9 Nov 1989 Jahr - The Berlin Wall was breached

Beschreibung:

East Germany's hardline Communist rulers maintained a strong grip on the state, symbolized by the Berlin Wall that divided East Germans from the democratic West. In 1989, East German tourists visiting Hungary took advantage of newly opened borders there to escape to Austria and West Germany. Their flight embarrassed East German leaders. In East German cities, nonviolent protests pressured the country's dictator, Erich Honecker, to institute reforms and open border crossings. On November 9, the government announced that East Germans could travel freely to West Germany. East germans flooded around and over the hated Berlin Wall. Germans scaled it from both sides and stood atop the structure, cheering and chanting and waving signs. They came with sledgehammers and smashed it with glee. The wall, the most potent symbol of the Cold War, had been breached. Within a month, the Communist Party had begun to collapse. A year later, East and West Germany reunified.