5750 AM · 1990 CE · world history
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
On 9 November the checkpoints open, and a divided Europe begins to knit together.
For twenty-eight years the wall cut the city in two, and hundreds died trying to cross. In autumn 1989 peaceful demonstrations sweep Eastern Europe, Hungary opens its Austrian border, and in Berlin a garbled press briefing sends crowds to the checkpoints. The guards raise the barriers. Within two years communist Europe is gone.
Sources
Documents of the period
- documents and chronicles of the period — the press conference of 9 November 1989 and the chronicle of the opening of the crossings
Scholarship
- studies in European history — the peaceful revolutions of 1989 and the reunification of Germany
Basis: documents and evidence.