Events

Fall of the Berlin Wall

Citation Formats

General Reference

Political Atlas. "Fall of the Berlin Wall." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://political.interactiveatlas.org/events/fall-of-the-berlin-wall.

APA Style

Political Atlas. (n.d.). Fall of the Berlin Wall. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://political.interactiveatlas.org/events/fall-of-the-berlin-wall

BibTeX

@misc{politicalatlas-fall-of-the-berlin-wall,
  author = {Political Atlas},
  title = {Fall of the Berlin Wall},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://political.interactiveatlas.org/events/fall-of-the-berlin-wall},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The opening of the Berlin Wall on the night of 9 November 1989, after an East German official mistakenly announced during a televised press conference that new travel rules allowing free passage to the West would take effect immediately. Tens of thousands of East Berliners crossed into West Berlin that night as border guards, receiving no contrary orders, let them through, and the wall that had divided the city since 1961 was soon dismantled by hand. The event became the defining image of the collapse of communist rule in Eastern Europe and led directly to German reunification less than a year later.

Facts

Year

1989 1

Event Date

1989-11-09 1

Location

Berlin, then divided between the Federal Republic of Germany (West Berlin) and the German Democratic Republic (East Berlin); crowds first crossed at checkpoints including Bornholmer Strasse on the night of November 9, 1989. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections