The Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989
East Berliners cross into West Berlin without border control for the first time at Checkpoint Charlie, November 1989.
East German authorities built the Berlin Wall overnight in August 1961 to stop the flow of citizens fleeing to the West, and for 28 years it stood as the starkest physical symbol of the Cold War's division of Europe. It fell almost by accident: on 9 November 1989, a East German spokesman, confused about new travel rules, announced at a press conference that citizens could cross "immediately," and crowds overwhelmed the checkpoints before guards received any contrary orders. Within a year Germany was formally reunified, and the wall's collapse became the defining image of the end of Soviet control in Eastern Europe. Read more in our article on the fall of the Berlin Wall.
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