As soon as the Berlin Wall was constructed people
protested for it to come down. Thousands rallied
against its existence, with some even being arrested
and imprisoned.
John F. Kennedy, President of the United States of
America, showed his support to West Berliners
in his famous
'Ich bin ein Berliner' speech of 1963.
But there would be no clear step towards
the reunification of Germany
so long as the Western Powers
and the Soviet Union were in a
standoff with each other.
Border relations improved over the next two decades,
allowing people to travel from east to west,
but on a highly restricted basis.
The late 1980s marked a shift.
In 1987, American President Ronald Reagan
called on Soviet Premier
Mikhail Gorbachev to 'tear down this wall'.
And two years later his successor,
George H. W. Bush, pleaded for this again.
Asking for 'glasnost', or openness,
to be brought to East Berlin.
From September 1989, tens
of thousands of East German residents gathered in
weekly peaceful marches, known as
the 'Monday demonstrations'.
They chanted 'down with the wall'
and protested against the political regime
of the Socialist Unity Party,
known as the SED.
There was clear message, they wanted
free elections, the formation of opposition groups,
and the freedom to travel.
By November, attendance at these marches
had swelled to nearly half a million.
On the 9th of November 1989
Günter Schabowski, spokesperson for the SED,
mistakenly announced at a live press conference
that the German Democratic Republic border was open,
effective immediately.
This caused a media frenzy
and a newsflash was broadcast
on TV and radio
'GDR opens border'.
Within two hours
hundreds of people were gathered at checkpoints
much to the surprise of the border guards
who, after some initial restraint,
allowed a steady flow to pass through.
The first checkpoint to open was here,
on Bornholmer Straße, where people crossed
over the Bösebrücke Bridge behind me.
The Berlin Wall had officially fallen
and Germany changed forever overnight.
In the early hours
of the 10th of November 1989,
thousands of people from both sides of the border
gathered here, at the iconic Brandenburg Gate.
They stood on top of the Berlin Wall
to celebrate the first step in reunification.
Some chiseled away at the structure
to take pieces as souvenirs,
making them known as 'Wallpeckers'
On the 31st of December 1989
half a million people from East and West Berlin
returned to this spot to celebrate New Year's Eve
together for the first time
since the construction of the wall.
In October the following year
the German Democratic Republic dissolved
and Germany was unified.
The dissolution of the Soviet Union
soon followed in 1991,
officially bringing the Cold War to an end.
