Charles 1 Gnter Schabowski was an unlikely hero.

After all, he was only the media spokesman for the East German Communist Party, the Politburo. However, on the night of November 9, 1989, Schabowski was due to give a press briefing regarding the days affairs, and on that night, new travel regulations were due to be made public regarding travel between East Germany and West Germany. After World War II, Germanydefeated by the Allied powers of the United States, the United Kingdom, Free France and the Soviet Unionwas divided into four occupation zones, as was Berlin, deep in the Soviet zone of Germany. The United States, the United Kingdom and France consolidated their zones into the Federal Republic of Germany, or West Germany, a democratic nation. The Soviets refused to align themselves with the Western powers on the matter of how to divide post-war Germany, and named their sector the German Democratic Republic, or GDR, more commonly known as East Germany. As East Germany was controlled by the Soviet Union, it was naturally communist. As the news conference began wrapping up, Schabowski failed to read the new laws properly, stating that permanent emigration can now take place at border checkpoints between [East Germany] and [West Germany]. Pressed on when the new policy would take effect, Schabowski, already flustered, replied: This iswell, immediately, without delay (Sarotte 38). Schabowski had, without realizing it, just ended the decades-long post-World War II division of Germany. The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 sparked protests across the former Soviet Union which eventually led to its dissolution, ending the Cold War, redrawing the map of Europe, and revolutionizing its economy and politics. At exactly 7:00 PM, Schabowski concluded his press conference and, two minutes later, the worlds news organizations began flashing the headline on their tickers: East Germany

Charles 2 announces new travel regulations, border more open, the Associated Press (AP) reported. The APs rival, Reuters, did more, sending a field reporter to the wall to capture the moment, despite the fact that the wall was still deserted as usual (Sarotte 39). For its 8:00 PM news show, West German TV station Arbeitsgemeinschaft der ffentlichrechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (known by its call letters ARD), decided to go even further and speculated that the entire wall had been opened, despite the fact that the checkpoints were still locked (Sarotte 40). By that point, a crowd began to gather around the wall, and the East German state-run TV news show Topical Camera made a hasty attempt to disperse the crowd, informing viewers that travel is still blocked. Permits must be applied for. There is still an application process! (Sarotte 40). However, not many people watched the East German channels, whose content represented solely the agenda of the Communist Party, instead preferring to tune into shows coming from the free West (Sarotte 41). Over the next few hours, the crowd grew and began pressing guards at the different crossings to open the pedestrian gates. Harald Jaeger was the chief guard at the Bornholmer Strasse (Street) crossing, and had been an officer on the East German secret police force, the Stasi (short for Ministry of State Security), for over 40 years. He called Schabowskis announcement deranged [expletive], and refused to bend to the peoples shouts (Sarotte 41). By 10:00 PM, however, the situation was too overwhelming for Jaeger to handle. Spurred on by the opening of other checkpoints in the South of the city, Jaeger finally ordered his guards to open [all of the gates] (Sarotte 42). Just two hours later, at exactly 11:59 PM, the final checkpoints opened, the last being Checkpoint Charlie, in front of the iconic Brandenburg Gate. Over the next six hours, an influx of East Berliners entered the West to have a look at what had been behind the infamous wall for 28 years. Official statistics showed that over 7,500

Charles 3 people and vehicles crossed into West Berlin that night (Sarotte 43). Any East German who ventured over the border received welcome money of 100 Deutsche Marks (around $55 USD) from the West Berlin government. One crosser said: I was in shock, in awe at the stores and theaters and luxuries we hadnt seen in almost 30 years (Dunn 41). Another East German stated that the Politburo have made a terrible mistake (Dunn 41). By noon on November 10th, however, many had returned back to the East (Taylor 349). If East Berlin was no longer a prison, then why not go back home? asked an East German as he walked back over the border again (Dunn 42). The next morning, Berliners from both sides of the wall began breaking off souvenir chunks with pickaxes, hammers and other hand tools. Among the crowd were many border guards from both East and West. They were soon replaced by bulldozers and backhoes sent in by the East German government to demolish the rest of the wall (Taylor 350). In just a few weeks, the wall was almost completely demolished and became a part of history (Sarotte 42). One section of the wall remains as a monument to the thousands who died trying to get over or under it. Few who were in Berlin at the time could have predicted the consequences of the walls destruction on Europes Communist regimes. Throughout the world in 1989, the Berlin Wall not only represented a divided city, but on a larger scale represented communist might, and its fall showed the weakness not just of East Germany, but of the entire Soviet Union (Engel 76). If the Berlin Wall fell, and Moscow did nothing to stop it, then clearly the Soviet government was not stable and was only hanging onto its rule by a thread, and this encouraged many to speak out against the government. And just that happened. Beginning in late November 1989, just a few weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, anti-Soviet movements sprang up in Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. When these nations

Charles 4 Communist Parties failed to end the demonstrations, and Moscow again turned a blind eye, this further encouraged the protesters (Engel 78). Although important, the Berlin Walls demise did not spark all of these protests. In fact, the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, already had relaxed his grip on the Soviet Unions satellite states, countries independent but still very much aligned with the Soviet Union; this relationship was formally referred to as the Warsaw Pact. Upon his appointment in 1985, Gorbachev, knowing that the Soviet Unions economy was failing and that unrest among citizens was high, implemented two new policies, following his ideas of de-StalinizationGlasnost and Perestroikarespectively encouraging openness of thought and speech and restructuring of government and economy (Zickel 102). However, these two policies only encouraged further reforms, and most citizens were still wary of the government, while the fall of the Berlin Wall offered further concrete evidence that communism was indeed collapsing (Zickel 103). Overall, both the fall of the Berlin Wall and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachevs loose hold on the Soviet Union contributed to the breaking out of protests and further fueled them. Czechoslovakia was the first satellite state to fall to the protests. It had been carved out of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I in 1919 as a part of the Treaty of Versailles. During World War II, it had been overrun by Nazi Germany, then in 1945 liberated by the Soviet Red Army and aligned with the Soviet Union. In November 1989, a movement known as the Velvet Revolution began as a result of the fall of the Berlin Wall (Engel 87). The Velvet Revolution closely mirrored the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, and the protests included sit-ins and occupations of public areas. When the Communist Party refused to show signs of bowing to the pressure, movement leaders called a general strike. The next day the party suddenly scheduled democratic elections for the year 1990 and resigned

Charles 5 effective immediately (Engel 89). In the next years elections, democratic leaders won a majority in the Czechoslovakian Parliament (Engel 90). Following the success of the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, a youth movement started in Romania in December 1989. This movement was also nonviolent and eventually resulted in Romanian Communist Party leader Nicolae Ceauescus ouster and execution (Engel 85). With the fall of Romania, two Warsaw Pact states were gone, and the leaders of communist Poland began to doubt their own ability to hold on to power (Engel 86). When a mass demonstration broke out in the capital, Warsaw, and thousands of protesters filled the streets denouncing communism, the Communist Party and its leadersfearing for their lives more than they cared about retaining powerwillingly backed off and resigned (Engel 88). While in all of these cases the Soviet Unions armed forces, known as the Red Army, did try to suppress the demonstrators, money was tight. Moscow realized it could not afford to stage a full-scale occupation of Poland as it had done during Czechoslovakias Prague Spring of 1968, spearheaded by the Czech Communist Party leader of the time, Alexander Dubek. At that time, Soviet troops had ended the period of reform within a few months (Sawka 173). But now, as a result of the current economic situation, a consequence of the recent 1988 world financial crisis, the Red Army was only able to send a small number of troops to Warsaw, and within hours the protesters had already commandeered the armys tanks for their own use (Sawka 175). In defeat and even shorter on supplies, the Red Army withdrew back to Russia, and now Poland, too, had fallen (Sawka 176). The fall of the Berlin Wall had led to the collapse of three of Europes communist states. Mikhail Gorbachev, who since his appointment in 1985 had never been on good terms with the Soviet Unions highest legislative bodythe Supreme Sovietwas not concerned

Charles 6 about the uprisings in the Soviet Unions satellite states, but the Supreme Soviet took more notice (Immell). The Supreme Soviet placed pressure on Gorbachev to tighten his hold on the satellite states, but Gorbachev refused to heed their warnings that the Soviet Union might lose its long monopoly on political power in Eastern Europe (Immell). But in the Soviet power hierarchy, the General Secretary of the Communist Party, who acted as the leader of the Soviet Union, had more influence on all matters than the Supreme Soviet, and on February 7, 1990, Gorbachev proposed that the Soviet Union allow the states of Lithuania, Moldova, Estonia, Latvia, Armenia, and Georgia to leave the Warsaw Pact (Supreme Soviet). By some stroke of luck, as Gorbachev later recalled, the Supreme Soviet accepted Gorbachevs recommendation (Buckley 247). The passing of this legislation angered hard-line Communist Party members and leaders who thought that Gorbachevs methods of running the Soviet Union were outrageous. Over the next year and a half, the group of strict communists began, in secret, plotting a coup (an attempted overthrow) against Gorbachev and his close associates in the upper ranks of the party. On August 19, 1991, the coup began in Moscow. The coups intent was to bring the [Soviet] Union back under control, and its organizers hoped to remove Gorbachev from office and install a more strict Soviet leader. Unfortunately for them, the Red Army was able to crush the coup, especially since it was so close to home (Buckley 251). The coup attempt failed to remove Gorbachev from his post, and in fact served to bring the entire Soviet Union closer to dissolution. After the coup, over a period from August 24, 1991 to December 16, 1991, many Soviet republics (which were different from satellite states; satellite states were independent from but affiliated with the Soviet Union, while republics were officially incorporated into the Soviet Union) declared their independence, including the Ukraine, Belarus,

Charles 7 Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan (Supreme Soviet). While the Berlin Wall had a major impact on the fall of the Eastern European satellites, the main cause of the independence of these republics is commonly attributed to the August 1991 coup attempt (Engel 97). On Christmas Day, December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned from office; the Hammer and Sickle flag of the Soviet Union came down from its perch above the Kremlin where it had flown since 1918; and the next day, the Soviet Union officially broke up and all of its assets were given to its legal successor, The Russian Federation, present-day Russia (Engel 98). The dissolution of the Soviet Union brought about many economic changes and reforms throughout the former republics and satellite states of the Soviet Union. By the late 1980s, the communist system was bankrupt, and the standard of living in the Soviet Union was low (Sarotte 74). The Soviet Union, during the 1960s and 1970s, had spent large amounts of money on new technologies for the Red Army and to compete in the space race against the United States. The Union had finally admitted defeat by the Americans when Apollo 11 successfully landed on the moon. But the billions of dollars that went towards the Soviet space and defense programs left few funds to spare for citizens (Sarotte 77). A common Soviet sight during the 1980s was a large communal apartment block, a square box of concrete and steela visible sign of the poor economy that was the norm across the Soviet Union and its satellite states (Matthews). While Soviet food rationing had ended in the 1940s, money was still rationed out to citizens, as wages for all jobs were generally low, identical, and set by the government. Rubles (paper bills) and kopeks (coins) could be used to buy everything except food. Food could be obtained in most parts of the Soviet Union by using special food stamps, different-colored slips of sticky paper, each color a different denomination of food credits, which could be

Charles 8 redeemed for commodities like milk, bread, meat and eggs. Each citizen was given a set number of these stamps each week, and had to make them last the entire week. As a result, most people got by with very little to eat, especially when the number of stamps allotted was low due to the constantly fluctuating economy of the Soviet Union (Matthews). Throughout the Soviet Union in the 1980s, the poverty rate was almost 25%, which meant one of every four inhabitants was living in poverty. By 2009, the poverty rate in presentday Russia had shrunk to 15%, and the unemployment rate had decreased from about 6% under Soviet control to only 1% in present-day Russia (Matthews). In 1988, the Individual Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, of the Soviet Union was around $1,200. Twenty years later, in 2008, the GDP had risen to $2,500 (Sawka 199). The money itself had even become more valuable. Since 1993, one ruble has been roughly equal in value to one US dollar. Before the breakup of the Soviet Union, one ruble was worth closer to only 30 US cents (Sawka 200). The Soviet Unions sudden demise left Russia, the Soviet Unions official successor state, with another problemthe billions of dollars in public debt which the Soviet government had not paid off by the close of 1991. Ye by the end of 2009, the debt shrank to only around $900,000 (Sawka 202). Since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the resulting end of the Communist era, the former Soviet republics have enjoyed a large degree of industrial growth. An electricity boom occurred during the 1990s, with over 25 oil drilling sites and renewable power plants opening (Sawka 206). Russia, the third largest economy on the planet and the largest in Europe, is a major player in the global markets not only for electricity, but also for mining, defense technology, shipping, transportation, textiles, food, medical supplies, and manufacturing (Sakwa 207). Romania is often referred to as the Silicon Valley of Europe due to its major presence in

Charles 9 the electronics industry, and the economies of Poland and Hungary are among the fastestgrowing in Europe (Sakwa 208). At the end of World War II, the Western European nations held talks to form a league, and in 1952 these countries formed the European Economic Community (EEC). When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, the European Union was named as the successor to the EEC. Over the course of the 1990s and the early years of the 2000s, many former Soviet states became members of the European Union, including Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, and former Czechoslovakia, now split into the separate Czech and Slovak Republics (Immell). Many other former Soviet states formed their own coalition, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), joining together to prevent the return of political corruption and communism, and to keep the government and economy open and democratic (Immell). Neither the EU nor the CIS would have been formed had the Berlin Wall continued standing and the Soviet Union continued dominating Eastern Europe. In conclusion, the fall of the Berlin Wall sparked protests, uprisings and demonstrations across the former Soviet Union and its satellite states. These events soon caused the entire Soviet Unions dissolution, ending the Cold War and causing major economic, social and political changes all over Eastern Europe. The Eastern European economy improved, the GDP rose, and public debts were paid off; democratic governments now are in power in the former Soviet republics, and some are beginning to join the European Union (EU); and social changes include the spread of the five basic freedoms of speech, assembly, press, petition and religion, as well as an improved standard of living and quality of life. When the Berlin Wall fell, it was the first step along the long path to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, which ended in the final days of 1991. If it had not been for the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world might still have been ruled by

Charles 10 communism and its radical ideals. The Berlin Wall, a mass of concrete, Stasi officers, automatic machine guns, fierce dogs, heavy metal gates, and barbed wire, was more than strong enough to stop a person and even a tank, but it could not stop the revolution of thought that ended communism in Europe.

Charles 11 Works Cited

Primary Sources: Dunn, Joeming W., and Ben Dunn. The fall of the Berlin Wall. Edina, MN: Magic Wagon, 2009. Sawka, Richard. The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union: 1917-1991. London: Routledge, 2009. Soviet Union. State Report of the Supreme Soviet, 1990. Moscow, Kremlin, 1990. N.p Zickel, Raymond E. Soviet Union: a Country Study. Washington, D.C., Division, 1991.

Secondary Sources: Buckley, William F., Jr. The Fall of the Berlin Wall. Hoboken: John F. Wiley & Sons., 2004. Engel, Jeffrey A. The Fall of the Berlin Wall: the Revolutionary Legacy of 1989. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2009. Immell, Myra. The Dissolution of the Soviet Union. Detroit, Greenhaven Press, 2010. N.p Matthews, Mervyn. Poverty in the Soviet Union: the Life-styles of the Underprivileged in Recent Years. Cambridge: Cambridge UP: 1986 N.p Sarotte, Mary E. 1989. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2009. Taylor, Frederick. The Berlin Wall: A World Divided: 1961-1989. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.