Berlin Wall Destruction

The Berlin Wall, erected in August 1961 to stop the hemorrhage of Germans seeking to leave East Germany (the German Democratic Republic, or GDR), achieved symbolic proportions that almost outstripped its physical function. For 28 years, it served as the concrete realization of the metaphorical Iron Curtain dividing Eastern and Western Europe. Although this most recognizable symbol of the Cold War fell 2 years before the dissolution of the Soviet Union ended that conflict in 1991, once the Berlin Wall stopped dividing East and West, the Cold War was for all intents and purposes over.

The destruction of the Berlin Wall rests on the convergence of two historical phenomena. One of these was the series of top-down reforms triggered by Mikhail Gorbachev in the U.S.S.R. Gorbachev's openness to change, as evinced by his policies of glasnost and perestroika, laid the essential groundwork by permitting the east bloc countries more freedom in determining their own policies; among these were emigration issues and relations with neighboring nations in Western Europe. Gorbachev's reforms also signaled the end of the threat [Page 232]of Soviet military force to regulate satellite states' internal affairs. The opening of the Austrian-Hungarian border in May 1989 demonstrated the significance of this change. Not only did the act carry symbolic importance as the first breach in the Iron Curtain, but it also heralded the destruction of the Berlin Wall in a very practical way when thousands of East Germans took advantage of summer vacations in Hungary to escape to the West. By September, more than 10,000 East Germans had crossed from Hungary into Austria, forcing the GDR to restrict travel of its citizens to Hungary. Thousands of East Germans besieged the West German embassies in Warsaw and Prague, claiming West German citizenship and a passport to travel to the West. Humanitarian crises threatened in these overcrowded conditions, in full view of the Western media.

Berliners celebrate on top of the wall as East Germans (backs to camera) flood through the dismantled Berlin Wall into West Berlin at Potsdamer Platz, November 12, 1989.

Source: AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau.

This summer exit crisis revealed the pressing need for political change in a society lacking a public forum for open discussion. Embracing the spirit of glasnost, a number of political reform groups formed; the largest and most important was the New Forum. Its founding manifesto, with more than 200,000 signatures, urged democratic dialogue about reform.

The second, opposing trend was the ground-up popular movement. This movement was rooted in the East German peace movement that had begun in the early 1980s in response to NATO's plan to deploy Pershing II missiles in Western Europe. Beginning in 1982, peace prayers were held almost every Monday night at Leipzig's St. Nikolai Church. At first no more than 30 participants gathered, but beginning in 1988 the meetings began to attract more than 1,000, and as participation grew, the Monday night peace prayers began concluding with public marches and became increasingly political.

The Leipzig peace prayers recommenced on September 4, 1989, and provided a focus and meeting point for the emerging mass citizen movement. That night, 1,000 marchers carried banners reading “Freedom of Assembly” and “Freedom to Travel.” The movement had evolved from prayers opposing missile deployment to a full-fledged call for political reform within the GDR. With each passing week, the number of protesters multiplied exponentially, as did the potential for conflict with the security forces.

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