Fall of the Berlin Wall

On the evening of 9 November 1989, East German official Günter Schabowski told reporters that new travel rules were in effect immediately. He had misread the timing, and the city took him at his word. Crowds filled the checkpoints. Border guards opened the gates. For the first time since 1961, Berliners could cross freely.

In the days that followed, people climbed the wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate and began to take it apart. Germany was formally reunited later, on 3 October 1990. The opening of the wall was the night the division of the city gave way.