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Contents

1. The Berlin Wall: The Partitioning of Berlin

2. The Berlin Wall: Blockade and Crisis

3. The Berlin Wall: Building the Wall

4. The Berlin Wall: 1961-1989

5. The Berlin Wall: The Fall of the Wall

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.

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.

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On August 13, 1961, the Communist government of East Germany began to build a barbed wire and concrete "Antifascistischer Schutzwall," or "antifascist bulwark," between East and West Berlin. The official purpose of the 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.

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http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/germany-marks-25-years-fall-berlin-wall-26786614

Rise and Fall of Berlin Wall

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Berlin Official Event Calendar ➤ What's on in Berlin? ★ Concerts ★ Museums ★ Music ★ Family Events ★ Stage ★ Sport ➤ Event Calendar & Tickets www.visitberlin.de/event-calendar-berlin

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Germany on November 7 is launching three days of celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany, is leading commemorations for those who were killed trying to flee the repressive state.

Merkel, now aged 60, said in a recent podcast that she will "never forget" the day because she "had to wait 35 years for that feeling of liberty."

Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet leader whose "perestroika" and "glasnost" reforms helped pave the way for the changes, will greet crowds at Berlin's former Checkpoint Charlie border crossing.

Celebrations will conclude with a giant festival in Berlin on November 9 marking exactly 25 years since Germany's Cold War divisions were breached on November 9, 1989.

Rock stars and veteran freedom activists will join a crowd expected to number in the millions.

Based on reporting by AFP, dpa, AP, and Reuters

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Germany on November 7 is launching three days of celebrations to mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany, is leading commemorations for those who were killed trying to flee the repressive state.

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K.Vickers

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GDR authorities officially referred to the Berlin Wall as the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart ( German: Antifaschistischer Schutzwall ), by implication equating the NATO countries (and West Germany in particular) with fascists. The West Berlin city government sometimes referred to it as the " Wall of Shame", a term coined by mayor Willy Brandt in reference to the Wall's restriction on freedom of movement.

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The Berlin Wall has long since disappeared from reunified Berlin. Memories of it, however, are still very much alive: remains and traces of the former border installations are being preserved for posterity, memorials have been built, and the Berlin Wall Trail allows you to explore the former course of the Berlin Wall on foot or by bike.

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Pastors Christian Fuehrer and Christoph Wonneberger had never seen so many people in the Nicolaikirche, an 800-year-old church in downtown Leipzig. It was Oct. 9, 1989, and the two young pastors knew they were on the verge of something huge. "There were 8,000 people inside -- more couldn't fit," Fuehrer said. "When we came out of the church there were so many people expressing themselves and demanding their freedom."

This was no spontaneous flash mob. By the summer of 1989, East German dissidents had been meeting at Leipzig's 800-year-old Nicolaikirche for almost a decade to pray and talk politics. At times there were fewer than a dozen people in the church, but all through the 1980s the meetings happened every Monday without fail. Eventually, they attracted people eager to discuss a wide range of causes, from the environment to the right to travel freely.

By the fall of 1989, the prayer meetings had evolved into a nationwide movement centered in Leipzig. And on Oct. 9, Leipzig hosted the largest protest demonstration in East German history: Between 70,000 and 100,000 peaceful demonstrators braved warnings from the feared Stasi, or secret police, and thousands of armed riot cops to march around the city center. In the end, the police did nothing, setting the stage for a peaceful revolution that swept across East Germany.

On Friday, Leipzig is celebrating its pivotal role in the fall of communism with concerts, exhibitions, light shows and an anniversary march tracing the steps of the Oct. 9 demonstration that rocked East Germany and helped pave the way for the collapse of the Berlin Wall more than a month later.

'People Were Willing to Take Risks Outside Berlin'

The events in Leipzig tend to be overshadowed by the sudden collapse of the Berlin Wall, which was photographed and filmed by hundreds of journalists and broadcast around the world. Leipzig was out of the way. There are just a few grainy tapes of the huge Monday Demonstrations, and outside of Germany they have mostly been forgotten.

But at the time, it helped that Leipzig was out of the spotlight. Although activists in Berlin had better contacts with Western journalists, the capital was under constant scrutiny. "Berlin was the showcase. In Berlin, everyone was minding their Ps and Qs for fear they'd get sent back to Karl Marx Stadt," Peter Claussen, a US diplomat who worked in the American embassy in Berlin in the late 1980s, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "People were more willing to take risks outside of Berlin."

By the late 1980s, fueled in part by East Germans frustrated that they couldn't leave the country, the Monday prayer meetings in Leipzig were attracting hundreds, and then thousands, of people -- the largest regular meetings in Germany. Average citizens began to take notice. So did the Stasi: Dozens were jailed for weeks for their involvement.

Fuehrer and Wonneberger, long the targets of intense secret police surveillance and pressure, were arrested in late September and told to call off the Monday meetings -- or else.

'It Wasn't at all Clear it Would Be Peaceful'

It wasn't an empty threat. In the summer of 1989, East German politicians praised the Chinese decision to use violence against democracy activists camping in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. In September and early October, East German police had cracked down forcefully on protesters in Dresden, Berlin and Plauen. Protesters marching in Leipzig on Oct. 2 were beaten by police. "People had seen pictures from Beijing," Jens Schoene, a historian and author of "The Peaceful Revolution: Berlin 1989/90 -- The Path to German Unity," says. "It wasn't at all clear it would be peaceful."

On Monday, Oct. 9, Fuehrer, Wonneberger and the others at the Nicolaikirche decided to go ahead with the scheduled protests. All of East Germany, it seemed, was holding its breath. "We were so worried they would come in and shoot everybody," said Dorothee Kern, then a graduate student in the nearby city of Halle. "We had goosebumps the whole day and the day before."

Dissidents prepared for the worst. Couples with kids made sure one parent stayed home, in case there was a police crackdown. Rumors flew around the city: Hospitals had been stocked with extra blood and beds; stadiums were readied to hold masses of arrested demonstrators. On his way home from work at the opera house in the middle of town that day, Leipziger Hans Georg Kluge remembers seeing the city filling with soldiers and police. "Everyone had to reckon with the state suppressing any demonstration," he says. "Violently, if necessary."

'We Are the People'

At 5 p.m., more than 8,000 people crowded into the Nicolaikirche. Four other Leipzig churches opened to accommodate thousands more protesters. After an hour-long service, Fuehrer led worshipers outside. The nearby Augustusplatz was jammed with demonstrators clutching lit candles. Prominent Leipzigers -- including Kurt Masur, the conductor of Leipzig's Gewandhaus Orchester -- read an appeal to protesters and police alike, urging them to keep the peace.

Slowly, the crowd began walking around Leipzig's ring road, past the Stasi headquarters and towards the train station. There were so many people on the road traffic and trams were blocked. Drivers left their cars in the middle of the streets and joined the march. Behind the scenes, police and Stasi officials were frantically trying to communicate with higher-ups in Berlin -- to no avail.

As the crowd made its way towards the city's century-old train station -- accompanied by thousands of helmeted riot police -- tension grew. But at the decisive moment, the police stood aside and let the protesters march by. "They didn't attack," Fuehrer says. "They had nothing to attack for." Organizers made sure the crowds gave the police no excuses. They carried nothing but candles and banners reading "We are the people." The Stasi planted plainclothes officers in the crowd to cause trouble, but they were all quickly surrounded and neutralized by protesters chanting "no violence."

Historian Erhard Neubert later called that night East Germany's "October Revolution." At least 70,000 people - perhaps as many as 100,000 -- took to the streets, making Oct. 9, 1989 the largest protest East Germany had ever seen. "People were on the streets and had the courage," Schoene says.

The time for violence was over. Secretly recorded footage of the march was broadcast on West German television, inspiring Monday Demonstrations all over East Germany in the weeks to come. The demonstrations in Leipzig doubled in size every week, attracting protesters from all over East Germany. By Oct. 23, 1989, a little less than two weeks before the Berlin Wall came down, more than 300,000 people filled Leipzig's city center, carrying candles and banners. Leipzig was nicknamed "Heldenstadt," or "hero city."

No one knew it at the time, but the peaceful Leipzig demonstrations exerted irresistible pressure to reform on the East German regime -- and led directly to the fall of the wall five weeks later. "It was a self-liberation. We did it without the dollar or the DAX, without the US or Soviet armies," Fuehrer says. "It was the people here who did it."

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'We Are the People': A Peaceful Revolution in Leipzig - SPIEGEL ONLINE - International

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Oct. 9 is a monumental day in German history. Twenty years ago, the residents of Leipzig took to the streets under the banner 'We Are the People' and sparked peaceful protests that would lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall only a few weeks later.

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Governor, senator, and potential presidential nominee, Huey Pierce Long Jr. would have been as fascinating a politician in the current era as he was in his own. By all accounts he was crass, commanding, and vengeful, with massive popularity as a Depression Era populist who was further to the left than Franklin Roosevelt and touted a campaign slogan of "Every man a king, but no one wears a crown."

Long rose from the extremely impoverished Winn Parish in Louisiana to the national political stage with zeal, towering ambition, and a charismatic knack for attracting followers and powerful devotees. Here are 10 facts about the ostentatious politician who gave himself the nickname "The Kingfish."

1. HE WAS A TALENTED STUDENT WHO WAS EXPELLED BEFORE GRADUATING.

Since there was no public school in Winn Parish when he was growing up, Huey Long was home-schooled before his father and other neighbors pooled money together for a teacher to create a "subscription school." He started at public school in fourth grade, and later managed to convince his teachers to let him skip seventh grade. He was on the cusp of graduating from Winnfield High School in 1910 following the 11th grade when a 12th grade was added to the curriculum.

Long was kicked out of school for circulating a pamphlet decrying the extra year and, as a result, he never finished high school (though he was awarded a diploma posthumously). As revenge for his expulsion, he launched a petition calling for the principal to be fired and got enough signatures from the townspeople to see the principal removed.

2. HE RECEIVED A SCHOLARSHIP TO LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY, BUT STILL COULDN'T AFFORD TO GO.

Though he didn't graduate high school, Long's talent for winning arguments got him noticed by colleges. Long came in third at a Louisiana state debate competition, and won a scholarship to LSU as a result. Since room, board, and textbooks weren't included in the offer, Long had to pass on the opportunity. Instead, he worked as a traveling salesman, hawking medicines and books all over the state.

3. HE PASSED THE BAR EXAM AFTER ONLY ONE YEAR OF LAW SCHOOL.

After half-heartedly trying his hand at seminary school at Oklahoma Baptist University at his mother's insistence, Long-who claimed to have a photographic memory-later transferred to the University of Oklahoma College of Law, but was distracted by the local casinos and ended up staying for just one semester. In 1914 he attended Tulane University Law School for only a year before convincing the school board to let him take an oral bar exam. He passed and moved back to Winnfield as a lawyer.

4. HE WASN'T AFRAID TO GET HIS KNUCKLES BLOODY.

Long was irascible and, more than once, physically assaulted those who challenged him. That included a newspaper editor and one elderly, outgoing governor who called Long a liar (and was punched in the face by Long as a result). He was also accused of blackmailing and bullying his opponents, including a Baptist minister whom he tricked into entering a hotel room he'd staged with liquor and a prostitute. Beyond bloody knuckles, Long also got his hands dirty by rigging elections with fraudulent votes from "Babe Ruth," "Charlie Chaplin," "Clara Bow," and other celebrities.

5. HE WAS A HERO TO THE POOR.

Long's mandate when he became governor of Louisiana in 1928 (with 96.1 percent of the vote) was to aid the poor with publicly-funded projects, including new roads, bridges, hospitals, and schools and free textbooks for students. Before he took office, Louisiana had a 25 percent literacy rate, only 300 miles of paved roads, and three major bridges. By the end of his term, adult literacy programs had taught 175,000 to read, and there were 9000 miles of roads and more than 100 bridges. A lifelong enemy of the oil industry after Standard Oil caused him to lose money on an investment by refusing to buy any of his well's oil, Long pushed for a tax on petroleum products to help fund his social programs, also enacting a tax on the wealthy to benefit the poor.

He invested in LSU's campus, ordered construction on a new capitol building, and effectively gave Louisiana a head start with the kinds of programs President Roosevelt would enact nationwide in response to the Great Depression. However, Long was also anti-union, opposed progressive child labor laws, saw the state debt balloon under his leadership, and failed to bring economic growth to the very people who supported him.

6. HE RAN THE GOVERNOR'S OFFICE LIKE A DICTATORSHIP.

In Freedom From Fear, historian David Kennedy wrote that Long lorded over "the closest thing to a dictatorship that America has ever known." In winning the governor's mansion, Long overturned the power of the Regular Democratic Organization political machine (also known as the Choctaw Club) and ousted hundreds of political opponents from jobs in the state bureaucracy, replacing them with loyalists who paid part of their salary into his campaign war chest. He strong-armed and cajoled legislators, diminished Standard Oil's power in governance, installed Oscar K. Allen as a puppet governor to follow his orders once he became a United States senator, and reportedly had armed thugs change voter rolls, all while overseeing a massive redistribution of wealth in the state.

7. AN ATTEMPT TO IMPEACH HIM TURNED INTO A RIOT.

In 1929, Shreveport representative Cecil Morgan, who was aligned with the Choctaw Club, sought to impeach Long on a variety of charges, including of corruption, incompetence, and blasphemy. Speaker of the House John B. Fournet, who was loyal to Long, moved to adjourn the special session abruptly and faked a vote count to say that the adjournment motion had passed. Enraged, Morgan's and Long's allies attacked each other.

According to Huey Long's Louisiana Hayride: The American Rehearsal For Dictatorship, the right honorable lawmakers "beat each other with ink wells, slugged with both fists. Shirts were torn off, eyes gouged, heads butted on desks," in what would become known as "Bloody Monday."

8. LONG STAYED ON AS GOVERNOR FOR THE FIRST YEAR OF HIS TENURE AS A SENATOR.

His term as a United States senator should have begun March 4, 1931, but he stayed almost long enough to finish his four-year term as governor through the following year. His entrenchment blocked his rival, Lieutenant Governor Paul N. Cyr, from assuming the governorship. In October 1931, Cyr declared himself the rightful governor, citing Long's election to a different office, so Long had the state National Guard surround the capitol, and then successfully argued to the Louisiana Supreme Court that Cyr had left the office of lieutenant governor vacant by declaring himself governor. Cyr was blocked from both positions, and Long's ally Alvin King became lieutenant governor before assuming the top post in January 1932. Long then handpicked Oscar K. Allen as his successor; Allen easily won the special election, and Long felt comfortable finally leaving Louisiana for Washington, D.C.

9. FDR CONSIDERED HIM ONE OF THE "MOST DANGEROUS MEN IN THE COUNTRY."

Long was initially a big supporter of President Roosevelt, but he acted as one of his most vocal critics when, in Long's opinion, federal programs didn't go far enough to redistribute wealth. Roosevelt once said, "It's all very well for us to laugh over Huey, but he really is one of the two most dangerous men in the country." The laughter was meant for Long's flamboyancy, loud costume-esque attire, and flagrant self-serving speeches. The fear was for his incisive political acumen, devoted voting bloc, and revenge-obsessed modus operandi. (The other "most dangerous" man Roosevelt referred to was General Douglas MacArthur.)

10. HE WAS ASSASSINATED BEFORE HE COULD RUN FOR PRESIDENT.

Having always planned to seek the top office, Long wrote a book called My First Days in the White House, which (fictionally, and with much hubris) recounted how the people backed his message with such fervor that they whisked him into the presidency with a roar that drowned out the outgoing president. Before he could make that fantasy a reality, he was killed by the son-in-law of an ousted political rival.

In 1935, Long lorded over a special session of the state legislature to influence a vote to remove Judge Benjamin Pavy from his seat, which was the last in a long line of humiliations Long had dealt the Pavy family. After the vote removed Pavy from office, Pavy's son-in-law, Carl Weiss, shot Long with a revolver. Long died on September 10, 1935. My First Days in the White House was published posthumously.

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8 Creative Ways People Went Over the Berlin Wall

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Governor, senator, and potential presidential nominee, Huey Pierce Long Jr. would have been as fascinating a politician in the current era as he was in his own. By all accounts he was crass, commanding, and vengeful, with massive popularity as a Depression Era populist who was further to the left than Franklin Roosevelt and touted a campaign slogan of "Every man a king, but no one wears a crown."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Governor, senator, and potential presidential nominee, Huey Pierce Long Jr. would have been as fascinating a politician in the current era as he was in his own. By all accounts he was crass, commanding, and vengeful, with massive popularity as a Depression Era populist who was further to the left than Franklin Roosevelt and touted a campaign slogan of "Every man a king, but no one wears a crown."

Long rose from the extremely impoverished Winn Parish in Louisiana to the national political stage with zeal, towering ambition, and a charismatic knack for attracting followers and powerful devotees. Here are 10 facts about the ostentatious politician who gave himself the nickname "The Kingfish."

1. HE WAS A TALENTED STUDENT WHO WAS EXPELLED BEFORE GRADUATING.

Since there was no public school in Winn Parish when he was growing up, Huey Long was home-schooled before his father and other neighbors pooled money together for a teacher to create a "subscription school." He started at public school in fourth grade, and later managed to convince his teachers to let him skip seventh grade. He was on the cusp of graduating from Winnfield High School in 1910 following the 11th grade when a 12th grade was added to the curriculum.

Long was kicked out of school for circulating a pamphlet decrying the extra year and, as a result, he never finished high school (though he was awarded a diploma posthumously). As revenge for his expulsion, he launched a petition calling for the principal to be fired and got enough signatures from the townspeople to see the principal removed.

2. HE RECEIVED A SCHOLARSHIP TO LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY, BUT STILL COULDN'T AFFORD TO GO.

Though he didn't graduate high school, Long's talent for winning arguments got him noticed by colleges. Long came in third at a Louisiana state debate competition, and won a scholarship to LSU as a result. Since room, board, and textbooks weren't included in the offer, Long had to pass on the opportunity. Instead, he worked as a traveling salesman, hawking medicines and books all over the state.

3. HE PASSED THE BAR EXAM AFTER ONLY ONE YEAR OF LAW SCHOOL.

After half-heartedly trying his hand at seminary school at Oklahoma Baptist University at his mother's insistence, Long-who claimed to have a photographic memory-later transferred to the University of Oklahoma College of Law, but was distracted by the local casinos and ended up staying for just one semester. In 1914 he attended Tulane University Law School for only a year before convincing the school board to let him take an oral bar exam. He passed and moved back to Winnfield as a lawyer.

4. HE WASN'T AFRAID TO GET HIS KNUCKLES BLOODY.

Long was irascible and, more than once, physically assaulted those who challenged him. That included a newspaper editor and one elderly, outgoing governor who called Long a liar (and was punched in the face by Long as a result). He was also accused of blackmailing and bullying his opponents, including a Baptist minister whom he tricked into entering a hotel room he'd staged with liquor and a prostitute. Beyond bloody knuckles, Long also got his hands dirty by rigging elections with fraudulent votes from "Babe Ruth," "Charlie Chaplin," "Clara Bow," and other celebrities.

5. HE WAS A HERO TO THE POOR.

Long's mandate when he became governor of Louisiana in 1928 (with 96.1 percent of the vote) was to aid the poor with publicly-funded projects, including new roads, bridges, hospitals, and schools and free textbooks for students. Before he took office, Louisiana had a 25 percent literacy rate, only 300 miles of paved roads, and three major bridges. By the end of his term, adult literacy programs had taught 175,000 to read, and there were 9000 miles of roads and more than 100 bridges. A lifelong enemy of the oil industry after Standard Oil caused him to lose money on an investment by refusing to buy any of his well's oil, Long pushed for a tax on petroleum products to help fund his social programs, also enacting a tax on the wealthy to benefit the poor.

He invested in LSU's campus, ordered construction on a new capitol building, and effectively gave Louisiana a head start with the kinds of programs President Roosevelt would enact nationwide in response to the Great Depression. However, Long was also anti-union, opposed progressive child labor laws, saw the state debt balloon under his leadership, and failed to bring economic growth to the very people who supported him.

6. HE RAN THE GOVERNOR'S OFFICE LIKE A DICTATORSHIP.

In Freedom From Fear, historian David Kennedy wrote that Long lorded over "the closest thing to a dictatorship that America has ever known." In winning the governor's mansion, Long overturned the power of the Regular Democratic Organization political machine (also known as the Choctaw Club) and ousted hundreds of political opponents from jobs in the state bureaucracy, replacing them with loyalists who paid part of their salary into his campaign war chest. He strong-armed and cajoled legislators, diminished Standard Oil's power in governance, installed Oscar K. Allen as a puppet governor to follow his orders once he became a United States senator, and reportedly had armed thugs change voter rolls, all while overseeing a massive redistribution of wealth in the state.

7. AN ATTEMPT TO IMPEACH HIM TURNED INTO A RIOT.

In 1929, Shreveport representative Cecil Morgan, who was aligned with the Choctaw Club, sought to impeach Long on a variety of charges, including of corruption, incompetence, and blasphemy. Speaker of the House John B. Fournet, who was loyal to Long, moved to adjourn the special session abruptly and faked a vote count to say that the adjournment motion had passed. Enraged, Morgan's and Long's allies attacked each other.

According to Huey Long's Louisiana Hayride: The American Rehearsal For Dictatorship, the right honorable lawmakers "beat each other with ink wells, slugged with both fists. Shirts were torn off, eyes gouged, heads butted on desks," in what would become known as "Bloody Monday."

8. LONG STAYED ON AS GOVERNOR FOR THE FIRST YEAR OF HIS TENURE AS A SENATOR.

His term as a United States senator should have begun March 4, 1931, but he stayed almost long enough to finish his four-year term as governor through the following year. His entrenchment blocked his rival, Lieutenant Governor Paul N. Cyr, from assuming the governorship. In October 1931, Cyr declared himself the rightful governor, citing Long's election to a different office, so Long had the state National Guard surround the capitol, and then successfully argued to the Louisiana Supreme Court that Cyr had left the office of lieutenant governor vacant by declaring himself governor. Cyr was blocked from both positions, and Long's ally Alvin King became lieutenant governor before assuming the top post in January 1932. Long then handpicked Oscar K. Allen as his successor; Allen easily won the special election, and Long felt comfortable finally leaving Louisiana for Washington, D.C.

9. FDR CONSIDERED HIM ONE OF THE "MOST DANGEROUS MEN IN THE COUNTRY."

Long was initially a big supporter of President Roosevelt, but he acted as one of his most vocal critics when, in Long's opinion, federal programs didn't go far enough to redistribute wealth. Roosevelt once said, "It's all very well for us to laugh over Huey, but he really is one of the two most dangerous men in the country." The laughter was meant for Long's flamboyancy, loud costume-esque attire, and flagrant self-serving speeches. The fear was for his incisive political acumen, devoted voting bloc, and revenge-obsessed modus operandi. (The other "most dangerous" man Roosevelt referred to was General Douglas MacArthur.)

10. HE WAS ASSASSINATED BEFORE HE COULD RUN FOR PRESIDENT.

Having always planned to seek the top office, Long wrote a book called My First Days in the White House, which (fictionally, and with much hubris) recounted how the people backed his message with such fervor that they whisked him into the presidency with a roar that drowned out the outgoing president. Before he could make that fantasy a reality, he was killed by the son-in-law of an ousted political rival.

In 1935, Long lorded over a special session of the state legislature to influence a vote to remove Judge Benjamin Pavy from his seat, which was the last in a long line of humiliations Long had dealt the Pavy family. After the vote removed Pavy from office, Pavy's son-in-law, Carl Weiss, shot Long with a revolver. Long died on September 10, 1935. My First Days in the White House was published posthumously.

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8 Creative Ways People Went Over the Berlin Wall

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Governor, senator, and potential presidential nominee, Huey Pierce Long Jr. would have been as fascinating a politician in the current era as he was in his own. By all accounts he was crass, commanding, and vengeful, with massive popularity as a Depression Era populist who was further to the left than Franklin Roosevelt and touted a campaign slogan of "Every man a king, but no one wears a crown."

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Governor, senator, and potential presidential nominee, Huey Pierce Long Jr. would have been as fascinating a politician in the current era as he was in his own. By all accounts he was crass, commanding, and vengeful, with massive popularity as a Depression Era populist who was further to the left than Franklin Roosevelt and touted a campaign slogan of "Every man a king, but no one wears a crown."

Long rose from the extremely impoverished Winn Parish in Louisiana to the national political stage with zeal, towering ambition, and a charismatic knack for attracting followers and powerful devotees. Here are 10 facts about the ostentatious politician who gave himself the nickname "The Kingfish."

1. HE WAS A TALENTED STUDENT WHO WAS EXPELLED BEFORE GRADUATING.

Since there was no public school in Winn Parish when he was growing up, Huey Long was home-schooled before his father and other neighbors pooled money together for a teacher to create a "subscription school." He started at public school in fourth grade, and later managed to convince his teachers to let him skip seventh grade. He was on the cusp of graduating from Winnfield High School in 1910 following the 11th grade when a 12th grade was added to the curriculum.

Long was kicked out of school for circulating a pamphlet decrying the extra year and, as a result, he never finished high school (though he was awarded a diploma posthumously). As revenge for his expulsion, he launched a petition calling for the principal to be fired and got enough signatures from the townspeople to see the principal removed.

2. HE RECEIVED A SCHOLARSHIP TO LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY, BUT STILL COULDN'T AFFORD TO GO.

Though he didn't graduate high school, Long's talent for winning arguments got him noticed by colleges. Long came in third at a Louisiana state debate competition, and won a scholarship to LSU as a result. Since room, board, and textbooks weren't included in the offer, Long had to pass on the opportunity. Instead, he worked as a traveling salesman, hawking medicines and books all over the state.

3. HE PASSED THE BAR EXAM AFTER ONLY ONE YEAR OF LAW SCHOOL.

After half-heartedly trying his hand at seminary school at Oklahoma Baptist University at his mother's insistence, Long-who claimed to have a photographic memory-later transferred to the University of Oklahoma College of Law, but was distracted by the local casinos and ended up staying for just one semester. In 1914 he attended Tulane University Law School for only a year before convincing the school board to let him take an oral bar exam. He passed and moved back to Winnfield as a lawyer.

4. HE WASN'T AFRAID TO GET HIS KNUCKLES BLOODY.

Long was irascible and, more than once, physically assaulted those who challenged him. That included a newspaper editor and one elderly, outgoing governor who called Long a liar (and was punched in the face by Long as a result). He was also accused of blackmailing and bullying his opponents, including a Baptist minister whom he tricked into entering a hotel room he'd staged with liquor and a prostitute. Beyond bloody knuckles, Long also got his hands dirty by rigging elections with fraudulent votes from "Babe Ruth," "Charlie Chaplin," "Clara Bow," and other celebrities.

5. HE WAS A HERO TO THE POOR.

Long's mandate when he became governor of Louisiana in 1928 (with 96.1 percent of the vote) was to aid the poor with publicly-funded projects, including new roads, bridges, hospitals, and schools and free textbooks for students. Before he took office, Louisiana had a 25 percent literacy rate, only 300 miles of paved roads, and three major bridges. By the end of his term, adult literacy programs had taught 175,000 to read, and there were 9000 miles of roads and more than 100 bridges. A lifelong enemy of the oil industry after Standard Oil caused him to lose money on an investment by refusing to buy any of his well's oil, Long pushed for a tax on petroleum products to help fund his social programs, also enacting a tax on the wealthy to benefit the poor.

He invested in LSU's campus, ordered construction on a new capitol building, and effectively gave Louisiana a head start with the kinds of programs President Roosevelt would enact nationwide in response to the Great Depression. However, Long was also anti-union, opposed progressive child labor laws, saw the state debt balloon under his leadership, and failed to bring economic growth to the very people who supported him.

6. HE RAN THE GOVERNOR'S OFFICE LIKE A DICTATORSHIP.

In Freedom From Fear, historian David Kennedy wrote that Long lorded over "the closest thing to a dictatorship that America has ever known." In winning the governor's mansion, Long overturned the power of the Regular Democratic Organization political machine (also known as the Choctaw Club) and ousted hundreds of political opponents from jobs in the state bureaucracy, replacing them with loyalists who paid part of their salary into his campaign war chest. He strong-armed and cajoled legislators, diminished Standard Oil's power in governance, installed Oscar K. Allen as a puppet governor to follow his orders once he became a United States senator, and reportedly had armed thugs change voter rolls, all while overseeing a massive redistribution of wealth in the state.

7. AN ATTEMPT TO IMPEACH HIM TURNED INTO A RIOT.

In 1929, Shreveport representative Cecil Morgan, who was aligned with the Choctaw Club, sought to impeach Long on a variety of charges, including of corruption, incompetence, and blasphemy. Speaker of the House John B. Fournet, who was loyal to Long, moved to adjourn the special session abruptly and faked a vote count to say that the adjournment motion had passed. Enraged, Morgan's and Long's allies attacked each other.

According to Huey Long's Louisiana Hayride: The American Rehearsal For Dictatorship, the right honorable lawmakers "beat each other with ink wells, slugged with both fists. Shirts were torn off, eyes gouged, heads butted on desks," in what would become known as "Bloody Monday."

8. LONG STAYED ON AS GOVERNOR FOR THE FIRST YEAR OF HIS TENURE AS A SENATOR.

His term as a United States senator should have begun March 4, 1931, but he stayed almost long enough to finish his four-year term as governor through the following year. His entrenchment blocked his rival, Lieutenant Governor Paul N. Cyr, from assuming the governorship. In October 1931, Cyr declared himself the rightful governor, citing Long's election to a different office, so Long had the state National Guard surround the capitol, and then successfully argued to the Louisiana Supreme Court that Cyr had left the office of lieutenant governor vacant by declaring himself governor. Cyr was blocked from both positions, and Long's ally Alvin King became lieutenant governor before assuming the top post in January 1932. Long then handpicked Oscar K. Allen as his successor; Allen easily won the special election, and Long felt comfortable finally leaving Louisiana for Washington, D.C.

9. FDR CONSIDERED HIM ONE OF THE "MOST DANGEROUS MEN IN THE COUNTRY."

Long was initially a big supporter of President Roosevelt, but he acted as one of his most vocal critics when, in Long's opinion, federal programs didn't go far enough to redistribute wealth. Roosevelt once said, "It's all very well for us to laugh over Huey, but he really is one of the two most dangerous men in the country." The laughter was meant for Long's flamboyancy, loud costume-esque attire, and flagrant self-serving speeches. The fear was for his incisive political acumen, devoted voting bloc, and revenge-obsessed modus operandi. (The other "most dangerous" man Roosevelt referred to was General Douglas MacArthur.)

10. HE WAS ASSASSINATED BEFORE HE COULD RUN FOR PRESIDENT.

Having always planned to seek the top office, Long wrote a book called My First Days in the White House, which (fictionally, and with much hubris) recounted how the people backed his message with such fervor that they whisked him into the presidency with a roar that drowned out the outgoing president. Before he could make that fantasy a reality, he was killed by the son-in-law of an ousted political rival.

In 1935, Long lorded over a special session of the state legislature to influence a vote to remove Judge Benjamin Pavy from his seat, which was the last in a long line of humiliations Long had dealt the Pavy family. After the vote removed Pavy from office, Pavy's son-in-law, Carl Weiss, shot Long with a revolver. Long died on September 10, 1935. My First Days in the White House was published posthumously.

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8 Creative Ways People Went Over the Berlin Wall

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Governor, senator, and potential presidential nominee, Huey Pierce Long Jr. would have been as fascinating a politician in the current era as he was in his own. By all accounts he was crass, commanding, and vengeful, with massive popularity as a Depression Era populist who was further to the left than Franklin Roosevelt and touted a campaign slogan of "Every man a king, but no one wears a crown."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Governor, senator, and potential presidential nominee, Huey Pierce Long Jr. would have been as fascinating a politician in the current era as he was in his own. By all accounts he was crass, commanding, and vengeful, with massive popularity as a Depression Era populist who was further to the left than Franklin Roosevelt and touted a campaign slogan of "Every man a king, but no one wears a crown."

Long rose from the extremely impoverished Winn Parish in Louisiana to the national political stage with zeal, towering ambition, and a charismatic knack for attracting followers and powerful devotees. Here are 10 facts about the ostentatious politician who gave himself the nickname "The Kingfish."

1. HE WAS A TALENTED STUDENT WHO WAS EXPELLED BEFORE GRADUATING.

Since there was no public school in Winn Parish when he was growing up, Huey Long was home-schooled before his father and other neighbors pooled money together for a teacher to create a "subscription school." He started at public school in fourth grade, and later managed to convince his teachers to let him skip seventh grade. He was on the cusp of graduating from Winnfield High School in 1910 following the 11th grade when a 12th grade was added to the curriculum.

Long was kicked out of school for circulating a pamphlet decrying the extra year and, as a result, he never finished high school (though he was awarded a diploma posthumously). As revenge for his expulsion, he launched a petition calling for the principal to be fired and got enough signatures from the townspeople to see the principal removed.

2. HE RECEIVED A SCHOLARSHIP TO LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY, BUT STILL COULDN'T AFFORD TO GO.

Though he didn't graduate high school, Long's talent for winning arguments got him noticed by colleges. Long came in third at a Louisiana state debate competition, and won a scholarship to LSU as a result. Since room, board, and textbooks weren't included in the offer, Long had to pass on the opportunity. Instead, he worked as a traveling salesman, hawking medicines and books all over the state.

3. HE PASSED THE BAR EXAM AFTER ONLY ONE YEAR OF LAW SCHOOL.

After half-heartedly trying his hand at seminary school at Oklahoma Baptist University at his mother's insistence, Long-who claimed to have a photographic memory-later transferred to the University of Oklahoma College of Law, but was distracted by the local casinos and ended up staying for just one semester. In 1914 he attended Tulane University Law School for only a year before convincing the school board to let him take an oral bar exam. He passed and moved back to Winnfield as a lawyer.

4. HE WASN'T AFRAID TO GET HIS KNUCKLES BLOODY.

Long was irascible and, more than once, physically assaulted those who challenged him. That included a newspaper editor and one elderly, outgoing governor who called Long a liar (and was punched in the face by Long as a result). He was also accused of blackmailing and bullying his opponents, including a Baptist minister whom he tricked into entering a hotel room he'd staged with liquor and a prostitute. Beyond bloody knuckles, Long also got his hands dirty by rigging elections with fraudulent votes from "Babe Ruth," "Charlie Chaplin," "Clara Bow," and other celebrities.

5. HE WAS A HERO TO THE POOR.

Long's mandate when he became governor of Louisiana in 1928 (with 96.1 percent of the vote) was to aid the poor with publicly-funded projects, including new roads, bridges, hospitals, and schools and free textbooks for students. Before he took office, Louisiana had a 25 percent literacy rate, only 300 miles of paved roads, and three major bridges. By the end of his term, adult literacy programs had taught 175,000 to read, and there were 9000 miles of roads and more than 100 bridges. A lifelong enemy of the oil industry after Standard Oil caused him to lose money on an investment by refusing to buy any of his well's oil, Long pushed for a tax on petroleum products to help fund his social programs, also enacting a tax on the wealthy to benefit the poor.

He invested in LSU's campus, ordered construction on a new capitol building, and effectively gave Louisiana a head start with the kinds of programs President Roosevelt would enact nationwide in response to the Great Depression. However, Long was also anti-union, opposed progressive child labor laws, saw the state debt balloon under his leadership, and failed to bring economic growth to the very people who supported him.

6. HE RAN THE GOVERNOR'S OFFICE LIKE A DICTATORSHIP.

In Freedom From Fear, historian David Kennedy wrote that Long lorded over "the closest thing to a dictatorship that America has ever known." In winning the governor's mansion, Long overturned the power of the Regular Democratic Organization political machine (also known as the Choctaw Club) and ousted hundreds of political opponents from jobs in the state bureaucracy, replacing them with loyalists who paid part of their salary into his campaign war chest. He strong-armed and cajoled legislators, diminished Standard Oil's power in governance, installed Oscar K. Allen as a puppet governor to follow his orders once he became a United States senator, and reportedly had armed thugs change voter rolls, all while overseeing a massive redistribution of wealth in the state.

7. AN ATTEMPT TO IMPEACH HIM TURNED INTO A RIOT.

In 1929, Shreveport representative Cecil Morgan, who was aligned with the Choctaw Club, sought to impeach Long on a variety of charges, including of corruption, incompetence, and blasphemy. Speaker of the House John B. Fournet, who was loyal to Long, moved to adjourn the special session abruptly and faked a vote count to say that the adjournment motion had passed. Enraged, Morgan's and Long's allies attacked each other.

According to Huey Long's Louisiana Hayride: The American Rehearsal For Dictatorship, the right honorable lawmakers "beat each other with ink wells, slugged with both fists. Shirts were torn off, eyes gouged, heads butted on desks," in what would become known as "Bloody Monday."

8. LONG STAYED ON AS GOVERNOR FOR THE FIRST YEAR OF HIS TENURE AS A SENATOR.

His term as a United States senator should have begun March 4, 1931, but he stayed almost long enough to finish his four-year term as governor through the following year. His entrenchment blocked his rival, Lieutenant Governor Paul N. Cyr, from assuming the governorship. In October 1931, Cyr declared himself the rightful governor, citing Long's election to a different office, so Long had the state National Guard surround the capitol, and then successfully argued to the Louisiana Supreme Court that Cyr had left the office of lieutenant governor vacant by declaring himself governor. Cyr was blocked from both positions, and Long's ally Alvin King became lieutenant governor before assuming the top post in January 1932. Long then handpicked Oscar K. Allen as his successor; Allen easily won the special election, and Long felt comfortable finally leaving Louisiana for Washington, D.C.

9. FDR CONSIDERED HIM ONE OF THE "MOST DANGEROUS MEN IN THE COUNTRY."

Long was initially a big supporter of President Roosevelt, but he acted as one of his most vocal critics when, in Long's opinion, federal programs didn't go far enough to redistribute wealth. Roosevelt once said, "It's all very well for us to laugh over Huey, but he really is one of the two most dangerous men in the country." The laughter was meant for Long's flamboyancy, loud costume-esque attire, and flagrant self-serving speeches. The fear was for his incisive political acumen, devoted voting bloc, and revenge-obsessed modus operandi. (The other "most dangerous" man Roosevelt referred to was General Douglas MacArthur.)

10. HE WAS ASSASSINATED BEFORE HE COULD RUN FOR PRESIDENT.

Having always planned to seek the top office, Long wrote a book called My First Days in the White House, which (fictionally, and with much hubris) recounted how the people backed his message with such fervor that they whisked him into the presidency with a roar that drowned out the outgoing president. Before he could make that fantasy a reality, he was killed by the son-in-law of an ousted political rival.

In 1935, Long lorded over a special session of the state legislature to influence a vote to remove Judge Benjamin Pavy from his seat, which was the last in a long line of humiliations Long had dealt the Pavy family. After the vote removed Pavy from office, Pavy's son-in-law, Carl Weiss, shot Long with a revolver. Long died on September 10, 1935. My First Days in the White House was published posthumously.

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8 Creative Ways People Went Over the Berlin Wall

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Governor, senator, and potential presidential nominee, Huey Pierce Long Jr. would have been as fascinating a politician in the current era as he was in his own. By all accounts he was crass, commanding, and vengeful, with massive popularity as a Depression Era populist who was further to the left than Franklin Roosevelt and touted a campaign slogan of "Every man a king, but no one wears a crown."

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ictPPCueR40

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www.berliner-mauer-gedenkstaette.de/

berlin memorial

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West Berliners interpertation of East Side feelings Via wall "graffiti"

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TIME's coverage of the anniversary

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The 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall marked by release of 8,000 helium balloons into the night sky over the German capital

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West Berlins interpretation

of East via wall painting

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www.alatechsource.org

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thejetpacker.com

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Summary: I was in Berlin the weekend the Berlin Wall was torn down. This is the only written personal account of the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

This account has been published in Grammar for Writing: Complete Course, by Phyllis Goldenberg, et al (Sadlier-Oxford, 1999); The Berlin Wall, Cindy Mur (Greenhaven Press, 2003); Writing and Grammar , Wayne King et al (Bob Jones University Press. 3rd. ed., 2009); World Cultures and Geography (McDougal Littell, 2008); The Cold War: Chronicles of America's Wars, by Josepha Sherman (Lerner Publications, 2003); published by Maskew Miller Longman (South Africa, 2013). The author has been interviewed by the BBC and ITN in the UK and NPR in the USA.

I earned my Master's degree at the University of Heidelberg (Germany), where my minor was in Political Science with a focus on 20th-century history and German politics.

Berlin, 11th and 12th of November, 1989: On Thursday, the 9th of November, 1989, and Friday the 10th, the TV and radio in Denmark was filled with news about the events in Berlin. The Berlin Wall was about to fall. On Saturday morning, the 11th of November, I heard on the radio that East Germany was collapsing. At the spur of the moment, I suggested to Karen, my Danish wife, and two Danish friends, Rolf Reitan and Nana Kleist, that we should go to Berlin. We talked about what one should take to a revolution: it was a very cold, dry November day. We settled on a dozen boiled eggs, a thermos pot of coffee, extra warm clothes, sleeping bags, and a battery-powered radio. The four of us packed into my 25-year old Volkswagen bug and we drove off.

It's normally an eight hour drive from Aarhus, Denmark, to Berlin. We took the Autobahn down to Hamburg and then across one of the transit routes to Berlin. Berlin is in the center of East Germany. There are only three highways which allow access from West Germany. At the border city of Braunschweig (Brunswick), on the German side, we began to see the first Trabants. These are small East German cars. They don't just look like toy cars, they look like Donald Duck's car. It was designed by a famous East German industrial designer during the 50s and it never changed. It's the only car in the world with tail fins. It has cheap, thin metal that rusts easily. The two-stroke engine buzzes like a lawn mower and pumps out clouds of smoke. God help you if you're standing near one. Trabants, which Germans call Trabis, have a top speed of about 50 miles an hour.

After a pizza in Braunschweig, we drove towards the German/German border. It was about 11 p.m. at night now. The traffic began to slow down. Soon there was very heavy traffic. In the distance there was a tremendous cloud of light. No one knew what was going on. On the radio, reports followed one another, contradicting each other. Soon, we began to pass cars that were parked along both sides of the Autobahn. People were walking along, all heading towards the border.

We finally reached the border just after midnight. The East German border was always a serious place. Armed guards kept you in your car, watching for attempts at escapes. Tonight was a different country. Over 20,000 East and West Germans were gathered there in a huge party: as each Trabi came through, people cheered and clapped. East Germans drove through the applause, grinning, dazed, as thousands of flashbulbs went off. The traffic jam was spectacular. The cloud of light turned out to be the headlights of tens of thousands of cars in a huge cloud of Trabi exhaust fumes. We got out of the car and began walking. Between lanes of cars,streams of people were walking, talking together. Under one lig ht, a group of musicians were playing violins and accordions and men and women were dancing in circles. Despite the brilliantly cold night, car windows were open and everyone talked to each other.

We met people from Belgium, France, Sweden, Spain, England: they had all left their homes and come to see the wall be torn down. Germans were drunk with joy. Everyone spoke in all sorts of languages and half languages. French spoke German and Spaniards spoke French and everyone spoke a bit of German. We walked for a while with a French family from Belgium:the mother had packed her two young daughters into the car and came to seethe German revolution.

Along with everyone else headed towards Berlin were thousands of East Germans; they had been in West Europe for a blitz tour with the kids and grandmother in the back, to look around and drive back again. Without passports, they had simply driven through the borders. Amused West European border guards let them pass. They smiled and waved to everyone.

At the checkpoint, which is a 25 lane place, people milled around. It was nearly 3 a.m. by now. It had taken us three hours to go through the traffic jam of cheering and applause. West Germans are environmentally conscious and if they're stuck in traffic, they turn off the engine and push their cars. East Germans, on the other hand, sat in their Trabis, putting out clouds of exhaust. Everyone had their radios on and everywhere was music. People had climbed up into trees, signs, buildings, everything,to wave and shout. Television teams stood around filming everything.People set up folding tables and were handing out cups of coffee. A Polis engineer and his wife had run out of gas; someone gave us some rope, so we tied the rope to his car and pulled them along.

We walked through the border. On both sides the guard towers were empty and the barbed wire was shoved aside in great piles. Large signs told us that we needed sets of car documents. The East German guard asked if we had documents. I handed him my Danish cat's vaccination documents, in Danish. He waved us through.

We were finally inside East Germany on the transit highway to Berlin. We could see headlights stretching into the distance, a river of light winding through hills and valleys as far as one could see. We counted our odometer and saw that in the opposite direction both lanes were filled and stopped for 35 kilometers. We counted people and cars for a kilometer and guessed that perhaps another one hundred thousand people were headed westward towards West Germany.

We drove along, listening to the radio. The only thing was Berlin.Reporters went back and forth, describing the events on the streets and where people had gathered at the wall. There were reports of shoving and arrests. Large crowds were beginning to form into mobs. Police stood around. There were reports of rumor of soldiers and military vehicles,both East and West. At one point in the wall, the crowd had begun to tear down the wall. They succeeded in carrying away a 3-meter tall slab.

We arrived in Berlin at 4:30 a.m., five hours longer than usual. We drove first to Brandenburgerplatz, where the statute of Winged Victory stands atop a 50 meter column, which celebrates a military victory in the 1890s over Denmark. Cars were abandoned everywhere, wherever there was space. Over 5,000 people were there. I began talking to people. We left the car and began to walk through a village of television trucks, giant satellite dishes, emergency generators, and coils of cables, and tents. Cameramen slept under satellite dishes. At the wall, West German police and military was lined up to prevent chaos. West German military trucks were lined up against the wall, to protect it from the West Germans. Hundreds of West German police stood in rows with their tall shields. On top of the wall, lined up at parade rest, stood East German soldiers with their rifles. Groups of West Germans stood around fires that they had built. No one knew what was going on.

After a while, we walked to Potsdammer Platz. This used to be the center of Berlin. All traffic once passed through the Potsdammer Platz. Now it was a large empty field, bisected by the wall. Nearby was the mound that was the remains of Hitler's bunker, from which he commanded Germany into total defeat. We talked to Germans and many said that the next break in the wall would be here. It was still very dark and cold at 5 a.m. Perhaps 7,000 people were pressed together, shouting, cheering, clapping. We pushed through the crowd. From the East German side we could hear the sound of heavy machines. With a giant drill, they were punching holes in the wall.Every time a drill poked through, everyone cheered. The banks of klieg lights would come on. People shot off fireworks and emergency flares and rescue rockets. Many were using hammers to chip away at the wall. There were countless holes. At one place, a crowd of East German soldiers looked through a narrow hole. We reached through and shook hands. They couldn't see the crowd so they asked us what was going on and we described the scene for them. Someone lent me a hammer and I knocked chunks of rubble from the wall, dropping several handfuls into my pocket. The wall was made of cheap, brittle concrete: the Russians had used too much sand and water.

Progress seemed rather slow and we figured it'd take another hour. The car wouldn't start anymore without a push. We went back towards the city for coffee or beer or whatever. We drove down the Kurfurstendamm (the Ku'damm), the central boulevard. Hundreds of thousands of people were walking around, going in and out of stores, looking around, drinking cheap East German champagne. Thousands of champagne bottles littered the streets. Thousands of Trabis were parked wherever they had found a space,between trees, between park benches, on traffic islands. Everything was open: restaurants, bars, discos, everything. Yesterday over two million East Germans had entered Berlin. The radio reported that over 100,000 were entering every hour. With Berlin's population of three million, there were over five million people milling around in delirious joy celebrating the reunion of the city after 28 years (Aug. 12, 1961-Nov. 9, 1989). A newspaper wrote banner headlines: Germany is reunited in the streets!

The East German government was collapsing. East German money was worthless. West Germany gave every East German 100 Deutschmark, which amounted to several months wages. The radio announced that banks and post offices would open at 9 a.m. so that the people could pick up their cash with a stamp in their identification papers. Thousands stood in line.

We left our car in front of the Gedankniskirchen, the Church of Remembrance, a bombed out ruins of a church, left as a memorial to the victims of the war.

We walked into a bar. Nearly everything was sold out. A huge crowd was talking and laughing all at once. We found a table. An old woman came up and asked if we were Germans. We said no, Danish, and invited her and her family to our table. We shared chairs and beer. They were East Germans,mother, father, and daughter. She worked in a factory, her husband was a plumber, and the daughter worked in a shop. They came from a small village several hundred kilometers to the south. The old woman said that she had last seen Berlin 21 years ago and couldn't recognize it. They told us about the chaos of the last few weeks. I asked them what they had bought in Berlin. They all pulled out their squirt guns. They thought it was so funny to fill up the squirt guns with beer and shoot at everybody. The family had chased a cat in an alley and eaten a dinner of bananas, a luxury for them. We talked about movies; they knew the directors and cameramen. The father was very happy at the idea of being able to travel. He wanted to go to Peru and see Machu Picchu and then to Egypt and see the pyramids. They had no desire to live in the West. They knew about unemployment and drug problems. Their apartment rent was $2 a month. A bus ticket cost less than a penny.

At seven a.m. or so, we left and headed back to the Potsdammer Platz. Old Volkswagens don't have gas gauges. The car ran out of gas. Someone said that there was a gas station five blocks ahead. People joined us in pushing the car to the gas station. When we arrived, people were standing around. The electricity had failed in the neighborhood so the gas pumps were dead. The owner shrugged at the small bother and waved us towards the coffee. Dozens of East Germans, young, old, children, stood around drinking coffee. After an hour or so, the electricity came on and we filled up the tank. With a crowd of people, we pushed the car up and down the street three times to get it to start. We drove back to Potsdammer Platz.

Everything was out of control. Police on horses watched. There was nothing they could do. The crowd had swollen. People were blowing lon galpine horns which made a huge noise. There were fireworks, kites, flags and flags and flags, dogs, children. The wall was finally breaking. The cranes lifted slabs aside. East and West German police had traded caps. To get a better view, hundreds of people were climbing onto a shop on the West German side. We scampered up a nine foot wall. People helped each other; some lifted, others pulled. All along the building, people poured up the wall. At the Berlin Wall itself, which is 3 meters high, people had climbed up and were sitting astride. The final slab was moved away. A stream of East Germans began to pour through. People applauded and slapped their backs. A woman handed me a giant bottle of wine, which I opened and she and I began to pour cups of wine and hand them to the East Germans.Journalists and TV reporters struggled to hold their cameras. A foreign news agency's van with TV cameras on top was in a crowd of people; it rocked and the cameramen pleaded with the crowd. Packed in with thousands,I stood at the break in the wall. Above me, a German stood atop the wall,at the end, balanced, waving his arms and shouting reports to the crowd.With all of the East Germans coming into West Berlin, we thought it was only fair that we should go to East Berlin. A counterflow started. Looking around, I saw an indescribable joy in people's faces. It was the end of the government telling people what not to do, it was the end of the Wall,the war, the East, the West. If East Germans were going west, then we should go east, so we poured into East Berlin. Around me, people spoke German, French, Polish, Russian, every language. A woman handed her camera to someone who was standing atop rubble so that he could take her picture. I passed a group of American reporters; they didn't speak anything and couldn't understand what was going on, pushing their microphones into people's faces, asking "Do you speak English?" Near me, a knot of people cheered as the mayors of East Berlin and West Berlin met and shook hands. I stood with several East German guards, their rifles slung over their shoulders. I asked them if they had bullets in those things. They grinned and said no. From some houses, someone had set up loudspeakers and played Beethoven's ninth symphony: Alle Menschen werden Bruder. All people become brothers. On top of every building were thousands of people. Berlin was out of control. There was no more government, neither in East nor in West.The police and the army were helpless. The soldiers themselves were overwhelmed by the event. They were part of the crowd. Their uniforms meant nothing. The Wall was down.

After a while, we left and went back to the city, to find some food.The TV was set to East German TV. The broadcasters began showing whatever they wanted: roving cameras in the street, film clips, porno, speeches from parliament, statements, videos, nature films, live interviews. West Berliners went out of their homes and brought East Germans in for food and rest. A friend of ours in Berlin had two families sleeping in her living room. The radio told that in Frankfurt, a Trabi had been hit by a Mercedes. Nothing happened to the Mercedes but the Trabi was destroyed. A crowd of people collected money for the East German family; the driver of the Mercedes gave them her keys and lent them her car for the weekend. A West German went home, got his truck, and drove the Trabi back to East Germany. Late Sunday, the West German government declared on radio and TV that East Germans had free access to all public transportation: buses,streetcars, and trains, plus free admission to all zoos, museums,concerts, practically everything. More than 80% of East Germany was on vacation in West Germany, nearly 13 million people, visiting family and friends in the West. After a week, nearly all returned home.

After a dinner of spaghetti, we got back into the Volkswagen and headed home. The radio talked about delays of ten hours, but then again, that wasjust another rumor. At the border, there were no guards anymore. Late thenext morning, we were back in Denmark.

1989: The End of Communism in Central Europe

In 1848, Europe went through a year of revolution, as kings fell and democratic governments were created. 1989 was another one of these years for Europe. With countries that are literally a short automobile trip apart, where people tend to know each other, where international news is local news, political movements leap like wildfire from city to city.

April 5: Poland. The Communist government and Solidarity agree to share power and hold free elections.

May 8: Yugoslavia. The nationalist Slobodan Milosevic is elected as president.

June 4: Poland. Solidarity wins a huge majority of the vote, including 96 of 100 Senate seats.

Aug. 19: Poland. Mazowiecki is elected as Poland's first non-Communist prime minister.

Sept. 10: Hungary. 60,000 East Germans go through Hungary to cross into Austria.

Sept. 27: Yugoslavia. Slovenia asserts its right to secede from Yugoslavia.

Oct 7: Hungary. Socialist Workers Party (formerly Communist) renounces Marxism, embraces democratic socialism, and is renamed the Hungarian Socialist Party.

Oct. 18: East Germany. Mass demonstrations force President Eric Honecker to resign.

Oct. 18: Hungary. Parliament ends the one-party monopoly and announces elections for next year.

Nov. 9: East Germany. The Berlin Wall is opened and five million people come to Berlin to celebrate the end of the Wall, the end of the Cold War, the end of Communism, and the reunification of Germany.

Nov. 10: Bulgaria: Todor Zhikov, head of state and leader of the Communist Party for 35 years, resigns.

Nov. 17: Czechoslovakia, Hundreds of thousands of protesters march in Prague.

Dec. 10: Czechoslavakia. President Husak resigns and installs a coalition cabinet with communists in the minority.

Dec. 13: Bulgaria. The Communist Party renounces their monopoly on power.

Dec. 16-21: Romania. Secruity forces opens fire on thousands of demonstrators; hundreds are killed and buried in mass graves. As Christmas arrives, everyone in Europe watches the revolution on television.

Dec. 22: Romania. The army revolts, joining with demonstrators, and the Council of National Salvation declares the government to be overthrown.

Dec. 25: Romania. In an two-hour trial, the Communist dictator Ceausecsu and his wife are convicted of genocide and immediately executed by machine gunfire.

Dec. 26: Poland. Radical free-market reform plan is announced.

Dec. 29: Czechoslavakia. Playwright and human rights compaigner Vaclav Havel, who spent years in prison as a dissident, is the new president of Czechoslavakia.

Links to More Sites...

Read another personal account of the Berlin Wall, by Shirley Thompson.

Visit the EncyclopÊdia Britannica's article about the Berlin Wall.

The Free University of Berlin has a short history of the wall.

A web site in East Berlin has more links about the wall.

For the 10th Anniversary, there's www.wall-berlin.org.

Matthias Melcher maintains the University of Heidelberg's links to German history.

Photos of the Wall at www.dieberlinermauer.de (The Berlin Wall.)

See Steffan Iwersen's photos.

Jim LeBlanc was a translator with the US Army during the 80s. He took many photos of the Berlin Wall, both before and after, which show the change in the city.

Chris De Witt has a collection of essays and pictures.

Cliff Docherty wrote a description of life in Berlin in 1983 during the wall. I was often in Berlin throughout the 80s and his description is accurate.

The Ghost of the Wall.

World Book Encyclopedia's The Wall Comes Down. A collection of articles that examines the Berlin Wall, why it was built, and why it fell.

BiW: Berlin Wall: Background, construction, measurements, and its fall.

Chris De Witt's Berlin Wall.

Concrete Curtain. On the tenth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Concrete Curtain: The Life and Death of the Berlin Wall: The Caen Memorial and the DHM of Berlin.

Fall of The Berlin Wall: Timeline of events and social and political impact.

Fall of the Berlin Wall: Photos and newspaper articles from the days after November 9th, 1989.

History Of the Berlin Wall in Text and Pictures.

Lost Border: Photographs of the Iron Curtain The landscape of the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall and the subsequent reconstruction of central Berlin.

Footnotes...

If you're writing about the Berlin Wall for your school or studies, you can look at other issues. For example, Korea was also divided into two parts: Communist and Western. They also have a wall that divides the country and families. North Korea is barely able to survive. The USA, Japan, and China support North Korea so it won't collapse. South Korea wants to reunify, but they can't bear the costs of developing a country that is in near ruins. So everything that happened in Germany will also happen again in Korea. You can learn about Korea and compare the two.

Here's more on the Origins and Politics of the Berlin Wall.

© Andreas Ramos 1989. You are welcomed to reprint this essay. It has been included in four American history books or English text books, an Australian school history book, and a Canadian school history book. It's also part of the Berlin Wall historical archives. Just send me an email () and I'll send you publication permission.

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The Fall of the Berlin Wall: A Personal Account

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Summary: I was in Berlin the weekend the Berlin Wall was torn down. This is the only written personal account of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. This account has been published in Grammar for Writing: Complete Course, by Phyllis Goldenberg, et al (Sadlier-Oxford, 1999); The Berlin Wall, Cindy Mur (Greenhaven Press, 2003); Writing and Grammar , Wayne King et al (Bob Jones University Press.

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Fall of Berlin Wall: 25th Anniversary Commemorated

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Ceremonies throughout Berlin on Sunday marked the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, culminating in the release of balloons tracing the former outline of the wall.

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The Fall of the Berlin Wall: 25 Years Later

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Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- November 9th marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Bloomberg's Hans Nichols reflects on the history of the wall and what has changed in the years since the wall was opened, re-unifying East and West Germany. He speaks on "Bloomberg Surveillance."

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http://history1900s.about.com/od/coldwa1/a/berlinwall.htm

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here ya go Frau.

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For most of Germany, Nov. 9 is a day to celebrate not just the opening of the wall but what came after: integration of East and West and the rise of a united and prosperous Germany that now helps lead Europe.

But for some Germans it also summons memories of the East Germany that was a state of informers and suspicions, public rigidity and private despair - none more so than the families and friends of those killed at the Berlin Wall, for whom the anniversary of its fall is tarnished by tragedy, pocked with the holes where a child, a spouse or sibling once was.

To trace the victims is to delve behind the glamour and groove that is modern Berlin, deep into meticulously neat gardens and homes where most Germans live their ordered lives. The pain still sears, more than five decades after the first victims died, and a quarter-century after millions of German families divided by the Cold War came back together.

By far the majority of those killed trying to breach the fortified, 96-mile barrier were young men in their teens or 20s. Many more were tempted to take the risk in the first years than toward the end. Contrary to myths of heroism and betrayal attached variously by West and East to each escape, few who fled or tried to had a purely political motive.

Thomas Taubmann was 26, divorced, a college dropout who was drinking too much when, on the grim weekend of Dec. 12-13, 1981, as martial law was declared in Poland and as East and West German leaders met, he tried to scale the wall at a spot where East and West rail tracks ran parallel. His parents, interrogated separately by the police, never heard the exact truth, but Thomas was apparently crushed by a train.

His mother, Elisabeth, a nurse and a lay judge at an East Berlin court where Thomas was due to appear on shoplifting charges, never got over it. "She was sick at heart, and she died of it," said her husband, now a sprightly 80.

After his wife's death in 1999, Mr. Taubmann requested the file of the secret police. Only then did he read the note that Thomas had left for "Dear Mummy! Dear Daddy!" in which the son intuited that his father had the stronger nerves, and implored him "to help Mom over the hump." Only then did the father know for sure that, without warning, his son had tried to escape.

Marienetta Jirkowsky, another only child, was just 18 when she was shot. Like countless women before and after her, she fell for the wrong guy. Like very few other women, she tried to cross the Berlin Wall.

On what would have been Ms. Jirkowsky's 52nd birthday last August, Falko Vogt stood before the immaculate grave outside a village northeast of Berlin that now contains the remains of Marienetta and her parents. "Oh Micki, Micki," sighed Mr. Vogt, using her nickname as he told of their flight on the night of Nov. 21-22, 1980.

Mr. Vogt, now also 52, was long determined to leave. After troubled years in state child care, he befriended Peter Wiesner and Mr. Wiesner's girlfriend, Ms. Jirkowsky, and the trio plotted an escape.

Initially, he said of their bid for freedom, "we had more luck than sense." After the hourlong train ride to East Berlin from their hometown, Fürstenwalde, they went at night to scout a spot they knew, where the two walls that divided Berlin - one on the East German side, the second on the actual border - were barely 100 feet apart.

They had planned to cross the next night. But now the West was tantalizingly close. Undetected, they stole ladders from a nearby house and made it over the first wall. They crossed no-man's land without stepping on mines or booby traps. Aided by the ladders, Mr. Vogt made it over the second wall, dropping down into West Berlin.

Ms. Jirkowsky was supposed to follow. But it was Mr. Wiesner who clambered up second as East German border guards approached. It was pitch dark, Mr. Vogt said. "They heard us, we heard them, but neither of us could see each other," he said.

Atop the wall, Mr. Wiesner stretched down, offering his hand to Ms. Jirkowsky. Before she could scramble up, she was shot - 27 times. Her boyfriend followed Mr. Vogt, dropping down in the West. She was taken to a hospital in the East, where, according to the files of the secret police, the Stasi, she was interrogated before dying hours later.

"Would we have done it if we had known the wall would fall?" Mr. Vogt asked now. "I don't know - it was almost 10 years before," an eternity at 18.

Her parents, Klaus and Astrid, never saw their daughter again. Two weeks later, they got an urn with Marienetta's ashes, and an autopsy report with word that, unknown to her family, she had been three months pregnant.

The parents had loathed their daughter's relationship, even getting a restraining order to keep her from Mr. Wiesner, 24, a drinker who was getting divorced (and died young, in 1992, in western Germany). "He wasn't much of a future son-in-law," Mr. Vogt said.

The parents are long dead - like Mrs. Taubmann, Mrs. Jirkowsky never recovered. "She got us all together to celebrate her 55th birthday and announced she would not be here for her 56th," said her sister, Bärbel Kultus. "She had kidney disease, but she said there was no point in treatment. Nothing would bring back Marienetta."

Ms. Kultus added: "Marienetta was not a political person. She loved her Peter. If he had gone to Russia, she would have followed him there."

As to what prompted Axel Hannemann to try, at 17, to cross the Spree River to West Berlin in June 1962, no one will ever know. His farewell note said he would reveal the motive "once I've made it." Fifty-two years later, his only surviving sibling, Jürgen, seven years his senior, still tears up.

"It was completely senseless, what he did," Jürgen Hannemann mused at his cottage near the family's hometown, Cottbus. "I just can't understand. We had a good relationship, and I loved him."

Axel's escape attempt occurred when the wall was not yet a year old and an object of Communist zeal. But eventually, Jürgen Hannemann said, the Stasi stopped interrogating friends from work, Axel's dance lessons and his tennis club. Axel's daring - jumping on a cargo ship headed for West Berlin, being discovered, then plunging into the Spree and getting shot in view of people on the western bank - receded into history.

The decades have softened the blow of loss, but during interviews over the past two months, each family still nursed bitterness - particularly that no border guard who shot their loved one received more than probation. Legal wrangling over whether there was a shoot-to-kill order for the wall's heavily armed sentinels has spared the guards, not the victims.

In Berlin these days, visitors engage in "wall tourism." The American-Soviet border crossing known as Checkpoint Charlie has spawned constantly playing movies and a museum. In Bornholmer Strasse, where the wall first opened, an engraving that chronicles the events of Nov. 9, 1989, is on the bridge over the rails where Thomas Taubmann died.

Günter Taubmann is not much for ceremony. He is delighted that he and his wife followed her instinct, and reached out after the tragedy to Thomas's ex-wife and son, Björn, just 5 when his father was killed. This fall, a great-granddaughter started school.

But, as Mr. Taubmann pinpointed a date, Thomas was his point of reference. "This year, he would have been 59," the father noted in passing.

Twenty minutes' walk away lies the grave of Thomas and his mother. Mr. Taubmann visits at least once a year - on July 22, Thomas's birthday. "I just put a flower on the grave. And then I go to the pub and drink a beer."

"It is all sad," he added, "but it was."

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On Berlin Wall Anniversary, Somber Notes Amid Revelry

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For most of Germany, Nov. 9 is a day to celebrate not just the opening of the wall but what came after: integration of East and West and the rise of a united and prosperous Germany that now helps lead Europe.

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Fall of the Berlin Wall: 20th anniversary celebrations

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World leaders are gathering in Berlin today, two decades after the fall of the wall, to celebrate and reflect on the event. Find out about some of the key events here

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Germany for foodies - plan your German food travel with these helpful articles, from German restaurants, and German beer gardens, to wine festivals, and German food markets.

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All the remaining parts of the border installation from between 1961 and 1989/1990 are documented within this interactive Geographic Information System. Based on a detailed survey of 2007/2008, it is supplemented by information on the function of the border elements and by a photo documentation from the years 1988/89, both of which help to demonstrate the extent of the former border installation.

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get to know how Germans celebrate the f"Fall of the Wall"<br>

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Berlin Official Event Calendar ➤ What's on in Berlin? ★ Concerts ★ Museums ★ Music ★ Family Events ★ Stage ★ Sport ➤ Event Calendar & Tickets www.visitberlin.de/event-calendar-berlin

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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29974950

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David Hasselhoff at the Berlin Wall!

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Sunday marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall - the event that symbolically brought a dramatic end to communism in Eastern Europe.

It's easy to look at the Wall now and see a clear and powerful symbol of the division between democracy and repression: an Iron Curtain made of stone. But who would have thought that weeks after the wall fell and for years that followed, an American TV star would come to personify freedom, democracy and everything good in the world.

"I was a guy who happened to do a show called Knight Rider, who happened to sing a song called 'Looking For Freedom,'" says actor, activist and singer David Hasselhoff.

Hasselhoff was a certified heartthrob in the States, but he built his European reputation on that pop song. NPR's Rachel Martin asked him how he came to sing an unforgettable concert in Berlin on New Year's Eve back in 1989 after the Wall fell.

"I had been behind the Wall eight or nine times since 1987, to kind of further my music career with the Knight Rider car; if they wouldn't come and see me, they would come and see the car," Hasselhoff says. "I hit big with a single and they invited me to sing, and I said, 'Only if I could sing on the Wall.' And they said yes!"

Officials from East and West Germany made Hasselhoff the star of the New Year's celebration. Hoisted above the crowd on a crane, Hasselhoff was decked out in an unforgettable jacket fitted with flashing, battery-powered lights. And then, on the top of the Wall with the Brandenburg Gate behind him, Hasselhoff sang.

Even with the massive crowd singing along, Hasselhoff says he had no idea whether the performance would have any lasting impact. It wasn't until he saw people holding signs while on tour, thanking him for the fall of the Wall, that he realized how much it meant.

"I didn't know if it was a joke or not, I really didn't," he says. "It wasn't a joke; it was like 'Thank you for the fall of the Wall and thank you for our childhood.'"

Later, Hasselhoff says people told him it was more than just a pop song. The song, he says, became their anthem and "our song of hope."

Over the next two decades, Hasselhoff balanced his roles as Hollywood star and political celebrity. He's returned to Berlin many times over the years, most recently to help save the last pieces of the wall as a memorial to those who died trying to cross.

"I just went on my own and walked the Wall [to] raise awareness that you can't tear this down," he says. "And 10,000 people turned out, so I sang 'Looking For Freedom' through a bullhorn; I was pretty moved that anyone showed up 25 years later."

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Sunday marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall - the event that symbolically brought a dramatic end to communism in Eastern Europe. It's easy to look at the Wall now and see a clear and powerful symbol of the division between democracy and repression: an Iron Curtain made of stone.

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The Berlin Wall: A Secret History | History Today

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The Berlin Wall was a tangible symbol of the suppression of human rights by the Eastern bloc during the Cold War, but Frederick Taylor asks whether it was more convenient to the Western democracies than their rhetoric suggested.

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Some 8,000 helium balloons have been released into the night sky over Germany's capital at the culmination of events to mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Earlier, Chancellor Angela Merkel said the fall of the wall had shown the world that dreams could come true.

Tens of thousands of people attended events, including a "citizen's party" at the Brandenburg Gate.

The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 to stop people fleeing the communist East.

Its fall in 1989 became a powerful symbol of the end of the Cold War.

The white balloons - perched on 3.6m poles to match the height of the wall and stretching for 15km (nine miles) - were released one by one to symbolise the breaching of the wall by crowds of protesters.

The Berlin State Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim played Beethoven's Ninth Symphony "Ode to Joy" in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

"We're the happiest people in the world and we're thrilled that you brought the Berlin Wall down 25 years ago," said the Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, as the first balloons were sent aloft.

"Nothing and no-one can stand in the way of freedom."

The release came amid a massive open-air party at the Brandenburg Gate. Earlier at the party, UK performer Peter Gabriel sang a version of David Bowie's Heroes.
At the scene: Damian McGuinness, BBC News
For a weekend the balloons had become a part of the city, with Berliners strolling, jogging or cycling along the route.

Today not much of the Wall remains, and often you don't even notice when crossing between East and West. That's because, after 1989, Berliners wanted to destroy the much-hated barrier and rebuild their city.

But suddenly seeing the circuitous and often illogical line which tore through the city's heart was a reminder of the insanity of using concrete to split a city in two, dividing neighbourhoods, friends and families.

Now the balloons have floated off into the sky, each one accompanied by cheers from the crowd - a shining and delicate symbol of peace and light, in stark contrast to the brutality of the heavy slabs of grey concrete. And a powerful reminder of how 25 years ago, under pressure from ordinary Berliners, this deadly barrier suddenly lost its threat.

'We can change things'

The day's events began with a brass band playing, evoking the trumpets which brought down the walls of the biblical city of Jericho.

Chancellor Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, and other officials laid roses in one of the remaining sections of the wall.

Speaking at the opening of a new information centre about the Wall, Ms Merkel said it was easy to forget what had happened and it was important to remember it.

"We can change things for the better," she said. "This is the message for... Ukraine, Iraq and other places where human rights are threatened.

"The fall of the Wall showed us that dreams can come true. Nothing has to stay as it is."

Recently Ms Merkel has revealed more details about her movements on the day that the Wall opened.

She told German TV on Saturday that she joined crowds heading towards West Berlin after a visit to the sauna, describing "an incredible feeling of happiness".

The chancellor was joined later at the Brandenburg Gate by former Polish trade union leader and president Lech Walesa and Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader.

The anniversary was also mentioned in an address by Pope Francis in Rome.

He told crowds in St Peter's Square: "Where there is a wall, there is a closing of hearts. We need bridges, not walls."

The wall stretched for 155km (96 miles) through Berlin but today only about three kilometres of it still stands.

At least 138 people died trying to flee to West Berlin.

Within a year of the wall's collapse, Germany - divided after its defeat in World War Two - was reunited.

Striking a sombre note, Mr Gorbachev, 83, warned on Saturday that the world was on the brink of a new Cold War.

Tensions between the West and Russia have been raised by the crisis in Ukraine, which was part of the Soviet Union.

"Bloodshed in Europe and the Middle East against the backdrop of a breakdown in dialogue between the major powers is of enormous concern," he said.

"The world is on the brink of a new Cold War. Some are even saying that it's already begun."

Mr Gorbachev, as leader of the USSR in the late 1980s, is credited with rapprochement with the West and creating a more liberal atmosphere which led to the collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe in 1989.

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Some 8,000 helium balloons have been released into the night sky over Germany's capital at the culmination of events to mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Earlier, Chancellor Angela Merkel said the fall of the wall had shown the world that dreams could come true.

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In order to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, more than 1 million people are expected to attend large celebrations in Berlin on Sunday. The festivities will include a fair amount of nostalgia. Musician Peter Gabriel, a staple of classic rock radio, will perform David Bowie's 1977 hit "Heroes." Cold War-era heroes, like former Polish president Lech Walesa and former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, will speak. The event will culminate with the release of thousands of helium balloons into Berlin's night sky.

There's certainly a lot to celebrate. In the quarter century since East Berliners, many armed with little more than their fingernails, tore down the 96 mile-long wall, millions of Europeans have emerged from poverty and gained freedoms unimaginable under Communist rule. Germany in particular has thrived. The country, which reunified in 1990, is now the world's fourth-largest economy and a diplomatic power of increasing importance. Unemployment is just 5.1 percent- less than half of the European Union average.

German chancellor Angela Merkel credits the fall of the Berlin Wall as a hugely positive force. "We have the power to create, we can turn things to the good: That is the message of the fall of the wall," she said Sunday.

But the idealism triggered by the end of the Cold War has faded. Amid concerns about immigration and economic stagnation, ultra-nationalist parties in France and Britain have become increasingly popular, and talk of the U.K.'s potential exit from the European Union has picked up. In Hungary, nationalist Prime Minister Victor Orban, once an anti-Soviet student leader, admires Moscow and regards illiberal regimes Singapore and China as possible models for his country.

In Russia, President Vladimir Putin's assertive pursuit of territory along the country's southern and western border has provoked international tension. This, too, has its roots in 1989. That year, as a young KGB official stationed in East Germany, Putin witnessed the collapse of the wall first-hand. In an account from Masha Gessen's biography The Man Without a Face, Putin said he viewed Gorbachev's relaxation of Soviet control as a preventabletragedy.

I phoned our military representatives and told them what was going on. And they said, 'We cannot do anything until we have orders from Moscow. And Moscow is silent.' A few hours later, our military did come and the crowd dispersed. But I remembered that: 'Moscow is silent.' I realized that the Soviet Union was ill. It was a fatal illness called paralysis. A paralysis of power."

Deeply unpopular in his own country, the 83-year-old Gorbachev remains a heroic figure in Germany. But even he is deeply pessimistic about Europe's future.

"Euphoria and triumphalism went to the heads of Western leaders," he said Saturday. "Taking advantage of Russia's weakening and the lack of a counterweight, they claimed monopoly leadership and domination in the world."

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In order to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, more than 1 million people are expected to attend large celebrations in Berlin on Sunday. The festivities will include a fair amount of nostalgia. Musician Peter Gabriel, a staple of classic rock radio, will perform David Bowie's 1977 hit "Heroes."

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Das neue Lernportfolio "Der Mauer auf der Spur - (M)eine Recherche zur Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer" gibt Schülerinnen und Schülern ab der 10. Klasse die Möglichkeit ihre eigene Recherche zu Geschichte und Auswirkung der Berliner Mauer durchzuführen!

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The Berlin Wall Memorial is the central memorial site of German division.

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Relevant to WWI

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James Barriscale as Emile - Valiant Hearts - The Last Letter.

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Some 8,000 helium balloons have been released into the night sky over Germany's capital at the culmination of events to mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Earlier, Chancellor Angela Merkel said the fall of the wall had shown the world that dreams could come true.

Tens of thousands of people attended events, including a "citizen's party" at the Brandenburg Gate.

The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 to stop people fleeing the communist East.

Its fall in 1989 became a powerful symbol of the end of the Cold War.

The white balloons - perched on 3.6m poles to match the height of the wall and stretching for 15km (nine miles) - were released one by one to symbolise the breaching of the wall by crowds of protesters.

The Berlin State Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim played Beethoven's Ninth Symphony "Ode to Joy" in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

"We're the happiest people in the world and we're thrilled that you brought the Berlin Wall down 25 years ago," said the Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, as the first balloons were sent aloft.

"Nothing and no-one can stand in the way of freedom."

The release came amid a massive open-air party at the Brandenburg Gate. Earlier at the party, UK performer Peter Gabriel sang a version of David Bowie's Heroes.
At the scene: Damian McGuinness, BBC News
For a weekend the balloons had become a part of the city, with Berliners strolling, jogging or cycling along the route.

Today not much of the Wall remains, and often you don't even notice when crossing between East and West. That's because, after 1989, Berliners wanted to destroy the much-hated barrier and rebuild their city.

But suddenly seeing the circuitous and often illogical line which tore through the city's heart was a reminder of the insanity of using concrete to split a city in two, dividing neighbourhoods, friends and families.

Now the balloons have floated off into the sky, each one accompanied by cheers from the crowd - a shining and delicate symbol of peace and light, in stark contrast to the brutality of the heavy slabs of grey concrete. And a powerful reminder of how 25 years ago, under pressure from ordinary Berliners, this deadly barrier suddenly lost its threat.

'We can change things'

The day's events began with a brass band playing, evoking the trumpets which brought down the walls of the biblical city of Jericho.

Chancellor Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, and other officials laid roses in one of the remaining sections of the wall.

Speaking at the opening of a new information centre about the Wall, Ms Merkel said it was easy to forget what had happened and it was important to remember it.

"We can change things for the better," she said. "This is the message for... Ukraine, Iraq and other places where human rights are threatened.

"The fall of the Wall showed us that dreams can come true. Nothing has to stay as it is."

Recently Ms Merkel has revealed more details about her movements on the day that the Wall opened.

She told German TV on Saturday that she joined crowds heading towards West Berlin after a visit to the sauna, describing "an incredible feeling of happiness".

The chancellor was joined later at the Brandenburg Gate by former Polish trade union leader and president Lech Walesa and Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader.

The anniversary was also mentioned in an address by Pope Francis in Rome.

He told crowds in St Peter's Square: "Where there is a wall, there is a closing of hearts. We need bridges, not walls."

The wall stretched for 155km (96 miles) through Berlin but today only about three kilometres of it still stands.

At least 138 people died trying to flee to West Berlin.

Within a year of the wall's collapse, Germany - divided after its defeat in World War Two - was reunited.

Striking a sombre note, Mr Gorbachev, 83, warned on Saturday that the world was on the brink of a new Cold War.

Tensions between the West and Russia have been raised by the crisis in Ukraine, which was part of the Soviet Union.

"Bloodshed in Europe and the Middle East against the backdrop of a breakdown in dialogue between the major powers is of enormous concern," he said.

"The world is on the brink of a new Cold War. Some are even saying that it's already begun."

Mr Gorbachev, as leader of the USSR in the late 1980s, is credited with rapprochement with the West and creating a more liberal atmosphere which led to the collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe in 1989.

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Some 8,000 helium balloons have been released into the night sky over Germany's capital at the culmination of events to mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Earlier, Chancellor Angela Merkel said the fall of the wall had shown the world that dreams could come true.

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The Berlin Wall : Documentary on the Berlin Wall from Construction to Destruction . 2013 2014 This documentary as well as all of the rest of these documentaries shown here are about important times and figures in history, historic places and people, archaeology, science, conspiracy theories, and education.

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The Berlin Wall Falls 1989 NBC Coverage Pt1

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NBC News coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall hosted by Tom Brokaw at the Brandenburg Gate, November 1989. Part 1 of 2. The exact date of this report is most likely November 10, 1989.

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The 25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall Google Doodle

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A video doodle commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the Fall of Berlin Wall and its pieces around the world. Original score by Nils Frahm - http://www.nilsfrahm.com/ Archival photos: courtesy of the German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv, http://www.bundesarchiv.de/index.html.en), photographers: Klaus Lehnartz, Heiko Specht http://www.google.com/doodles/25th-anniversary-of-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall

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http://reason.com/reasontv/2014/11/10/bringing-back-and-tearing-down-the-berli

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How Journalists Helped to Open the Berlin Wall

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"The world press not only covered the dramatic events but actually helped to cause them as well"

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Berlin Wall Exclusive Videos & Features - HISTORY.com

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Check out exclusive Berlin Wall videos and features. Browse the latest Berlin Wall videos and more on HISTORY.com.

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Berlin Wall Constructed started Aug 13, 1961

Wall destroyed Nov 9,1989.

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In order to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, more than 1 million people are expected to attend large celebrations in Berlin on Sunday. The festivities will include a fair amount of nostalgia. Musician Peter Gabriel, a staple of classic rock radio, will perform David Bowie's 1977 hit "Heroes." Cold War-era heroes, like former Polish president Lech Walesa and former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, will speak. The event will culminate with the release of thousands of helium balloons into Berlin's night sky.

There's certainly a lot to celebrate. In the quarter century since East Berliners, many armed with little more than their fingernails, tore down the 96 mile-long wall, millions of Europeans have emerged from poverty and gained freedoms unimaginable under Communist rule. Germany in particular has thrived. The country, which reunified in 1990, is now the world's fourth-largest economy and a diplomatic power of increasing importance. Unemployment is just 5.1 percent- less than half of the European Union average.

German chancellor Angela Merkel credits the fall of the Berlin Wall as a hugely positive force. "We have the power to create, we can turn things to the good: That is the message of the fall of the wall," she said Sunday.

But the idealism triggered by the end of the Cold War has faded. Amid concerns about immigration and economic stagnation, ultra-nationalist parties in France and Britain have become increasingly popular, and talk of the U.K.'s potential exit from the European Union has picked up. In Hungary, nationalist Prime Minister Victor Orban, once an anti-Soviet student leader, admires Moscow and regards illiberal regimes Singapore and China as possible models for his country.

In Russia, President Vladimir Putin's assertive pursuit of territory along the country's southern and western border has provoked international tension. This, too, has its roots in 1989. That year, as a young KGB official stationed in East Germany, Putin witnessed the collapse of the wall first-hand. In an account from Masha Gessen's biography The Man Without a Face, Putin said he viewed Gorbachev's relaxation of Soviet control as a preventabletragedy.

I phoned our military representatives and told them what was going on. And they said, 'We cannot do anything until we have orders from Moscow. And Moscow is silent.' A few hours later, our military did come and the crowd dispersed. But I remembered that: 'Moscow is silent.' I realized that the Soviet Union was ill. It was a fatal illness called paralysis. A paralysis of power."

Deeply unpopular in his own country, the 83-year-old Gorbachev remains a heroic figure in Germany. But even he is deeply pessimistic about Europe's future.

"Euphoria and triumphalism went to the heads of Western leaders," he said Saturday. "Taking advantage of Russia's weakening and the lack of a counterweight, they claimed monopoly leadership and domination in the world."

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In order to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, more than 1 million people are expected to attend large celebrations in Berlin on Sunday. The festivities will include a fair amount of nostalgia. Musician Peter Gabriel, a staple of classic rock radio, will perform David Bowie's 1977 hit "Heroes."

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That Berlin Though

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That Berlin Though

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Updated November 10, 2014 16:59:29

More than 100,000 people have turned out for a street party celebrating 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

A huge stage was erected in front of the Brandenburg Gate for an open air party, which included performances from a number of artists.

British singer Peter Gabriel sang a version of David Bowie's song Heroes as archived footage of the scene 25 years ago were projected onto screens behind him.

Earlier, solemn commemorations began a day of special events across Berlin.

German chancellor Angela Merkel, who herself grew up in the East, led the services.

Ms Merkel laid a rose in memory of those who died trying to cross from East to West at a stretch of the former wall which is now part of a memorial.

"The Berlin Wall, this symbol of state abuse cast in concrete, took millions of people to the limits of what is tolerable, and all too many beyond it," she said.

"It broke them.

"Little wonder that after the border opened, people took apart the hated structure with hammers and chisels.

"Within a year it had all but vanished from the cityscape."

Ms Merkel, in an unusually emotional speech, said the lesson of November 9, 1989 was that "we can change things for the better - that is the message of the fall of the Berlin Wall".

She said this was true for her reunified country and the world, "especially for the people in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq and in many, many other regions of the world where liberty and human rights are threatened or being trampled".

"It is a message of confidence in our ability to tear down walls today and in future, walls of dictatorship, violence, ideology and hostility," she said.

"Too good to be true? A daydream that will burst like a bubble? No, the fall of the Wall has shown us that dreams can come true."

Balloons mark Wall's path

At the climax of celebrations about 8,000 helium-filled balloons, which marked the line of the former wall, were released into the night sky.

Many wandered along a 15-kilometre former "death strip" where the wall once stood, with the balloons perched 3.6 metres high on poles - matching the height of the barrier built in 1961 by Communist East Germany.

The artistic display of balloons, which dramatically illustrate how the wall cut through the heart of Berlin, was also porous to enable people to easily move back and forth between the former East and West Berlin.

The balloons were set free to symbolically re-enacting the wall's collapse.

"We have every reason to celebrate," said mayor Klaus Wowereit, whose city government has been rebuilding small segments of the wall for posterity and tourists after almost all of the original concrete barrier was hastily torn down over two decades ago.

"We were all happy at the time that it had fallen and [so it] was torn down."

The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 to stop East Germans fleeing to the West.

It began as a brick wall and was then fortified as a heavily guarded 160km double white concrete screen that encircled West Berlin, slicing across streets, between families, and through graveyards.

At least 138 people were killed trying to escape to West Berlin and many who were captured ended up in jail.

Communist regimes collapsed in the face of popular uprisings across Eastern Europe in 1989, signalling the end of the Cold War, of which the Berlin Wall had become the starkest symbol.

First posted November 09, 2014 22:27:15

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Berlin marks 25 years since the fall of the Wall

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More than 100,000 people turn out for a street party celebrating 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. British singer Peter Gabriel sang a version of David Bowie's song Heroes, while German chancellor Angela Merkel said the message of reunification was we can change things for the better.

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Tyler Erale

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/11/07/berlin-wall-facts/18668817/

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Nov. 9 marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the iconic barrier that completely enclosed West Berlin from 1961 to 1989 and symbolized the height of Cold War tensions.

Around the world, the international German community and others are marking the milestone with celebrations and shared memories. In Germany, artists have recreated the Wall with illuminated white balloons along the path that the structure once traced. The 8,000 balloons stretch more than nine miles across the city, according to the German embassy in London.

With the anniversary putting the Cold War fresh in most people's minds, here are nine facts about the Berlin Wall that may be new to you:

* A mistake helped lead to the fall of the Wall. The flood of East Germans and West Germans to the Wall, which led to its ultimate collapse, came after East German Politburo member Guenther Schabowski on Nov. 9, 1989, mistakenly announced that East Germans would be allowed to cross into West Germany effective immediately, according to National Public Radio.

* What the world saw as the Berlin Wall was actually two concrete barriers with a 160-yard "death strip" in between that included watchtowers, trenches, runs for guard dogs, flood lights and trip-wire machine guns, according to History.com.

* Parts of the Wall are on display or in private safekeeping all over the world. One section of the Wall is in a men's room of the Main Street Casino in Las Vegas, History.com reports. Urinals are mounted on the graffiti-covered segment, which is protected by glass. Another section is in the gardens of the Vatican. If you don't feel like traveling to Italy or Vegas to see a part of the Wall, you can have your own little slice for as little as $10 on eBay. And you can consider that a steal; an 8,000-pound slab went for $23,500 at an Atlanta auction

* A mass exodus of East Germans into West Germany began almost 15 years before the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961. In fact, so many left that by the time the Wall went up, East Germany lost one-sixth of its population, according to the Berlin Wall Memorial website.

* The Wall and several U.S. presidents shared a relationship. President Kennedy visited in the summer of 1963, not long before his assassination that November. He said in a rousing speech that Berlin could help the world understand the divisions between the Communist and non-Communist world.

In 1987, Reagan challenged Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "Tear down this wall" during a June 1987 speech near the Wall.

When Clinton visited in 1994, he told the crowd of Berliners, "You have proved that no Wall can forever contain the mighty power of freedom."

CLOSE

During President Obama's June 2013 visit, he noted neither he nor German Chancellor Angela Merkel looked like their predecessors.

"The fact that we can stand here today, along the fault line where a city was divided, speaks to an eternal truth: No wall can stand against the yearning of justice, the yearnings for freedom, the yearnings for peace that burns in the human heart," he said.

* The formal reunification of East and West Germany did not happen until Oct. 3, 1990, almost a year after the fall of the Wall, according to History.com.

* A July 1988 concert by Bruce Springsteen in East Berlin may have led to the growing sense of dissent in the walled city that contributed to the fall of the Wall, according to the CBC. "The Boss" told the crowd in German, "I've come to play rock 'n' roll for you in the hope that one day all the barriers will be torn down."

Another in the U.S. music industry, conductor Leonard Bernstein, performed a series of concerts in venues on both sides of the barrier just weeks after the November 1989 fall of the Wall. Bernstein's international orchestra included musicians from the four countries that had occupied Berlin after World War II: the United States, the former Soviet Union, France and England. Bernstein led Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and altered its final movement, "Ode to Joy," to become "Ode to Freedom."

* Some parts of the barrier became world famous. Checkpoint Charlie, formally known as Checkpoint C, was the nickname that Western Allies gave the best-known border crossing point between East and West Berlin.

Also, the Brandenburg Gate is an 18th-century arch that is built on the site of a former gate that marked the start of a road that led from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg. Because of its location, it was associated with the Berlin Wall for a time.

* The physical demolition of the Berlin Wall was not complete until 1992, according to the BBC.

Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1quIeQo

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Nine surprising facts about the fall of the Berlin Wall

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Nov. 9 marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the iconic barrier that completely enclosed West Berlin from 1961 to 1989 and symbolized the height of Cold War tensions. Around the world, the international German community and others are marking the milestone with celebrations and shared memories.

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November 9 marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Cold War barrier that divided East and West Berlin for nearly three decades.

Responding to a question by an Italian journalist at a press conference on Nov. 9, 1989, Guenter Schabowski, the spokesman for East Germany's Central Committee, announced that East German citizens would be able to travel to the western part of the city. The unintentional comment caused thousands of East Germans to rush to the barricade, demanding to be allowed to cross.
Take a look at the incredible photos below from Nov. 9 and the turbulent days that followed.

People climb on the Berlin wall on Nov. 10, 1989. (AP Photo)

West Berlin citizens celebrate in the eastern part of the Checkpoint Charlie border crossing in West Berlin, Nov. 9, 1989, after the announcement by communist East Germany that it would open its borders to the west. (AP Photo/Lutz Schmidt)

A long row of East German Trabant cars passing through Checkpoint Charlie into West Berlin is greeted by enthusiastic West Berliners, 10th November 1989. (Photo by EPA PHOTOS DPA FILES/AFP/Getty Images)

East German border policemen, right, refuse to shake hands with a Berliner who stretches out his hand over the border fence at the eastern site nearby Checkpoint Charlie border crossing point on Nov. 10, 1989. (AP Photo/Lutz Schmidt)

Berliners sing and dance on top of The Berlin Wall to celebrate the opening of East-West German borders in this Nov. 10, 1989 file picture. (AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle, File)

In a giant cloud of exhaust fumes of two-stroke engines, hundreds of East German cars wait bumper to bumper in front of the West German checkpoint Helmstedt to enter the west, Nov. 11, 1989. In front of the eastern checkpoint, the cars wait in line for a distance of 30-40 kilometers, a West German policeman said. The ride from Berlin to Helmstadt (about 200 kilometers) would last about 11 hours. (AP Photo/Claus Eckert)

East German border guards look through a hole in the Berlin wall after demonstrators pulled down one segment of the wall at Brandenburg gate in this November 11, 1989 file picture. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau, File)

A West Berlin policeman, right, and an East German border guard stand on ladders while talking over the Berlin Wall at Bernauer Strasse in Berlin, Nov. 11, 1989, where East Germany began to pull down the wall early Saturday morning. (AP Photo)

East German border guards use a hose to discourage West Berliners near Brandenburg gate, in Berlin, Nov. 11, 1989. The citizens from the west tried to demolish the wall, demanding it be pulled down. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)

An unidentified West Berliner swings a sledgehammer, trying to destroy the Berlin Wall near Potsdamer Platz, on November 12, 1989, where a new passage was opened nearby. (AP Photo/John Gaps III)

An East Berlin border guard is hugged by an unidentified Berliner at Potsdammer Platz, Nov. 12, 1989, when East Germany opened the wall to the west at this historical landmark. (AP Photo/Rainer Klostermeier)

A man hammers away at the Berlin Wall, as the border barrier between East and West Germany was torn down after 28 years, in this Nov. 12, 1989 file picture. (AP Photo/John Gaps III, File)

West Berliners crowd in front of the Berlin Wall early 11 November 1989 as they watch people trying to demolish a section of the wall in order to open a new crossing point between East and West Berlin, near the Potsdamer Square. (GERARD MALIE/AFP/Getty Images)

Two West German policemen prevent people from approaching as East German Vopos stand on and near a fallen portion of the Berlin Wall 11 November 1989. (GERARD MALIE/AFP/Getty Images)

East and West German Police contain the crowd of East Berliners flowing through the recent opening made in the Berlin wall at Potsdamer Square, on November 12, 1989. (PATRICK HERTZOG/AFP/Getty Images)

Thousands of young East Berliners crowd atop the Berlin Wall, near the Brandenburg Gate (background) on November 11, 1989. (GERARD MALIE/AFP/Getty Images)

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It's Been 25 Years Since The Fall Of The Berlin Wall. These 16 Photos Tell The Story.

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November 9 marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Cold War barrier that divided East and West Berlin for nearly three decades. Responding to a question by an Italian journalist at a press conference on Nov.

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Reporters will recall few "news conferences" during their careers that yielded anything like exciting news. The ritualistic event commonly is staged to drum up publicity for one of these: a revelation everyone already knows (the latest iPhone); denial of wrongdoing (desperate celeb); confession of wrongdoing with weepy apology (ditto); or imminent government crackdown on something or other.

The short-notice summons to reporters by the rump government of the German Democratic Republic on the evening of Nov. 9, 1989, was not mistaken for one of those. As dull as GDR routine news conferences could be, no Berlin-based correspondent was going to skip this one. But no one I knew predicted the drama that was about to unfold.

Tension had been high across Eastern Europe for months. East Germans had had enough of the walls, electrified wire, soldiers and death zones that had confined them since August, 1961. Backing them now was Mikhail Gorbachev, who was ending aid to Moscow's East Bloc client states and brusquely telling off Erich Honecker, the GDR's stubborn and unloved head of state.
See also: Berlin Wall: Lessons from 25 years after the fall
In September Communist Hungary had opened its border with Austria. Hungarian soldiers stood by as East Germans flooded through and headed for West Germany. Gorbachev, visiting Berlin for the GDR's 40th anniversary in October, was cheered by demonstrators, who were left alone by police. Honecker soon resigned, citing health reasons after gall bladder surgery. A month later the rest of the government and most of the Politburo followed. The end of the Cold War was not far off.

The press conference, which got underway at 7 p.m. in East Berlin's International Press Centre was a bit of a muddle. Only at the end did Politburo spokesman Günter Schabowski casually read out a note he'd been handed earlier. The note said, vaguely, that East Germans would be allowed to cross the border into the West. A German reporter asked when this would take effect. With a shrug, Schabowski replied that as far as he knew it was "Sofort, unverzüglich" - from now, immediately. It was an assumption: He had not been briefed.

The hall erupted in bedlam. Reporters stampeded for the doors in search of payphones or their drivers. This was before cell phones were ubiquitous, and the press tumult looked like a scene out of an old black and white film.

The news went out on German broadcasts at 8 p.m., and Ossies - East Germans - pouring through Checkpoint Charlie in their thousands nearly beat me back to the Kurfürstendamm in West Berlin. By midnight the glittering Ku'damm was a sea of people - wide-eyed Ossies ogling the brightly-lit shop windows, just wandering in the West most of them had never seen, still wondering if arrest and deportation were not imminent.

Those not tasting Ku'damm pastries and chugging wine out of the bottle flocked to the Potsdamer Platz and the Pariser Platz with the Brandenburg Gate to hammer and chisel away at the Wall, and just to take it all in.

Around two in the morning I phoned my news desk in Toronto and said, "Here's the story." I held the phone out of the window to the raucous cheering and honking on the street below.

The euphoria was contagious, and hard to damp down. Standing by the battered colourful wall in coming days I thought that - just maybe - this heady November signaled peace in our time. I did not levitate as freely as a Daily Mirror headline: "TOGETHER AT LAST, on the day the world became a better, braver place".

At street level, at least then, German reunification was instantaneous. Wessies, who by comparison looked well fed and rich, embraced bewildered Ossies, while noting that many of their eastern cousins looked scrawny and spoke bad German.

German commerce was lightning quick off the mark, offering everything that was good for the brain's pleasure centre and bad for the body - booze, tobacco, fatty snacks, coupons for this and that, and political party hacks promising prospective voters a bright future. Wagons appeared handing out beer and packets of West cigarettes. Everyone on the Ku'damm was drinking, smoking or eating, sometimes all at once.

When the sun came up, one man from the East, wearing a cheap leather jacket, appeared to be somewhere between stunned and enraptured. Someone had given him a bouquet of lilies, iris, carnation and roses and he stood staring up at people leaning out of a building's upper windows. Everyone around him was smiling too. The man's smile said everything that needed to be said about the Cold War, oppression and dictatorship. I took his picture and should have spoken to him but didn't. Wherever I went, asking Wessies and Ossies the standard and exceedingly dopey question "How do you feel?" the word "free" came back in one form or another. There were no curmudgeons on the streets of West Berlin.

Overnight, signs sprouted in shop windows. In a shoe store display near my apartment little lettered placards read: Herzlich wilkommen liebe Landsleute aus der DDR (A heartfelt welcome to our dear compatriots from the GDR). But shoes behind the glass likely would stay behind the glass: their prices put them beyond the reach of most Ossies, whose net monthly salaries were half of salaries in the West.

Wall chippers were of two types: tourists who wanted a piece of Die Mauer as a souvenir, and Germans who wanted to vent their disdain for a 28-year-old monstrosity that had caused so much separation and grief. If the night was quiet, blocks away from the wall you could hear the ring and tap of hammers and cold chisels, or mighty bangs from men sledge-hammering the wall to pieces to open new crossing points.

It became a small industry. Enterprising Germans, West and East, quickly set up street tables selling the concrete chips in plastic bags, the brightly painted lumps fetching higher prices than the plain. Eventually, some pieces were sold embedded in acrylic plastic, like insects preserved in amber.

Small-business people who hadn't been able to obtain the real McCoy were undeterred: non-Wall concrete was hastily acquired from other sources, scuffed up and daubed with paint. At one street table, red paint on the concrete shards rubbed off on my fingers.

The diminishing wall began to move around the world piecemeal. When one fellow flying out of West Berlin put his unusually heavy luggage through the airport scanner, the screen showed large dense patches. An officer spread out several plastic bags filled with all shapes and sizes of the Wall: about 25 kilograms of the genuine article. "This is okay, but what on earth are you going to do with all of it?" the bemused officer asked. Give them away, the traveler said, slightly embarrassed.

November's party mood gave way to hangover and more pressing matters. Most Ossies went back East to live and work, content that they were free and there was nothing other than ready funds to stop them going any place they wanted. Wessies and Ossies began discussing how much German reunification was going to cost. Some comments on the West side could be less than flattering about their underprivileged Landsleute. A few were unsettled by the rapid change, but Germans were glad the Wall - the Anti-Fascist Protection Barrier ( Antifaschistischer Schutzwall), as the socialist regime had called it - was history. It really was over.

On one of my last nights in Berlin before flying back to Prague, I was jolted out of sleep by deep-throated, booming voices and the sound of hard heels on cobblestones. Couldn't be, I thought, turning over. It was three in the morning. The chant continued, echoing off building facades on the small side street: Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! (Hail Victory!), the old Nazi party chant. I got up to look but by the time I got the window open the side street was empty and the deep voices and marching boots faded into the night.

Twenty-five years on is a good time to reflect on what can happen when global leaders - the smart ones who have both vision and a sense of history - remember to listen to the people who put them in office, or remember those who seized office without asking the people. Today's leaders, such as we have, might benefit from recalling what Gorbachev sternly told the East German Politburo in November 1989. His press secretary neatly modified the phrase into this:

"Life punishes those who come too late!"

Philip C. Winslow is a journalist who has reported on world events for the Christian Science Monitor, the Toronto Star, Maclean's, ABC radio news, CTV News and CBC Radio. He also served in two United Nations peacekeeping missions and worked for the UN in the West Bank for nearly three years. He is the author of Victory For Us Is to See You Suffer: In the West Bank with the Palestinians and the Israelis and Sowing the Dragon's Teeth: Land Mines and the Global Legacy of War.

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Opinion | Fall of the Wall: The surprise that changed history

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Reporters will recall few "news conferences" during their careers that yielded anything like exciting news. The ritualistic event commonly is staged to drum up publicity for one of these: a revelation everyone already knows (the latest iPhone); denial of wrongdoing (desperate celeb); confession of wrongdoing with weepy apology (ditto); or imminent government crackdown on something or other.

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For nearly 30 years the Berlin Wall stood as a concrete manifestation of the Iron Curtain, preventing citizens in communist East Germany from fleeing to democratic, capitalist West Berlin. On the night of November 9, 1989, however, East German authorities suddenly opened the border crossing, and thousands of jubilant Germans celebrated by dancing on top of the wall and chipping away at it with hammers and chisels. On the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, learn 10 surprising facts about the iconic Cold War symbol.

1. The fall of the Berlin Wall happened by mistake.
At a press conference on the evening of November 9, 1989, East German politburo member Günter Schabowski prematurely announced that restrictions on travel visas would be lifted. When asked when the new policy would begin, he said, "Immediately, without delay." In actuality, the policy was to be announced the following day and would still have required East Germans to go through a lengthy visa application process. Schabowski's confused answers and erroneous media reports that border crossings had opened spurred thousands of East Berliners to the Berlin Wall. At the Bornholmer Street checkpoint, Harald Jäger, the chief officer on duty, faced a mob growing in size and frustration. Receiving insults, rather than instructions, from his superiors and nervously expecting results of his cancer diagnostic tests the next day, the overwhelmed Jäger opened the border crossing on his own, and the other gates soon followed.

2. The Berlin Wall was erected more than 15 years into the Cold War.
More than 2 million East Germans, most of them skilled laborers and professionals, fled to the West between 1949 and 1961. The Soviet Union had rejected East Germany's original request to build the wall in 1953, but with defections through West Berlin reaching 1,000 people a day by the summer of 1961, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev finally relented. The residents of Berlin awoke on the morning of August 13, 1961, to find barbed wire fencing had been installed on the border between the city's east and west sections. Days later, East Germany began to fortify the barrier with concrete.

3. The Berlin Wall was actually two walls.
The 27-mile portion of the barrier separating Berlin into east and west consisted of two concrete walls between which was a "death strip" up to 160 yards wide that contained hundreds of watchtowers, miles of anti-vehicle trenches, guard dog runs, floodlights and trip-wire machine guns.

4. More than 100 people died trying to cross the Berlin Wall.
The Centre for Research on Contemporary History Potsdam and the Berlin Wall Memorial Site and Documentation Center report that at least 138 people were shot dead, suffered fatal accidents or committed suicide after failed escape attempts across the Berlin Wall. Other researchers place the death toll even higher. The first victim was Ida Siekmann, who died on August 22, 1961, after attempting to leap to a West Berlin street below her fourth-floor East Berlin apartment window. The last fatality occurred in March 1989 when a young East German attempting to fly over the wall in a hot air balloon crashed into power lines.

5. More than 5,000 escaped by going over and under the Berlin Wall.
The first defector to escape across the Berlin Wall was 19-year-old East German border guard Corporal Conrad Schumann, who was immortalized on film as he leapt over a 3-foot-high roll of barbed wire just two days after East Germany sealed the border. As the Berlin Wall grew more elaborate, so did escape plans. Fugitives hid in secret compartments of cars driven by visiting West Berliners, dug secret tunnels and crawled through sewers. The three Bethke brothers pulled off the most spectacular escapes. Eldest brother Ingo escaped by floating on an inflatable mattress across the Elbe River in 1975, and eight years later brother Holger soared over the wall on a steel cable he fired with a bow and arrow to a rooftop in West Berlin. In 1989 the pair flew an ultra-light plane over the wall and back to pick up youngest brother Egbert.

6. John F. Kennedy expressed relief when the Berlin Wall was erected.
In June 1961, Khrushchev warned President John F. Kennedy that he would blockade West Berlin if Western forces were not removed, a belligerent act that could lead to war. When Kennedy heard news that the communists had walled off East Berlin instead of cutting off West Berlin, he confided to an aide, "It's not a very nice solution, but a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war. This is the end of the Berlin crisis. The other side panicked-not we. We're going to do nothing now because there is no alternative except war."

7. Kennedy did not tell Berliners he was a "jelly doughnut."
On June 26, 1963, Kennedy famously told a crowd at the Berlin Wall, "Ich bin ein Berliner." The president intended to express solidarity with the citizens of Berlin by saying he was one of them, but some critics claimed that by adding the indefinite article "ein," he actually called himself a jelly doughnut, known in much of Germany as a "Berliner." Linguists say, however, that the president did not commit a grammatical faux pas because "ein" is required when the speaker is speaking figuratively, not literally, about being of a certain nationality, as was obviously the case with Kennedy. In addition, the jam-filled pastry known as a "Berliner" in the rest of Germany is called a "pfannkuchen" in Berlin, so there would have been no confusion among the listeners.

8. East Germany called the wall the "Antifascist Bulwark."
Rather than keeping its citizens in, the East German government claimed it erected the Berlin Wall to keep Western fascists, spies and ideas out. Two weeks after ordering the construction of the "Antifaschistischer Schutzwall," East German leader Walter Ulbricht claimed, "We have sealed the cracks in the fabric of our house and closed the holes through which the worst enemies of the German people could creep."

9. The Brandenburg Gate had once been part of an 18th-century wall.
Prussian King Frederick William II commissioned the iconic triumphal arch straddling East and West Berlin that served as the iconic backdrop for famous presidential speeches by Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. When completed in 1791, the Brandenburg Gate was incorporated into the city's original Customs Wall, which ringed the city beginning in the 1730s.

10. A piece of the wall stands in the bathroom of a Las Vegas casino.
Official demolition of the Berlin Wall began in the summer of 1990. More than 40,000 wall sections were recycled into building materials used for German reconstruction projects, but a few hundred segments were auctioned off and are now scattered around the globe from the Vatican gardens to the men's room of the Main Street Station Casino in Las Vegas, where urinals are mounted on a graffiti-covered wall segment protected behind glass.

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10 Things You May Not Know About the Berlin Wall

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For nearly 30 years the Berlin Wall stood as a concrete manifestation of the Iron Curtain, preventing citizens in communist East Germany from fleeing to democratic, capitalist West Berlin. On the night of November 9, 1989, however, East German authorities suddenly opened the border crossing, and thousands of jubilant Germans celebrated by dancing on top of the wall and chipping away at it with hammers and chisels.

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Wind of Change- Scorpions. Provided by Seth S.

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For nearly 30 years the Berlin Wall stood as a concrete manifestation of the Iron Curtain, preventing citizens in communist East Germany from fleeing to democratic, capitalist West Berlin. On the night of November 9, 1989, however, East German authorities suddenly opened the border crossing, and thousands of jubilant Germans celebrated by dancing on top of the wall and chipping away at it with hammers and chisels. On the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, learn 10 surprising facts about the iconic Cold War symbol.

1. The fall of the Berlin Wall happened by mistake.
At a press conference on the evening of November 9, 1989, East German politburo member Günter Schabowski prematurely announced that restrictions on travel visas would be lifted. When asked when the new policy would begin, he said, "Immediately, without delay." In actuality, the policy was to be announced the following day and would still have required East Germans to go through a lengthy visa application process. Schabowski's confused answers and erroneous media reports that border crossings had opened spurred thousands of East Berliners to the Berlin Wall. At the Bornholmer Street checkpoint, Harald Jäger, the chief officer on duty, faced a mob growing in size and frustration. Receiving insults, rather than instructions, from his superiors and nervously expecting results of his cancer diagnostic tests the next day, the overwhelmed Jäger opened the border crossing on his own, and the other gates soon followed.

2. The Berlin Wall was erected more than 15 years into the Cold War.
More than 2 million East Germans, most of them skilled laborers and professionals, fled to the West between 1949 and 1961. The Soviet Union had rejected East Germany's original request to build the wall in 1953, but with defections through West Berlin reaching 1,000 people a day by the summer of 1961, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev finally relented. The residents of Berlin awoke on the morning of August 13, 1961, to find barbed wire fencing had been installed on the border between the city's east and west sections. Days later, East Germany began to fortify the barrier with concrete.

3. The Berlin Wall was actually two walls.
The 27-mile portion of the barrier separating Berlin into east and west consisted of two concrete walls between which was a "death strip" up to 160 yards wide that contained hundreds of watchtowers, miles of anti-vehicle trenches, guard dog runs, floodlights and trip-wire machine guns.

4. More than 100 people died trying to cross the Berlin Wall.
The Centre for Research on Contemporary History Potsdam and the Berlin Wall Memorial Site and Documentation Center report that at least 138 people were shot dead, suffered fatal accidents or committed suicide after failed escape attempts across the Berlin Wall. Other researchers place the death toll even higher. The first victim was Ida Siekmann, who died on August 22, 1961, after attempting to leap to a West Berlin street below her fourth-floor East Berlin apartment window. The last fatality occurred in March 1989 when a young East German attempting to fly over the wall in a hot air balloon crashed into power lines.

5. More than 5,000 escaped by going over and under the Berlin Wall.
The first defector to escape across the Berlin Wall was 19-year-old East German border guard Corporal Conrad Schumann, who was immortalized on film as he leapt over a 3-foot-high roll of barbed wire just two days after East Germany sealed the border. As the Berlin Wall grew more elaborate, so did escape plans. Fugitives hid in secret compartments of cars driven by visiting West Berliners, dug secret tunnels and crawled through sewers. The three Bethke brothers pulled off the most spectacular escapes. Eldest brother Ingo escaped by floating on an inflatable mattress across the Elbe River in 1975, and eight years later brother Holger soared over the wall on a steel cable he fired with a bow and arrow to a rooftop in West Berlin. In 1989 the pair flew an ultra-light plane over the wall and back to pick up youngest brother Egbert.

6. John F. Kennedy expressed relief when the Berlin Wall was erected.
In June 1961, Khrushchev warned President John F. Kennedy that he would blockade West Berlin if Western forces were not removed, a belligerent act that could lead to war. When Kennedy heard news that the communists had walled off East Berlin instead of cutting off West Berlin, he confided to an aide, "It's not a very nice solution, but a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war. This is the end of the Berlin crisis. The other side panicked-not we. We're going to do nothing now because there is no alternative except war."

7. Kennedy did not tell Berliners he was a "jelly doughnut."
On June 26, 1963, Kennedy famously told a crowd at the Berlin Wall, "Ich bin ein Berliner." The president intended to express solidarity with the citizens of Berlin by saying he was one of them, but some critics claimed that by adding the indefinite article "ein," he actually called himself a jelly doughnut, known in much of Germany as a "Berliner." Linguists say, however, that the president did not commit a grammatical faux pas because "ein" is required when the speaker is speaking figuratively, not literally, about being of a certain nationality, as was obviously the case with Kennedy. In addition, the jam-filled pastry known as a "Berliner" in the rest of Germany is called a "pfannkuchen" in Berlin, so there would have been no confusion among the listeners.

8. East Germany called the wall the "Antifascist Bulwark."
Rather than keeping its citizens in, the East German government claimed it erected the Berlin Wall to keep Western fascists, spies and ideas out. Two weeks after ordering the construction of the "Antifaschistischer Schutzwall," East German leader Walter Ulbricht claimed, "We have sealed the cracks in the fabric of our house and closed the holes through which the worst enemies of the German people could creep."

9. The Brandenburg Gate had once been part of an 18th-century wall.
Prussian King Frederick William II commissioned the iconic triumphal arch straddling East and West Berlin that served as the iconic backdrop for famous presidential speeches by Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. When completed in 1791, the Brandenburg Gate was incorporated into the city's original Customs Wall, which ringed the city beginning in the 1730s.

10. A piece of the wall stands in the bathroom of a Las Vegas casino.
Official demolition of the Berlin Wall began in the summer of 1990. More than 40,000 wall sections were recycled into building materials used for German reconstruction projects, but a few hundred segments were auctioned off and are now scattered around the globe from the Vatican gardens to the men's room of the Main Street Station Casino in Las Vegas, where urinals are mounted on a graffiti-covered wall segment protected behind glass.

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10 Things You May Not Know About the Berlin Wall

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For nearly 30 years the Berlin Wall stood as a concrete manifestation of the Iron Curtain, preventing citizens in communist East Germany from fleeing to democratic, capitalist West Berlin. On the night of November 9, 1989, however, East German authorities suddenly opened the border crossing, and thousands of jubilant Germans celebrated by dancing on top of the wall and chipping away at it with hammers and chisels.

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A city undivided: the fall of the Berlin Wall commemorated 25 years on

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Germans recall the 'sheer madness' of the night in 1989 when thousands of East Berliners streamed across the border

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Taylor's Post. Click source to view more.

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Lichtgrenze. 8,000 illuminated balloons to recreate the Berlin Wall.

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Post with 6886 votes and 619425 views. Tagged with , , ; Lichtgrenze. 8,000 illuminated balloons to recreate the Berlin Wall.

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Photo: Reuters

The Berlin Wall went from the impenetrable symbol of a monolithic East to nothing more than a concrete wall in less than a few hours on Nov. 9, 1989, but what put into motion the fall of the Wall and the German Democratic Republic, better known as East Germany, started long before. Before the construction of the Wall in 1961, East Germany had a serious "brain drain" problem. East Germans, particularly the young and educated, were fleeing the totalitarian communist regime and weak East German economy for opportunities in the West. The rest of the East-West German border was closed in 1952, but the division of East and West Berlin was largely an imaginary line guarded on each side. People simply ran across.

Aug. 12, 1961: To stop brain drain, East German State Council Chairman Walter Ulbricht signed orders to close the border with West Germany and build up fortifications in Berlin. Within a few days, guards had laid down barbed wire and destroyed roads to stop vehicles from crossing. In the next few years, the border would become increasingly militarized and fortified.

Aug. 22 and Aug. 24, 1961: Ida Siekmann, 58, lived on the Bernauer Strasse, a road that ran along the border of East and West Berlin. Many of the people living in her apartment building had jumped out of their windows into West Berlin to escape the East. Ten days after Ulbricht signed the order to build the Wall, Siekmann jumped out of her fourth story window into West Berlin territory, but firefighters were unable to deploy a life net in time to catch her. She died later that day, becoming the first fatality among those trying to cross into West Berlin.

Two days later, Günter Litfin, 24, became the first person shot trying to do so. His plans to move to West Berlin were nixed when the border was closed, so on Aug. 24 he attempted to swim across a narrow canal that linked two rivers in the city. It was the same day that East German border guards were given the order to shoot any would-be escapees. Guards discovered him swimming across the canal and killed him.

May 5, 1963: Machinist Heinz Meixner, a young Austrian who had fallen in love with an East German girl while deployed to the East for work, succeeded with one of the most creative escapes from East to West Berlin. He was sneaking out his girlfriend and her mother. Instead of digging a tunnel or running across with them, he rented a small convertible, cut out the windshield and took out just enough air from the tires so the car would slip under the gate at Checkpoint Charlie. When he pulled up to the gate and gave the East German guards his papers, he simply ducked and drove the convertible right underneath and to the West. Most people weren't as creative; the majority of escapees got across the border by bribing officials or escaping through third countries.

June 26, 1963: U.S. President John F. Kennedy delivered his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech at the steps of the Rathaus Schoeneberg where the West Berlin Senate met. The speech was a show of solidarity with West Germany and the Berliners who had only lived in a divided Berlin for two years.

1965: East Germany began building the "third generation" fortifications, which included a larger concrete barrier that would become what would be referred to most commonly when people mentioned the Berlin Wall -- even though the fortifications included far more than just a wall.

1975: East Germany began building the "fourth generation" fortifications, called the Grenzmauer 75, or Border Wall 75. It included an improved, 11-foot, 10-inch concrete wall with steel tubing across the top to make it harder to climb. This is the final and most sophisticated iteration of the wall. It had an enhanced "death strip" of fortifications along the East German side of the new and improved interlocking concrete slab barrier closest to West Berlin. Starting on the East German side, there was a fence specifically made to be difficult to scale, a signal fence that would trip an alarm, anti-vehicle fortifications like "Czech hedgehogs," watchtowers, spotlights, strips of 5-inch spikes, minefields (until 1983) and trenches before the actual wall. Trying to cross was a death wish.

Here's what it looked like along the Bernauer Strasse, where Ida Siekman lived 14 years earlier:

Jan. 22, 1985: The East German government demolished the Church of Reconciliation, a Berlin landmark along the Bernauer Strasse completed in 1894. The church stood along the East-West border, and East Germany actually encapsulated the church in the death strip, blocking it off from both East and West Berliners. Would-be escapees often would use the church for cover while trying to get closer to the fence because it blocked the view of border guards. A new Church of Reconciliation was built at the site in 2000 and is open to the public.

June 12, 1987: U.S. President Ronald Reagan delivered his famous "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" speech at the Brandenburg Gate. It's become Reagan's most famous speech, but it wasn't at the time. The general consensus amongst historians is that it didn't influence Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's opinion of the wall. Gorbachev had already taken steps to open up the Eastern Bloc as leader of the USSR beginning in 1985. In 1990, Reagan would take a ceremonial swing at the Wall with a sledgehammer.

May 1989: Communist Hungary began tearing down its own border fence with Austria. A couple of months later, the respective Austrian and Hungarian foreign ministers held a very public "fence-cutting" photo op, in which they sliced through the border fence with bolt cutters. More than 10,000 East Germans eventually fled to Austria from Hungary, and East Germany knew it had to do something about it. A botched announcement of a suspension of visa requirements by an East German official would ultimately be what spurred the fall of the wall six months later.

September-October 1989: The "Monday demonstrations" began Sept. 4 in Leipzig, East Germany. They were a series of peaceful protests against the East German communist government that grew out of a series of prayer and discussion sessions with the Revs. Chistian Fuehrer and Cristoph Wonneberger. Each Monday night a crowd would gather at Nikolaikirche, or St. Nicholas Church, and by early October the number grew to more than 70,000 people. Protesters prepared for a violent crackdown by the East German police and the army, but it never came.

Oct. 18, 1989: Longtime East German leader Erich Honecker was forced out of office by reformists within the East German government. Honecker had led East Germany since 1971 and believed in the wall. His protege, Egon Krenz, took over and promised there would be some reforms, but his promises failed to satisfy the hundreds of thousands of East Germans set on true change.

Oct. 23, 1989: The Monday demonstration crowd in Leipzig grew to an unprecedented 320,000 people, out of a city population of a half million. East German authorities couldn't ignore it anymore.

Nov. 4, 1989: The following Saturday after the massive demonstrations in Leipzig, East Berliners held their own protest, which would come to be known as the Alexanderplatz demonstration. Some 500,000 to 1 million Berliners came out to demand reform. East German authorities tried to subvert the protests, but there was little to no violence. Artists, opposition party members and even some representatives of the Communist regime came out to speak at the demonstration.

Nov. 9, 1989: Around 7 p.m., at the end of an otherwise bland press conference, East German spokesman Günter Schabowski read off a note on a change in policy to a group of sleepy reporters on live television. The note read East Germany would allow citizens to travel to West Germany through any border crossing with little more than a passport in the coming week, but Shabowski's interpretation was that it would go into effect immediately.

East Germans watching the press conference were at first confused, but excitement about the possibility of breaking the 28-year divide in Berlin drove them into the streets and their nearest border points. Within a few hours, thousands had gathered at Berlin Wall checkpoints and were demanding to be let through per the order Schabowski had read.

Later that night, a commander in charge of the Bornholmer Strasse crossing knew he didn't stand a chance of keeping the crowd away without injuries. At first Lt. Col. Harald Jager started letting the more vocal people through with warnings they wouldn't be allowed back, but that didn't quell the crowd.

At 11:30 p.m. he ordered his guards to let the East Berliners through. The other checkpoint commanders shortly followed suit. The Berlin Wall no longer divided East and West Berlin. Between 1961 and 1989, 161 people had died trying to cross it.

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The Berlin Wall, 1961-1989: A Timeline Of A Divided Germany

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The Berlin Wall went from the impenetrable symbol of a monolithic East to nothing more than a concrete wall in less than a few hours on Nov. 9, 1989, but what put into motion the fall of the Wall and the German Democratic Republic, better known as East Germany, started long before.

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Find out more about the history of Berlin Wall, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on HISTORY.com

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Patrick Cunningham

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Interactive Timeline: The Berlin Wall, Beginning to End

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The Berlin Wall has been a thing of the past for 25 years. This is its history

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Scroll down to see video

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Nov. 9 marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the iconic barrier that completely enclosed West Berlin from 1961 to 1989 and symbolized the height of Cold War tensions.

Around the world, the international German community and others are marking the milestone with celebrations and shared memories. In Germany, artists have recreated the Wall with illuminated white balloons along the path that the structure once traced. The 8,000 balloons stretch more than nine miles across the city, according to the German embassy in London.

With the anniversary putting the Cold War fresh in most people's minds, here are nine facts about the Berlin Wall that may be new to you:

* A mistake helped lead to the fall of the Wall. The flood of East Germans and West Germans to the Wall, which led to its ultimate collapse, came after East German Politburo member Guenther Schabowski on Nov. 9, 1989, mistakenly announced that East Germans would be allowed to cross into West Germany effective immediately, according to National Public Radio.

* What the world saw as the Berlin Wall was actually two concrete barriers with a 160-yard "death strip" in between that included watchtowers, trenches, runs for guard dogs, flood lights and trip-wire machine guns, according to History.com.

* Parts of the Wall are on display or in private safekeeping all over the world. One section of the Wall is in a men's room of the Main Street Casino in Las Vegas, History.com reports. Urinals are mounted on the graffiti-covered segment, which is protected by glass. Another section is in the gardens of the Vatican. If you don't feel like traveling to Italy or Vegas to see a part of the Wall, you can have your own little slice for as little as $10 on eBay. And you can consider that a steal; an 8,000-pound slab went for $23,500 at an Atlanta auction

* A mass exodus of East Germans into West Germany began almost 15 years before the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961. In fact, so many left that by the time the Wall went up, East Germany lost one-sixth of its population, according to the Berlin Wall Memorial website.

* The Wall and several U.S. presidents shared a relationship. President Kennedy visited in the summer of 1963, not long before his assassination that November. He said in a rousing speech that Berlin could help the world understand the divisions between the Communist and non-Communist world.

In 1987, Reagan challenged Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev to "Tear down this wall" during a June 1987 speech near the Wall.

When Clinton visited in 1994, he told the crowd of Berliners, "You have proved that no Wall can forever contain the mighty power of freedom."

CLOSE

During President Obama's June 2013 visit, he noted neither he nor German Chancellor Angela Merkel looked like their predecessors.

"The fact that we can stand here today, along the fault line where a city was divided, speaks to an eternal truth: No wall can stand against the yearning of justice, the yearnings for freedom, the yearnings for peace that burns in the human heart," he said.

* The formal reunification of East and West Germany did not happen until Oct. 3, 1990, almost a year after the fall of the Wall, according to History.com.

* A July 1988 concert by Bruce Springsteen in East Berlin may have led to the growing sense of dissent in the walled city that contributed to the fall of the Wall, according to the CBC. "The Boss" told the crowd in German, "I've come to play rock 'n' roll for you in the hope that one day all the barriers will be torn down."

Another in the U.S. music industry, conductor Leonard Bernstein, performed a series of concerts in venues on both sides of the barrier just weeks after the November 1989 fall of the Wall. Bernstein's international orchestra included musicians from the four countries that had occupied Berlin after World War II: the United States, the former Soviet Union, France and England. Bernstein led Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and altered its final movement, "Ode to Joy," to become "Ode to Freedom."

* Some parts of the barrier became world famous. Checkpoint Charlie, formally known as Checkpoint C, was the nickname that Western Allies gave the best-known border crossing point between East and West Berlin.

Also, the Brandenburg Gate is an 18th-century arch that is built on the site of a former gate that marked the start of a road that led from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg. Because of its location, it was associated with the Berlin Wall for a time.

* The physical demolition of the Berlin Wall was not complete until 1992, according to the BBC.

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Nine surprising facts about the fall of the Berlin Wall

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Nov. 9 marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the iconic barrier that completely enclosed West Berlin from 1961 to 1989 and symbolized the height of Cold War tensions. Around the world, the international German community and others are marking the milestone with celebrations and shared memories.

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Paul Kalkbrenner - Sky and Sand (Official Music Video)

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At a border camp in the German town of Hof, a stunned Maj. Mark Hertling watched as East met West and the war he spent his young career preparing for was disappearing before his eyes.

"We were there the night the Trabants started coming across the border and a lot of people were confused about what to do," recalled Hertling, who in November 1989 was an officer with the 1st Armored Division. "I was like holy crap, this is a new age."

Days later, Hertling was back at his home station in Ansbach, Germany, where he met up with a buddy for beers at a local festival. They reflected on the ramifications of the Berlin Wall's fall.

"We're going to be the first generation of soldiers that will get to 20 years without fighting a war other than the Cold War," Hertling told his buddy at the time. "The Soviets are dead. The Cold War is over. There's no one to fight. Peace is going to break out the world over."

When the Berlin Wall collapsed 25 years ago today, such sentiments were held far and wide as a wave of jubilation swept Germany and the rest of Europe. There was even hope that a new, peaceful world order would emerge. But such optimism proved short-lived.

Months later, Hertling and other U.S. troops were gearing up for Operation Desert Storm, America's first war with Iraq that would become a prelude to more fighting to come. After that, Yugoslavia broke apart, unleashing a wave of bloodshed in the Balkans and an intervention in 1995 by tens of thousands of U.S. and NATO troops. Then came the war in Afghanistan and another war in Iraq.

Still, in the 25 years since the fall of the Wall few feared a return to Cold War-style confrontation with Russia. That all changed this year when Moscow annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula and gave support to pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

If a return to Cold War-caliber tension still seems a stretch, the chill between Moscow and the West harkens back to an earlier time, not unlike like the years leading up to the Wall's collapse.

Peace in Europe can no longer be taken for granted, U.S. and NATO military officials now argue, as the West pushes ahead with plans to establish new "staging bases" across eastern Europe to counter potential Russian aggression.

"We have changed our focus and EUCOM is part of that," Dan Fitzpatrick, the U.S. European Command historian, told Stars and Stripes. "There's a reason why we are here in Europe and now you are seeing it, with Russia, with ISIL (the Islamic State group) to the south right on NATO's border. We aren't here to protect Germany any longer, we are here to protect the interests of the United States."

But in the relaxed aftermath following the collapse of the Wall, which anticipated the disintegration of the Soviet Union two years later, the military faced an identity crisis in Europe.

"We were basically looking for a mission," said Fitzpatrick.

The military's downsizing in Europe was sharp and steady - from about 310,000 personnel at the time of the Wall's collapse to roughly 80,000 today. And less than a year ago, that downward trajectory seemed likely to continue as the Pentagon struggled to explain to a skeptical American population why U.S. troops were still stationed in a rich and secure Europe.

Demands from Congress that the U.S. cut back deeper in Europe grew louder and more frequent. Now, however, such calls out of Congress appear to have muted in the face of an increasingly unpredictable Russia led by Vladimir Putin.

Preparing for the worst

During the Cold War, many of the U.S. troops in Europe were positioned at strategic spots along the fault lines of eastern and western Germany, guarding against a massive Soviet land invasion.

They were prepared for the worst.

"If you were a fire-support officer, you had 13 seconds once you had contact. That's it. These were die-in-place positions," said Fitzpatrick, himself a former fire-support officer.

If anything, such fears were understated.

Historians now say that top-secret Warsaw Pact battle plans in the 1970s and early 80s called for massive nuclear strikes against multiple cities in West Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark, as well as tactical nuclear attacks on concentrations of opposing forces. France and Britain, both nuclear armed nations, were to be spared, but Soviet forces - 420,000-strong in East Germany and Czechoslovakia - would still sweep everything before them and reach the Rhine within seven to eight days, according to the plans made public after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact.

During the height of the Cold War, the U.S. military presence in Europe was not only enormous, it was a front-line deterrent in the most powerful sense. In those days, tactical nuclear weapons could be attached to field artillery.

It took time for the U.S. to build up its presence in Europe, which dwindled after World War II. In the early 1950s, with the Cold War already at a fever pitch, the force levels on the Continent were less than 100,000, on a par with the force of today.

What prompted the surge of troops into Europe was the Korean War and lessons learned from North Korea's lightning invasion into the south. Something like that could happen in Europe, too, officials feared at the time.

"That really changed American policy," said Fitzpatrick "In Europe, you had 4.5 million Russians in occupied areas, and we had nothing here to stop them."

From June 1950 to 1953, the U.S. force in Europe tripled in size, with roughly 300,000 personnel positioned across the Continent, accompanied by all the machines of war - fighter planes, tanks, artillery and nuclear weapons.

"We stayed for 50 years and when 1989 come around, it was a feeling of, 'Is this really over?' " Fitzpatrick said.

Hertling, who would go on to lead combat troops in Iraq and would eventually take command of U.S. Army Europe, first arrived in Germany in 1975 as a second lieutenant fresh out of West Point. In those days, families had to keep at least a half tank of gas in their cars in case war broke out. Noncombatant Evacuation Operation packets, which included all the travel essentials you might need in an emergency, were kept in the glove compartment.

When Hertling returned as a major in 1988, there was a sense that change was coming. It was the early days of glasnost, a Soviet policy that eased censorship and restrictions on political activity.

But U.S. troops still conducted border patrols. Family evacuation plans were still part of force-protection measures in place. And Moscow remained the singular focus for war planners.

"We still had the Russian threat, and we were doing war plans against the Soviets," Hertling said.

"But by the time I left that tour, we went through Wall coming down, the peace process, the beginning of planning drawdowns," said Hertling, who retired in 2012 as a lieutenant general and now works as an executive in the health care industry.

Force of today

Today, the military presence is just a shell of its former self, but it's still lethal.

In the 1980s the U.S. military maintained up to 350,000 troops in Europe, most in West Germany. Now, there are only two Army brigades. Today, the military's role in Europe is as much about logistics as it is firepower. There are combatant command headquarters, training grounds to partner with allies and air bases like Ramstein Air Base in Germany that have as much to do with projecting power into the Middle East and Africa as they do deterring aggression in Europe.

A year ago, the U.S. military's main argument for a forward presence in Europe was geography - the Continent was an essential platform to achieve strategic aims in the broader region. That argument often seemed to fall on deaf ears.

Hertling, during his time as USAREUR commander from 2011-2012, often found himself at odds with lawmakers eager that get troops to their home district.

During one meeting with a Colorado congressman, Hertling explained why his soldiers needed to be forward positioned in Europe. There, Hertling said, the troops conducted a range of missions, including gathering military intelligence, training allies in eastern Europe, sending forces into Afghanistan and supporting missions in Africa.

"He (the congressman) was saying that they can move to his district instead and he wasn't kidding around," said Hertling, who declined to publicly name the lawmaker. "I asked him: 'Mr. Congressman, why is it so important to move these people to your state and not do their mission in Europe?'

"He said: 'I'd rather have them buy pizza in Colorado than schnitzel in Germany.' He told me I live in the Cold War, thinking Russia is still coming across that border, and that I just don't understand."

It's hard to predict the future size and shape of the military presence in Europe. Will the current crisis with Russia reinforce the need for a forward presence or will a looming budget crunch force more cuts?

Hertling said he hopes the current crisis serves as a reminder that the next conflict can't be predicted. But he isn't optimistic.

"The sequestration train continues to move down the track. We have a military that is increasingly stretched, less well-resourced and a budget plan based on drawdown in Afghanistan, but not new requirements. We're headed for some really tough times."

However, if there is a lesson of the Cold War, it is the value of maintaining the military alliances that grew out of it, Hertling said.

"When we next go to war, no matter what kind of war it is or where it is, we are never going to do it alone. So you can't just flip the switch when war sounds. You have to have that relationship," he said. "The forward stationing of these forces, working with other countries to build alliances stronger than a single country needs to be a continuing process and can't just be when something bad happens like Russia crossing into Ukraine's border."

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The Berlin Wall is history, yet barriers to peace remain in place

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At a border camp in the German town of Hof, a stunned Maj. Mark Hertling watched as East met West and the war he spent his young career preparing for was disappearing before his eyes.

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Gebürtige Berliner und Zugezogene - Wer kam, wer ging, wer heute hier wohnt

Die Geschichte der Berliner Bevölkerung seit dem Mauerfall ist die des großen Austauschs. Eine Daten-Auswertung zeigt nun ein detailliertes Bild, das Vorurteile bestätigt und widerlegt.

Je stärker die Farbe, desto höher der Anteil an den Gesamt-Einwohnern. Stand: 30.06.2014. Quelle: © Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam, 2014

25 Jahre nach dem Fall der Mauer leben rund dreieinhalb Millionen Menschen in Berlin. Und die Stadt wächst, der Wohnraum wird knapp, allein im vergangenen Jahr zogen fast 170.000 Neu-Berliner zu. Doch die Geschichte der Berliner Bevölkerung seit dem Mauerfall ist nicht die Geschichte eines stetigen Booms, sondern die des großen Austauschs.

Kommen und Gehen seit dem Mauerfall

Alle Zu- und Wegzüge gemäß amtlicher Bevölkerungsstatistik in Berlin von 1991, dem ersten durchgehenden gesamtdeutschen Jahr, bis 2013. Quelle: © Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam, 2014

So kehrten Mitte der 90er-Jahre deutlich mehr Berliner der Stadt den Rücken, als Menschen hierher kamen. Erst seit 2003 wächst Berlin wieder durch Zuzug - dafür aber umso stärker, besonders in der Innenstadt.

Nicht mehr die Mauer teilt heute die Stadt, sondern der S-Bahn-Ring - zwischen Zugezogenen und echten Berlinern. Innerhalb des Rings ist nur jeder Dritte auch in Berlin geboren. Und die Spanne zwischen City und Außenkiezen ist weit: So leben in Mitte rund um Potsdamer Platz und Kulturforum (Nördlicher Landwehrkanal in Mitte) 81 Prozent Zugezogene, während Am Heideberg in Spandau mit 80 Prozent echte Berliner den Kiez dominieren.

Zu- und Wegzüge von 1991 bis 2013

Alle Zu- und Wegzüge gemäß amtlicher Bevölkerungsstatistik in Berlin von 1991, dem ersten durchgehenden gesamtdeutschen Jahr, bis 2013. Quelle: © Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam, 2014

Doch woher kamen die Neuberliner - und wohin sind die Alteingesessenen gegangen? Die Auswertung aller Zu- und Wegzüge Berlins von 1991 bis 2013 zeigt, dass die Mehrheit aus Deutschland gekommen ist. Aber auch, welchen Bezirk die Hamburger bevorzugen, welchen die Sachsen meiden, und wann es die Berliner ins Umland gezogen hat.

Neuberliner-Check

Alle Zu- und Wegzüge gemäß amtlicher Bevölkerungsstatistik für die 16 Bundesländer und zwölf Berliner Bezirke von 1991 bis 2013. Stand: 31.12.2013. Quelle: © Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam, 2014

Wie sich die Berliner Kieze verändert haben, wurde spätestens deutlich, als vor zwei Jahren die Debatte über die Schwaben im Pankower Ortsteil Prenzlauer Berg hochkochte - angest0ßen durch ein Morgenpost-Interview mit Ex-Bundestagspräsident Wolfgang Thierse (SPD). Der „Schwaben"-Check zeigt nun deutlich, dass es Menschen aus Baden-Württemberg wirklich zunehmend in den Ost-Bezirk Pankow gezogen hat, doch noch stärker nach Mitte. Und sie sind nicht die einzigen, die diese Bezirke bevorzugen: Pankow, Mitte und Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg haben sich zu den Topfavoriten der Zugezogen aus ganz Deutschland entwickelt.

Die Daten zeigen aber nicht nur, wie Ost und West in der Berliner Innenstadt zusammenwachsen, sondern auch dass zunehmend mehr Menschen aus Ostdeutschland in die Westbezirke ziehen. Und sie beweisen, wie Berlin mit seinem Umland verschmilzt: Jeder dritte Umzug ging seit dem Mauerfall von oder nach Brandenburg.

Bei den Wegzügen in die neuen Bundesländer ist Brandenburg allerdings eine Ausnahme. Nach wie vor verschlägt es aus dem ehemaligen West-Berlin nur wenige Menschen nach Ostdeutschland. Noch deutlichere Spuren der Teilung machen allerdings die Berliner sichtbar, die ihre Wurzeln im Ausland haben.

Berlins bunte Kieze

Kieze eingefärbt nach stärkster Gruppe mit Migrationshintergrund. Stand: 31.12.2013. Quelle: © Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam, 2014

Jeder vierte Berliner hat heute einen Migrationshintergrund. Damit ist die Quote im Vergleich zu anderen deutschen Großstädten eher gering. Dabei gibt es nach wie vor große Unterschiede zwischen West (rund 36 Prozent) und Ost (rund 16 Prozent). Die Abschottung der DDR und die Einwanderungspolitik der Bundesrepublik wirken nach. So machen heute insbesondere die Türken den Mauerverlauf sichtbar: Seit den 60er-Jahren haben sie sich in West-Berlin niedergelassen - meist entlang der Mauer. Sie sind weiter die größte Migrantengruppe in Berlin - und das auch in fast allen „Mauerkiezen" im Westteil.

In den Osten zieht es aber nur wenige türkischstämmige Berliner (Ost 0,6 Prozent, West: 7,8 Prozent). Die größten Gruppen bilden hier Menschen aus Russland (1,6 Prozent), Polen (1,4 Prozent) und Vietnam (1,2 Prozent). In den angesagten Gegenden der östlichen Innenstadt wird dagegen eher Französisch, Italienisch oder Spanisch gesprochen.

Land finden ...

Meiste Zuzüge in diesem Zeitraum

Meiste Zuzüge in diesem Zeitraum

Alle Zu- und Wegzüge gemäß amtlicher Bevölkerungsstatistik für 175 Länder von 1991 bis 2013. Die Grafiken sind normalisiert, haben unterschiedliche Y-Achsen. Stand: 31.12.2013. Quelle: © Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam, 2014

In den ersten Jahren nach dem Mauerfall hat Berlin besonders Menschen aus dem Osten angezogen - und viele Kriegsflüchtlinge vom Balkan wie etwa aus Bosnien aufgenommen. Dann ebbte der Zuzug von Spätaussiedlern vor allem aus der ehemaligen Sowjetunion ab, Flüchtlinge gingen zurück in ihre Heimatländer. Und bei den Türken verfestigte sich ein Trend, der sich bereits vor dem Mauerfall gezeigt hatte: Mehr Menschen gingen von Berlin in die Türkei als in die andere Richtung.

Die neue Nummer eins der Zugezogenen von außerhalb Deutschlands wurden die Polen. Dabei gab es 2004 mit der EU-Osterweiterung einen besonderen Schub. Und überhaupt wird der Zuzug nach Berlin seitdem dominiert von Ländern der Europäischen Union - zuletzt verstärkt durch die globale Finanzkrise. Italiener und Spanier zieht es besonders nach Mitte und Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg - wie auch Franzosen und Briten. In den letzten Jahren kommen auch wieder mehr Menschen aus den USA (Rang 3) als dahin gehen.

Ein Ende des jüngsten Booms ist nicht abzusehen. Der Senat rechnet damit, dass die Stadt bis 2030 um 250.000 Einwohner wächst. Wie sich Berlin in Zukunft entwickelt und wer hier dauerhaft bleibt, ist noch unklar. Die Stadt ist ständig in Bewegung - jede Minute findet ein Umzug statt.

Jede Minute gibt es in Berlin einen Umzug

In gab es .
Jede Sekunde Ihrer Lesezeit entspricht einer Minute in dieser Grafik.

Berechnungen basieren auf allen 591.032 Zu- und Wegzügen von und nach Deutschland, aus dem oder ins Ausland und innerhalb Berlins im Jahr 2013. Quelle: © Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam, 2014

Nutzen Sie die interaktiven Grafiken und Karten für Ihre eigenen Analysen in Ihrem Bezirk oder Ihrem Kiez. Was hat Sie am meisten interessiert? Was haben Sie noch herausgefunden? Wir freuen uns über Ihre Erkenntnisse und Hinweise. Wenn Sie noch tiefer in das Thema einsteigen möchten - hier können Sie die Rohdaten zu der Anwendung einsehen und herunterladen.

Fragen und Antworten

Was zeigen die Grafiken und Karten?

In dem Artikel werden sämtliche Wanderungen von und nach Berlin seit dem Mauerfall gezeigt - alle Zu- oder Wegzüge auf Basis der Bevölkerungsstatistik vom 1. Januar 1991 bis zum 31.12.2013. Dabei werden die Bewegungen auf die aktuellen zwölf Berliner Stadtbezirke, die 16 Bundesländer und 175 Länder (mindestens 50 Zuzüge und heute existent) weltweit aufgeschlüsselt.

Zum anderen zeigen die Karten den erreichten Ist-Zustand: Die aktuelle Zusammensetzung der Berliner Bevölkerung in allen offiziell festgelegten 447 Kiezen - nach Migrationshintergrund (zum 31. Dezember 2013) und nach Geburtsort Berlin (zum 30. Juni 2014).

Woher stammen die Daten?

Sämtliche Daten wurden vom Amt für Statistik Berlin/Brandenburg zur Verfügung gestellt. Die Wanderungsdaten basieren auf der Bevölkerungsstatistik, die Daten der beiden großen Karten auf dem Einwohnermelderegister. Wir bedanken uns beim Statistikamt für die Unterstützung.

Bilden die Daten 1:1 die Realität ab?

Für Berlin existieren unterschiedliche, offizielle Einwohnerzahlen. Die Karten orientieren sich an denen des Einwohnermelderegisters. Dieses ist gegenüber dem Zensus 2011 überzeichnet und weicht bei Deutschen um rund drei und bei Ausländern um 20 Prozent ab. Laut Statistikamt liegt das an „Menschen, die ins Ausland fortziehen und nicht ihrer Abmeldepflicht nachkommen".

Warum wird nur der Zeitraum zwischen 1991 und 2013 betrachtet?

Es handelt sich dabei um die frühesten Daten seit dem Mauerfall und die aktuellsten zum Zeitpunkt der Veröffentlichung verfügbaren. Das Jahr 1991 war das erste komplette gesamtdeutsche Jahr. Erst seitdem werden die Daten mit einer einheitlichen Methodik erhoben.

Wer sind eigentlich die Berliner?

Ein Berliner kann vieles sein: Migrant, Sachse oder „echter Berliner". Oder mehreres zusammen. Als „echte Berliner" bezeichnen wir in der Anwendung lediglich die Menschen, die hier leben, aber auch hier geboren sind. Dies ist natürlich eine Festlegung, die außer Acht lässt, dass auch ein Zugezogener ein bedeutender Berliner sein kann. So ist der „Urberliner" Heinrich Zille in Radebeul bei Dresden geboren - also ursprünglich Sachse.

Warum werden die Wanderungsbewegungen nur auf Bezirksebene aufgeschlüsselt - und nicht für die 447 Kieze?

Laut Statistikamt sind "unterhalb der Bezirksebene keine zusammenhängenden und vergleichbaren Daten für diesen Zeitraum, weder Wanderungs- noch Einwohnerzahlen nach Nationalitäten, vorhanden."

Zeigt der Artikel das Bevölkerungswachstum Berlins?

Nur bedingt. Es wird das Wachstum durch Zuzug und Wegzug gezeigt. Die „natürliche Bevölkerungsbewegung" durch Geburten und Sterbefälle bleibt unbeachtet. In der Tendenz liefen die Wanderungssalden aber synchron zum gesamten Bevölkerungswachstum.

Beweist der Artikel, dass die gebürtigen Berliner an den Stadtrand gedrängt wurden?

Nicht wirklich. Er zeigt lediglich, dass heute der Anteil der Zugezogenen im Zentrum größer ist als außerhalb des S-Bahn-Rings - und dass Innenstadtbezirke seit dem Mauerfall von Zugezogenen bevorzugt wurden. Leider ist ein Berliner-Vergleich über diesen Zeitraum nicht möglich. Das Merkmal "Geburtsort in Berlin" wurde 2014 zum ersten Mal von den Statistikern erhoben. Dabei können auch andere Berlins vorkommen. Das dürfte jedoch laut Statistikamt „verschwindend gering sein".

Haben die Zuzügler auch die Staatsangehörigkeit des jeweiligen Landes?

Meistens. Es handelt sich bei den Daten um Wanderungsvorgänge mit dem jeweiligen vorherigen bzw. späteren Bezirk / Bundesland / Land unabhängig von der Staatsangehörigkeit. Ein Zuzug aus Frankreich kann also auch eine Rückkehr eines Berliners sein. Eine Person kann mehrfach in dieser Auswertung vorkommen. Wenn jemand etwa im Ausland geboren ist, von Hessen nach Berlin zieht. Laut Statistikamt lag der Anteil „in den Jahren 1991-1999 lag der Staatsangehörigen des Herkunfts- bzw. Zielgebietes jeweils sogar bei 90 Prozent (Zuzüge) beziehungsweise bei rund 85 Prozent (Wegzüge)".

Zeigt die Migranten-Karte alle Herkunftsländer?

Nur Länder mit mehr als 10.000 Berlinern mit entsprechendem Migrationshintergrund sind berücksichtigt. Einzige Ausnahme sind dabei die Chinesen (China, Hongkong, Macao und Taiwan). Hier erwartet das Statistikamt, dass der Wert bald erreicht ist.

Wieso gibt es keine Kiez-Karte, die Herkunft nach Bundesländern zeigt?

Nach Auskunft des Berliner Statistikamts ist "eine Auswertung nach Bundesländern aus dem Melderegister nicht möglich". Bundesländer werden nicht als Merkmal geführt.

Wie ernst ist der Neuberliner-Check zu nehmen?

Liebe Schwaben, bitte nicht zu ernst nehmen. Wir wollten lediglich die Debatte aufgreifen, in der Schwaben als Synonym für die Zugezogenen aus Süddeutschland - für einige Ost-Berliner sogar für alle Zugezogenen aus den alten Bundesländern - standen. Uns ist schon klar, dass aus Baden-Württemberg nicht nur Schwaben kommen.

Haben Sie Anmerkungen zur Karte? Oder haben Sie einen Fehler entdeckt? Bitte kontaktieren Sie uns.

Quelle: © Amt für Statistik Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam, 2014 Vervielfältigung und Verbreitung, auch auszugsweise, mit Quellenangabe gestattet.

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Gebürtige Berliner und Zugezogene - Wer kam, wer ging, wer heute hier wohnt

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Gebürtige Berliner und Zugezogene - Wer kam, wer ging, wer heute hier wohnt Die Geschichte der Berliner Bevölkerung seit dem Mauerfall ist die des großen Austauschs. Eine Daten-Auswertung zeigt nun ein detailliertes Bild, das Vorurteile bestätigt und widerlegt. Je stärker die Farbe, desto höher der Anteil an den Gesamt-Einwohnern. Stand: 30.06.2014.

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The 25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall Google Doodle

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Spencer's Post

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At Least 1 Million to Celebrate 25 Years Since Berlin Wall Fell

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More than 1 million visitors are expected to descend upon Berlin

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The city of Berlin will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in November. The wall split the city from 1961 to 1989 and became the iconic symbol of the cold war. Sean Gallup has photographed locations around Berlin today to match with archive images of when the city was divided

* Photography then and now lets you move through time by tapping or clicking on a historic image to reveal the modern view. You can drag or swipe to control the speed of the transformation

* Click here to view D-day landings scenes in 1944 and now

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The Berlin Wall in the cold war and now - interactive

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The city of Berlin will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in November. The wall split the city from 1961 to 1989 and became the iconic symbol of the cold war.

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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Rent unique vacation rentals anywhere in the world. Find the perfect place to stay with local hosts in 191 countries. Belong anywhere with Airbnb.

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Eine Diktatur wird gestürzt, und zwei Staaten beginnen, wieder zu einem Land zusammenzuwachsen: Der Fall der Berliner Mauer ist eines der wichtigsten, aber auch interessantesten historischen Ereignisse der deutschen Geschichte. Am 9. November 2014 jährt sich der Mauerfall zum fünfundzwanzigsten Mal - ein guter Anlass, das Thema in den landeskundlichen DaF-Unterricht einzubinden. Im Folgenden haben wir einige interessante Projekte und attraktive Materialien aus dem Netz zusammengetragen, die sich für den Unterrichtseinsatz eignen.

25 Jahre Mauerfall - eine Link-Sammlung

Der Deutsche Bildungsserver versteht sich als zentraler Wegweiser zum Bildungssystem in Deutschland und bietet insbesondere kostenfreie Link-Sammlungen zu unterschiedlichen Themen und nach Zielgruppen sortiert. Dabei verweist er vor allem auf Internetquellen, die etwa von deutschen Bundes- oder Landesinstitutionen, der Europäischen Union, von Hochschulen und speziellen Serviceeinrichtungen bereitgestellt werden. Die Sammlung 25 Jahre Mauerfall enthält sowohl Webportale als auch Link- und Medientipps sowie Verweise auf weitere relevante Sammlungen wie etwa zum Bau der Berliner Mauer oder zum Tag der Deutschen Einheit.

Geheimsache Mauer - eine Web-Dokumentation

Der Mitteldeutsche Rundfunk (MDR) hat ergänzend zu seiner TV-Dokumentation Geheimsache Mauer ein multimediales Web-Angebot geschaffen. Anhand einer Zeitleiste kann die Historie der Berliner Mauer interaktiv nachvollzogen werden. Zahlreiche Videos, wie etwa der Mitschnitt einer Pressekonferenz zum Bau des Grenzwalls oder Interviews mit Zeitzeugen, können passend zu den jeweils markanten Daten aufgerufen werden. Originaldokumente erlauben Einblicke in die damalige Korrespondenz staatlicher Behörden und Karten zeigen den genauen Grenzverlauf aus der Vogelperspektive. Alle Inhalte stehen übersichtlich sortiert auch jenseits des Zeitstrahls zur Verfügung, eine Sammlung mit weiterführenden Links komplettiert das Angebot.

Deutsche Teilung, Deutsche Einheit - ein Dossier

Die Aufgabe der Bundeszentrale für politischen Bildung (bpb) ist es unter anderem, Verständnis für politische Sachverhalte zu fördern. Dazu greift sie aktuelle und historische Themen in Veranstaltungen, Printprodukten, audiovisuellen und Online-Medien auf. Das Dossier Deutsche Teilung - Deutsche Einheit bietet nicht nur ausführliche geschichtliche Hintergründe und Quelltexte, sondern zeigt beispielsweise in Slideshows Bilder der früheren Grenzorte, die von Bewohnern kommentiert werden.

Die Mauer muss weg - ein multimediales Spezial

Die ARD ist ein Verbund öffentlich-rechtlicher Rundfunkanstalten in Deutschland. Zu ihr gehören somit eine Vielzahl verschiedener Hörfunk- und Fernsehprogramme. Auf ihrer Website bietet die ARD in der Rubrik Wissen nun eine Sammlung insbesondere von Fernsehbeiträgen zum Jubiläum des Mauerfalls. Im Spezial 25 Jahre Fall der Berliner Mauer wird zurückgeblickt auf die Stationen der friedlichen Revolution, unter anderem mit Original-Nachrichtensendungen aus den Jahren 1989 und 1990. Es werden Höhepunkte aus dem aktuellen ARD-Fernsehprogramm zum Jubiläum des Mauerfalls genannt und Dossiers zu weiterführenden Themen verlinkt.

Der Mauerfall - eine Unterrichtsreihe

Die Unterrichtsreihe Mauerfall der Deutschen Welle präsentiert das Thema vorrangig aus der Sicht der „einfachen Menschen". Die Materialien wurden für das Sprachniveau B1 konzipiert und gliedern sich in zwei Teile: Die Arbeitsblätter können ohne weitere Bearbeitung genutzt werden, die Lehrerkommentare bieten zum einen konkrete Hinweise zur Unterrichtsgestaltung, zum anderen Hintergrundinformationen für die Lehrkraft. Sie enthalten zum Teil exklusives Material, wie zum Beispiel ein Interview mit dem Autoren des Songs „Über sieben Brücken musst du gehen" oder den Zeitzeugenbericht eines ehemaligen Grenzbeamten.

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Der Mauerfall im Deutschunterricht | DW | 28.10.2014

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Eine Diktatur wird gestürzt, und zwei Staaten beginnen, wieder zu einem Land zusammenzuwachsen: Der Fall der Berliner Mauer ist eines der wichtigsten, aber auch interessantesten historischen Ereignisse der deutschen Geschichte. Am 9. November 2014 jährt sich der Mauerfall zum fünfundzwanzigsten Mal - ein guter Anlass, das Thema in den landeskundlichen DaF-Unterricht einzubinden.

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News about the Berlin Wall. Commentary and archival information about the Berlin Wall from The New York Times.

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Medientipp: "Die Deutsche Einheit: Erfolge, Probleme, Perspektiven"

3. Oktober 1990: Nach vierzig Jahren ist die Teilung Deutschlands beendet, doch der Umbau Ostdeutschlands hat gerade erst begonnen. Der neu produzierte Film nimmt die Entwicklung von 1990 bis heute in den Blick und erörtert anhand von Zeitzeugeninterviews, Expertenstatements und Archivmaterialien folgende Themenblöcke: 'Wirtschaftlicher Umbau', 'Gesellschaftlicher Wandel' und 'Auseinandersetzung mit der Vergangenheit'. Jeder Themenblock wird durch einen weiteren Filmclip sowie Grafiken, Plakate oder Fotografien ergänzt und vertieft. Quellenreiche Arbeitsmaterialien liefern Anregungen für einen kompetenzorientierten Unterricht. (Gefördert von der Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur)

Medientipp: "Zeitenwende 1989/90: Von der friedlichen Revolution zur Deutschen Einheit"

Die Jahre 1989/90 stehen für eine Zeitenwende in der deutschen Geschichte sowie auch in der politischen Weltordnung. Die Didaktische FWU-DVD erörtert anhand von Dokumentarfilmen, Nachrichtendokumenten, Zeitzeugeninterviews und Bildmaterialien Ursachen, Besonderheiten und Verlauf der friedlichen Revolution in der DDR. Sie beschreibt zudem den Weg zur Deutschen Einheit in seiner innen- und außenpolitischen Dimension und fordert abschließend dazu auf, sich mit der Frage 'Und heute?' auseinanderzusetzen. Quellenreiche Arbeitsblätter, Tipps für Projekte und Medienkommentare helfen bei der Erschließung des Themas im Unterricht. (Koproduktion mit der Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur)

Medientipp: "Opposition in der DDR - Biografien des Aufbegehrens"

Der neu produzierte Dokumentarfilm 'Opposition in der DDR - Biografien des Aufbegehrens' porträtiert das Leben von sechs Menschen, die sich gegen das SED-Regime wandten und stellt dabei die Fragen 'Wogegen richteten sich diese Menschen?', 'Was brachte sie in die Opposition?' und 'Wie reagiert der Staat darauf?' in den Mittelpunkt. Ergänzt um Ausschnitte aus DDR-Bildungsmedien und westdeutscher Berichterstattung sowie quellenreichem Arbeitsmaterial vermittelt die DVD adressatengerecht Sach-, Urteils- und Handlungskompetenz zum Themenkomplex 'Opposition in der DDR'. Im DVD-ROM-Teil stehen Arbeitsblätter, didaktische Hinweise und ergänzende Unterrichtsmaterialien zur Verfügung.

Medientipp: "Der Mauerbau im DDR-Unterricht"

Zum Leben mit der Mauer gehörte in der DDR auch die Behandlung des Themas im Schulunterricht. Der so genannte `antiimperialistische Schutzwall` mit seinen politischen Konsequenzen und seiner Symbolik bedurfte der steten Legitimation. Am Beispiel einer Unterrichtsaufzeichnung an der Berliner Humboldt-Universität aus dem Jahr 1977 wird deutlich, wie das Lernziel - dass die Errichtung der Mauer ein Beitrag zur Sicherung des Friedens war - den Schülerinnen und Schülern nahe gebracht worden ist. In thematischen Sequenzen erschließt die DVD diese komplette Unterrichtsstunde, die mit Videokameras aufgezeichnet wurde. Interviews von Beteiligten erläutern die Umstände dieser `idealen` Lehrveranstaltung und ihr Leben mit der Mauer, umfangreiches Zusatzmaterial erschließt den Stoff komfortabel für den Unterricht.

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ddr; mauer; berliner mauer; mauerfall; mauerbau; ost-berlin; friedliche revolution; wiedervereinigung; deutsche einheit

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Medientipp: "Die Deutsche Einheit: Erfolge, Probleme, Perspektiven" 3. Oktober 1990: Nach vierzig Jahren ist die Teilung Deutschlands beendet, doch der Umbau Ostdeutschlands hat gerade erst begonnen. Der neu produzierte Film nimmt die Entwicklung von 1990 bis heute in den Blick und erörtert anhand von Zeitzeugeninterviews, Expertenstatements und Archivmaterialien folgende Themenblöcke: 'Wirtschaftlicher Umbau', 'Gesellschaftlicher Wandel' und 'Auseinandersetzung mit der Vergangenheit'.

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World War II is over and Berlin is divided into 4 sectors:
the American, British, French in the West and
the Soviet in the East

Federal Republic of Germany is founded
(West Germany)

October 7, 1949

German Democratic Republic is founded
(East Germany)

September 3, 1971

Four Power's Agreement over Berlin
visiting becomes easier for West Berliners

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World War II is over and Berlin is divided into 4 sectors: the American, British, French in the West and the Soviet in the East Federal Republic of Germany is founded (West Germany) October 7, 1949 German Democratic Republic is founded (East Germany) September 3, 1971 Four Power's Agreement over Berlin visiting becomes easier for West Berliners

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Mauerfall 2014 - „Lichtgrenze" zum 25.Jubiläum in Berlin

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// Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer / Bernauer Straße

Gedenkveranstaltung zum 25. Jahrestag des Mauerfalls
Eröffnung der neuen Dauerausstellung „1961 | 1989. Die Berliner Mauer"
und Sonderprogramm: Führungen, Zeitzeugenpodien, Lesungen, Konzerte und Kinderprogramm
Bernauer Straße 119, 13355 Berlin
ab 14 Uhr

Weitere Informationen!

// Brandenburger Tor

Bürgerfest "Mut zur Freiheit"

ab 14:00 Uhr
Eröffnung des Nachmittagsprogramms:
u.a. OTTO NORMAL, Beat'n Blow und Clueso

ab 18 Uhr
Musikalische Eröffnung des Abendprogramms, Gedenken an die Maueropfer mit Performance von Peter Gabriel mit der Orchesterversion von "Heroes", moderiert von Jan Josef Liefers

ca. 18:15 Uhr
Talkrunde mit Bürgerrechtlern und Rückblicke in die Zeit vor dem Mauerbau und in die DDR Zeit, Auftritt Silly und des 200-köpfigen Bürgerchors

ca. 18:45 Uhr
Zum Thema "25 Jahre wiedervereinigtes Deutschland" performen Clueso, DIE FANTASTISCHEN VIER und Paul Kalkbrenner

ab 19:50 Uhr
Udo Lindenberg

ab 20:30 Uhr
Paul Kalkbrenner

Detaillierte Programmübersicht:
www.bundesregierung.de

Trabi Korso - Sternfahrt
Am Ostel Hotel an der Bornholmer Straße
ab 10 Uhr

Andacht zum Gedenken an den Mauerfall
Öffentliche Gebetsveranstaltung - Südseite der Bornholmer Straße
20.30 - 21.15 Uhr

// Mauerpark

Gottesdienst und erinnern an den Fall der Mauer vor 25 Jahren.
Amphitheater, Mauerpark
Evangelische Kirchengemeinde am Weinberg
ab 11 Uhr

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Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer / Bernauer Straße Gedenkveranstaltung zum 25. Jahrestag des Mauerfalls Eröffnung der neuen Dauerausstellung „1961 | 1989. Die Berliner Mauer" und Sonderprogramm: Führungen, Zeitzeugenpodien, Lesungen, Konzerte und KinderprogrammBernauer Straße 119, 13355 Berlinab 14 Uhr Weitere Informationen! // Brandenburger Tor Bürgerfest "Mut zur Freiheit" ab 14:00 Uhr Eröffnung des Nachmittagsprogramms: u.a.