The fall of Berlin Wall is one of the significant historical event that cannot be compared with any other similar event.

It can be stated that the Cold War and authoritarian rule over democracy came to a climax with the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. Berlin itself was divided physically and symbolically for almost three decades by the Wall as well as the division of the Western culture from the East, the latter is represented by the Jew of the Soviet Union. The fall of the Wall was therefore more than the doubling of a structure; it was freedom, solidarity of people longing for liberty globally, and recognition of human rights. Comparing the events before the fall, the event itself, as well as the string of repercussions, when looking at the modern world and its history, people can understand the value of the event.

This paper, therefore, aims at providing an interpretive review of events that led to the construction of the Berlin Wall.

Germany was divided into four zones that were controlled by one of the Allied powers namely; the UK, France, the US or USSR following the second word war. The same was true with Berlin, which was a town divided but under the soviet control for East and West Germany. The Cold War that is defined as a state of political and military rival between the Soviet Union and the Allied Western forces began to emerge from these ideological differences. These distinctions gave birth to what Winston Churchill feigned addressed as the “Iron Curtain” that outturned to be real and one dividing Europe.

Thus, East Germany was also discontented with the occupation by Soviets by the late 1950s, but they did not like rules and migration policy and poor economy hence many fled en-mass. East Germany responded on August 13, 1961 putting up a wall which had reinforced barriers of concrete blocks, barbs, watch towers and as an ethernet across Berlin covering nearly 27 kilometers. While this wall minimized the enormous scale of people division between east and west Berlin, it displaced friends and relatives that it generated.

The construction of Berlin Wall was not long and it turned into an iconic emblem of the division of world into west–capitalistic and East–communistic. It was a refreshing realization of the fact that the Eastern Bloc may be physically isolated, but freedom of man is also cage-like there.

Change’s path: political and social demands

It must be the noted that revolutions of the 1980s would slowly undermine the structures of the Eastern Bloc. Gorbachev succeeded in the Soviet Union in 1985 and began the glasnost that was timely followed by the perestroika, the programs of openness and restructuring aimed at the modernization of the Soviet system through measures of openness and certain amount of market reforms. Reforms by Gorbachev on matters of the economy and liberalism began to impact the East Germans and other citizens within Eastern Bloc since they wished to have similar freedoms.

Also, at the same time, Lech Wałęsa’s solidarity came up with a movement to press for reform of the Poland communism government. The ‘Jaruzelski’s permit’ was given to the Polish labor movement and the last semi-free elections in Poland in the year 1989 a message to the other Eastern European countries: change is possible. Hungary was also experiencing changes, and thus began dismantling their part of the Iron Curtain and commenc-ing their process of liberalizing its border with Austria in May 1989. As you have seen, the East German leadership was under pressure, while their work load was showing this.

Protests Rising in East Germany

People in East Germany became increasingly dissatisfied with Erich Honecker as East and West Europeans enjoyed the freedoms and as their salaries diminished. Otherwise known as the Monday Demonstrations, these were protests that had begun in Leipzig and in early 1989 they started calling for reform, the ability to travel freely as well as freedom to vote for one’s desired leadership. However, authorities were not very successful in their efforts to quash these protests; they only declined to the hundreds of thousands until October 1989.

Hence a number of media reportage on the country’s autocratic practices was of interest, particularly to the international community. Gorbachev, however, had made it quite clear that the Soviet Union was not ready to interfere in internal affairs of its satellite republics. This was the ‘Sinatra Doctrine’, or in other words, a threat that if East Germans were to use force to suppress their population, they would not receive the support of the Soviets The East German administration was becoming increasingly isolated from being able to meet this rising demand for reform progressively.

November 9, 1989: Celebrated Day of Uncertainty

In fact almost coincidental, finally the falling of the Berlin Wall was succeeded by public disenchantment the political blunder and political instability. What occurred at the evening of November 9, 1989 remains one of the monumental mistakes when secretly in a Satellite TV press conference Günter Schabowski mistakenly said that in accordance with the new rule East Germans were free to travel to West Germany. Known for being poorly briefed, Schabowski was not aware of the policy’s part details as he replied, “immediate without delay” to the reporters’ question on when the new policy will commence.

East Berliners start hearing about it soon enough and within few hours there were hundreds collected at Wall demanding to pass through to the West. Finally, the boundary forces being pressured, forced the gates open without any guidelines or permission. At some point ideas had ceased to flow in the well as to what I was going to do that evening. East and West Berliners shook hands, smiled, cried, embraced as they ran through the checkpoint; terms of hope or freedom rolled off the lips and terms of victory rolled off the shoulders and tears. It was climbed, demolished with the help of picks, and vandalized by people who were fiercely staging open protests against it.

Publically announced as the reunification of Germany it is also being defined as the end of the Cold War which has been on for decades. Feasts on this historic night, a sigh of the relieved most of the people when they found themselves in the new, one-hundred-year staple of freedom and unity.

Consequences and the road to German reunion

Also after the fall of the Berlin wall the actual unification of Germany occurred on October 3, 1990. The process of reunion of two countries do possess their own set of political, economical and social system and the process of integrating two highly different systems was not an easy one. Infrastructural and economic developments had to be put in place in East Germany as in West Germany in other to reinstate the national currency back to the ground in the form of the West German Deutsche Mark.

The more general Eastern Bloc was brought down by Germany’s reunion. However, other countries of Eastern Europe began turning in the direction of liberation from the Soviet influence immediately after the Wall collapse. The nature of world affairs changed and developed gradually when the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union disbanded later in 1991.

Berlin Wall Legacy: Fall’s Effects

The Berlin wall, which symbolizes a sign for state-sponsored terrorism and mass killings, formed a part of the era’s event that changed the history and awakens the great force of the people for freedom. That was demonstrated the fact that one may surmount some challenges that seem insurmountable. Having become a leftover in museums as a sign of division and unity at the same time, the symbol of unity, democracy and hope of the fall of the Wall has emerged.

One of which is the price paid by people of specific political freedom and the strength of spirit which the BERLIN WALL left behind. Ideologically, religiously, politically and in conflict – the “Walls” between people have found their poetic sounding board in the memory of November 9, 1989, of a city and a globe which have turned an apparently unconquerable wall into dust.

All in all

The opening of the Wall was not only the victory of politicians but also consequence of people’s actions as well as freedom and unity values embraced by any revolution in any part of the globe. For the people who still hope for freedom and for the people who should beware of the fateful consequences of separation, this has also become a signal for a fight. Even though it still stands for optimism now the Wall symbol also signifies the possibility of even the most entrenched barriers if the spirit can be rallied then so can the barriers.