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When The Wall Fell: The Iron Curtain descends

By Charles Apple

For nearly a quarter-century, the Berlin Wall had cut off Communist-ruled East Germany from democratic West Germany and most of the rest of Europe.

That changed when the wall was opened Nov. 9, 1989 — 35 years ago Saturday.

The infamous Iron Curtain was lifting. Democracy, at long last, was spreading to Eastern Europe.

A Big Part of The Iron Curtain

Once the Allied powers defeated Nazi Germany in 1945, the question remained: what to do with the nation that was blamed for being at the heart of two world wars?

The answer was to divide Germany into zones. Each of the primary Allied powers was to oversee the reconstruction and post-war recovery of its zone. The United States, United Kingdom and France combined their sectors to a large degree. But the Soviet Union insisted to keeping theirs separate.

That partition began to fall apart in 1948 when the Soviet Union closed highway and rail traffic to West Berlin, which was islanded into East Germany, the Soviet sector. That “blockade” was defeated by a daring Allied airlift to West Berlin.

In 1952, Communist East Germany — under the control of the Soviet Union — closed its borders to the West. East German citizens continued to escape across the border.

On Aug. 13, 1961, the East German government escalated the Cold War by building a barbed wire-and-concrete “Antifascistischer Schutzwall”

around West Berlin. Its true purpose: To stem the tide of mass defections from East to West.

For nearly three decades, the wall stood as a symbol of the Cold War. In the 1980s, however, the Communist nations of Eastern Europe began to crumble. The Soviet Union began releasing its component countries and dissolving itself.

Credit: U.S. National Archives

Credit: U.S. National Archives

Cracks Begin To Appear in The Wall

Mikhail Gorbachev was elected Premier of the Soviet Union in 1985 and set out to reform the economy and political machinery of the Soviet Union.

JUNE 12, 1987

It was in this context that President Ronald Reagan, speaking in front of one of the most famous spots along the Berlin Wall, the Brandenburg Gate, issues a challenge: “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate,” Reagan said. “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

MAY 2, 1988

Hungary disables the electric alarm system and cuts through barbed wire on its border with Austria. It’s the first physical raising of the Iron Curtain.

Credit: U.S. National Archives

Credit: U.S. National Archives

AUG. 19

A peace demonstration is held in the Hungarian town of Sopron, on the border with Austria. During the peace demonstration, 600 East German citizens flee to the west. Hungarian border guards make no move to stop them.

SEPT. 10

The Hungarian government opens its borders to Austria. About 13,000 East Germans escape over the next few weeks.

NOV. 4

More than a million East Germans participate in a pro-democracy demonstration in East Berlin’s main square.

A Giant Mistake - So They Go With The Flow

East German leaders decide to waive the visa rules requiring citizens to have a pressing reason for travel to the West. East Germans would still have to apply for visas. But visas would be granted quickly, without delay.

NOV. 9, 1989

However, the Communist Party official who is appointed to announce these changes is caught off-guard by reporters at a press conference. When asked when the changes take effect, Guenter Schabowski said “Immediately. Without delay.”

Over the next several hours, thousands of East Berliners gather at checkpoints demanding immediate entry to West Berlin. Guards at crossing points give in to pleas from the mob and open the gates.

Credit: WikiMedia Commons

Credit: WikiMedia Commons

NOV. 28

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl announces a plan for German reunification, but he makes it clear

his government will not negotiate a treaty with East Germany’s single-

party government. It’s left to later to decide how quickly reunification should happen or what form a new German government should take.

DEC. 22

The Brandenburg Gate is opened. Over the next few months, much of the wall is dismantled. Official demolition work would begin the next summer. It would take nearly two years to remove all the border fortifications around Berlin and four years to dismantle them along the former border between East and West Germany.

Reuniting East and West Germany

MARCH 18, 1990

East Germany holds its first free elections. The Alliance for Germany — a bloc of three parties all advocating for reunification — wins with 98 percent of the vote.

JULY 1

The East German government votes to adopt West German currency — which, at the time, is the deutschmark. Border patrols at the wall are ended.

AUG. 23

After a 3 a.m. vote, President Sabine Bergmann-Pohl announces the East German Parliament has approved a plan to dissolve itself and rejoin with West Germany. The vote: 294 to 62.

SEPT. 12

The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany is signed in Moscow by all nations that occupied Germany after World War II. This removes the final legal obstacle to reunification.

OCT. 3

East and West Germany are officially reunited. The day would become known as “Unity Day” and remembered as the unofficial end of the Cold War.

DEC. 2

Germany holds its first free universal election since the 1933 vote that put Adolf Hitler in power. Helmut Kohl is retained as Chancellor.

Sources: National Archives and Records Administration, the Library of Congress, Office of the Historian of the U.S. Department of State, the German Embassy, the National Security Archives at George Washington University, the Miller Center of the University of Virginia, Johns Hopkins University, CNN, the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor, the BBC, ColdWar.org, History.com