Amerikanischen Sektor), usually a reliable mix of music and news. They had abandoned the music. In a gabbling chatter rather than the usual sober tones, the news anchor was saying, ‘It appears now that a second crossing point on the Wall has opened. As I speak thousands of East Berliners are pouring into the West’. “Stunned and horrified – I was still more than an hour and a half away – I did the only thing I could: put my foot to the floor.” At this time, of course, no border crossings have been opened. It's unclear if Millar is misremembering the event, or if the news misreported it. 19:29 Many hundreds of East Germans are now crowding the Bornholmer Street checkpoint. A police car uses its loudspeaker to tell them they must go and get a visa, but few listen. Along the length of the wall, at Checkpoint Charlie, the Sonnenallee, and elsewhere, thousands of people are trying to get through.

19:19 The West German Parliament amends its agenda to debate the news from the Wall. The leader of the Social Democratic Party, Hans-Jochen Vogel, calls it a “moving moment” and says the Wall has lost its function. 19:15 Meanwhile, more than 600 kilometres away in the southern city of Stuttgart, 67,800 football fans have other things on their mind. VfB Stuttgart, the home team, are very much the underdogs against the powerful Bayern Munich. Coach Arie Haan plays a squad including Berlin-born Guido Buchwald, who marked Maradonna out of the 1990 World Cup final, and played on the side which brought Paul Gascoigne to tears that same year. The players are ready. The referee blows his whistle. The match is on. 19:13 The East German state broadcaster, ADN, is trying to take control of the situation by stressing the need for travel papers. It puts out a report saying passport offices will be open from 9am to 4pm on Saturday to cope with the “extraordinary” demand created by the new travel laws.

One minute later, it carries an item about opposition activists lining the road from East Germany into Czechoslovakia with signs saying “Stay here –we need you!” and “It is only here you can change things!” 19:10 It is now 20:10 in Germany and news agencies are reporting the first reaction from West German political parties. Frederick Bohl, speaking for the Christian Democratic Union, urges East German leaders to begin demolishing the Wall tomorrow now that it has lost its “cruel purpose”. 18:55 Albrecht Rau, who owns a café just on the western side of Checkpoint Charlie, carries a tray with coffee, glasses, and a bottle of sparkling wine towards the East German guards. The nervous guards rebuff him, telling him they can’t drink on duty, but as he goes back to the café he is ambushed by journalists who think he is a jubilant East German. One photographer even sends out a picture of them captioned as East Germans celebrating their successful crossing.

An aerial view of the Wall in the 1970s 18:50 Over the last few days, NBC has taken the clever step of building a camera platform on the west side of the wall. Stasi agents observing their position note their powerful spotlights switching on. Now Tom Brokaw and his team are preparing to film. The problem is, nobody is crossing. The borders aren't actually open yet. 18:45 At the West German parliament, the Bundestag, news of Schabowski’s announcement interrupts a debate about tax-deductible political donations. As one, the members stand up and applaud. 18:30 For 25 years, Harald Jäger has worked at the Bornholmer Street border crossing. Earlier in the mess hall, he watched Schabowski's press conference, yelling "bullshit!" when the new laws were announced. He has called his boss, Colonel Rudi Ziegenhorn, who told him that nothing has changed. Only now there are people queuing up at the checkpoint's Eastern entrances. Within minutes of Schabowski's announcement, ten or twenty turn up.

By 19:30 German time, the number of "wild pigs" - the border guards' nickname for people trying it on at the checkpoints - has shot up to one hundred. The Bornholmer Street bridge in 2009 18:22 The American newscaster, Tom Brokaw, has been interviewing Schabowski in a separate room. The Party spokesman's English is not good. Asked if his words meant freedom of travel ofr East Germans, he says: "Yes, of course." Asked if it is possible for them to go through the Wall, he says: "It is possible to go through the border." Brokaw takes this as a yes. As he comes out of the interview, all the other journalists ask him if it's true. Brokaw shouts over his shoulder: "It's true! The Wall is coming down." 18:20 East German citizens begin phoning confused government officials. One complains that the travel application offices are all closed. Another calls to ask whether they are allowed to leave by train. 18:17 The first television report appears.

ZDF, a West German network, covers Schabowski’s announcement – but only as its sixth item of news. Stasi phone-tapping logs will later show that journalists are still confused about just what the announcement meant. One TV reporter calls his office Cologne to say Schabowski “probably did not even know himself what he was announcing.” His colleague agrees that the new rules probably only apply to permanent émigrés, but warns him: “Keep your camera team ready.” 18:15 After viewing the press conference recording, west Berlin mayor Walter Momper walks over to the window of the office. “Everything looked the same as ever,” he recalls, staring out on his divided city. At this moment, he makes a motto for the rest of the night: “as if”. As the historian Mary Elise Sarotte later writes: Act as if the Wall were open. Act as if it would be the most natural thing in the world for Berliners to celeberate a reunion…in short…act as if he were certain that the border were open and only questions about the practicalities remained, thus making it as difficult as possible for the East German ruling regime to revoke Schabowski’s statements.

18:12 Back at the ABC offices, Barrie Dunsmore is reviewing the press conference with his translator, but it’s difficult to pin down just what Schabowski was saying. “Immediately,” she shrugs. “That’s what he said – these new visas and passports are going to be offered immediately.” That does sound important, but Dunsmore is careful. As he later tells The Telegraph: In dealing with the various Communist governments in this period, there was always a high degree of scepticism about anything they said that they were going to do, because very often they would simply make promises that they were not going to fulfil. This guy was brand new to the job, and the fact that it was offered in such an offhanded way – I don’t think anyone thought, hey, this is it, the wall’s coming down tonight. It was more like, oh – that’s interest. Well, we’ll have to pay attention now. I thought this was potentially something, but we had to see what the real practical effects were going to be. 18:05 In West Berlin, mayor Walter Momper is supposed to be awarding the Golden Steering Wheel award for automative design.

Suddenly, his driver and a newspaper editor burst into the awards ceremony and run up to him to tell him what they think they've heard. Momper immediately goes backstage to watch a video replay of the conference. 18:04 ADN, the East German state news agency, releases the text of Lauter’s travel law. Schabowski’s announcement has probably caught them by surprise, because the version they have is very clearly embargoed for 4am, but perhaps now they assume it has been superseded. Egon Krenz, the newly-installed Party secretary, who thought the new travel regulations would save the regime 18:02 A flurry of wire reports now begins. Reuters is first, with the report:. “Leaving via all GDR checkpoints immediately possible.” 18:01 Schabowski dodges the question. What will happen to the Berlin Wall? Information has already been provided in connection with travel activities. (um) The issue of travel, (um) the ability to cross the Wall from our side... does not necessarily affect the question of this fortified state border of the GDR.... (um) We have always said that there have to be several other factors (um) taken into consideration...

Surely the debate about these questions (um) will be positively influenced if the FRG and NATO also agree to and implement disarmament measures in a similar manner to that of the GDR and other socialist countries. Thank you very much. He ends the conference at 7:04 pm, German time, without answering the question. 18:00 Some reporters are already rushing for the phones, mindful of the time it will take for the Stasi overseer to inform his superiors to tap them before he allows them to call. "Is that also for West Berlin?" one reporter shouts. Schabowski looks at his papers and finds to his surprise that it is. Finally, the Telegraph's Daniel Johnson stands up and asks: "What will happen to the Berlin Wall now?" Schabowski stares. After a pause, he says: "It is 7pm. This is the last question, yes, please understand!" 17:59 Journalists keep pressing Schabowski: "When does that go into force?" The papers say nothing about the 4am embargo, nothing about November 10. All they say is “sofort” – at once, immediately.

Nobody has explained to him that this means "immediately tomorrow". “As far as I know,” he says, “immediately.” “What was I to do?” he will later explain. “I couldn’t exactly say, ‘oh, never mind that.’” 17:58 Back in his office, Barrie Dunsmore can see the confusion unfold on screen, but because he speaks no German he has no idea what is being said. Everyone is clearly very excited about something. “It was pretty much chaos,” he says. “It seemed that something significant had occurred, but just what, at that point, we still didn’t know.” 17:57 Now several questions are asked at once. "Without a passport?" "When does that go into force?" Schabowski is confused. He stalls while he checks the paper, claiming the press have already received a copy (they have not). He starts reading through the regulations very rapidly. ...the travel authorizations will be issued within a short time. Grounds for denial will only be applied in particular exceptional cases.

The responsible departments of passport and registration control in the People’s Police district offices in the GDR are instructed to issue visas for permanent exit without delays and without presentation of the existing requirements for permanent exit.” 17:56 Schabowski hesitates, then ploughs on: Therefore (um), we have decided today (um) to implement a regulation that allows every citizen of the German Democratic Republic (um) to (um) leave the GDR through any of the border crossings. 17:55 Schabowski’s bureaucratic speech suddenly changes tack. “A decision was made today – as far as I know –“ He looks towards his comrades for help, but none comes. “A recommendation from the Politburo was taken up that we take a passage from the draft travel regulations and put it into effect.” The journalists are paying attention now. 17:53 Riccardo Ehrman, an Italian journalist, asks a question about travel laws. Years later, he will admit that he has been tipped off to ask it by the head of the East German news agency. But Schabowski’s response is full of hardly inspiring: No, I don’t believe so.

(Um) We know about this tendency in the population, this need of the population, to travel or to leave the GDR. And (um) we have ideas about what we have to bring about...namely a complex renewal of society (um) which will thereby achieve many of these elements... (um) that people do not feel compelled to solve their personal problems in this way.... 17:45 As the East German press conference continues, Tom Brokaw, the US television anchor, notices the Associated Press correspondent next to him is almost falling asleep. 17:30 From the West Berlin offices of ABC, the American news network, Barrie Dunsmore is also watching. Earlier today the veteran anchor has been speaking with Jens Reich, a professor who leads the unofficial opposition in East Germany. Back in September, Reich bravely offered to meet over a phone line which was probably tapped, and now the pair are talking almost daily – “taking the temperature”, as Dunsmore calls it. The press conference, however, offers little of note: It just seemed like a run-of-the-mill thing. These things were always important to watch, because signals were being sent.

I would love to be able to tell you that I knew it was going to happen, but no one did. 17:20 Reporting on the conference for the Daily Telegraph is Daniel Johnson. Two years ago, editor Max Hastings told him: “Nothing ever happens in Germany. You’ve got three months to prove to me that we need a bureau.” Johnson did so, and returned to London with many front pages under his belt. Now he is back, having flown out just the previous day. But already he is bored. As he later writes : We all trooped into a dreary hall at the international press centre in the Motzstrasse. Most of the questions came from tame East German journalists and the wait for a chance to get the microphone was almost unbearable. It seemed like a non-event. 17:10 Schabowski has opened the conference by reading a list of names from the day’s Central Committee meeting, and is now chewing through his boring business. Among his papers is a copy of Lauter’s draft law, thrust into his hands by Krenz himself shortly before he left for the conference. Krenz has told him it is important, but has not told him about the 4am embargo.

It is not even clear if he has read the document. Schabowski will later claim he skimmed over it in the car, but others who rode with him will say he did not. Günter Schabowski 17:05 Gerhaud Lauter, an ambitious young official in the East German Interior Ministry, is on his way home to the office. Lauter’s job today has been to draft the new travel laws and make sure copies are sent to all the state ministries so they have the chance to object. Tonight he will be attending the theatre with his wife; as far as he is concerned, the politicians can handle it from here. Most of the ministers, however, are still in a meeting of the party's Central Committee. Their deadline to object to the new laws has just expired. 17:00 It is 6pm, German time, and at the International Press Centre in East Berlin, the GDR's unofficial spokesman is opening his daily press conference. Günter Schabowski is an experienced Party man, who formerly ran its official newspaper. While he has done such conferences before, this is the first to be broadcast live on state television.

He is tired, hungry, and running mostly on adrenaline. Introduction In November, 1989, East Germany - known officially as the German Democratic Republic - is in crisis. The communist nation, established by the Soviets at the end of the Second World War, is deeply in debt to the capitalist West German state. Meanwhile, a wave of revolutions is sweeping across the rest of the Eastern Bloc. Poland has already held free elections, and Mikhail Gorbachev, the reform-minded Soviet leader, has not stopped them. The GDR is still ruled by the hardline Erich Honecker. In August, Hungary opens its borders, allowing thousands of East Germans to emigrate via Austria. In Czechoslovakia, Easterners occupy the West German embassy. Mass demonstrations in Dresden and Leipzig demand democratic reforms. But the Berlin Wall, built practically overnight in 1961 to stop the 'brain drain' of talented people from East into West Germany, still stands. On October 17, Honecker is ousted as General Secretary of the Communist Party by his right-hand man, Egon Krenz.

Known to ordinary East Germans as 'horseface', he promises reform, but it is only a few months since he praised the Chinese crackdown in Tiananmen Square during a state visit. The demonstrations - and the emigrations - continue. In the first nine days of November, another thirty thousand East Germans flee through Czechoslovakia, and the Czech government is nearing the end of its patience. Under pressure from his allies, Krenz convenes a set of meetings designed to head off the crisis. The task of drafting a new travel law falls to four mid-level bureaucrats. What they come up with slightly exceeds their authority: more than allowing permanent emigration, it opens the borders to casual travel, and includes the divided city of Berlin. The law is carefully written to keep the regime in controle, noting that passports and permissions are still required, and does not come into effect until 4am on November 10. Events, however, are about to intervene. ........................................

Question: In which year did the demolition of the Berlin Wall begin?
Answer: 1989