The Fall of the Berlin Wall

What happened

Amid mass peaceful protests across East Germany and a botched announcement of new travel rules, crowds surged to the Berlin Wall on the night of 9 November 1989. Overwhelmed guards opened the gates, and East and West Berliners celebrated atop the Wall. It was the climax of a wave of revolutions that swept away communist governments across Eastern Europe in 1989.

Why it matters

The fall of the Wall was the iconic end of the divided Europe the Cold War had created, and it accelerated the collapse of the Soviet bloc.

Sources

• Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State. The Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, 1989 · Reputable source
• Imperial War Museums. How did the Cold War end? · Reputable source