Berlin Wall Anniversary: How a Note Opened the Border

Berlin Freedom Week marks the 37th anniversary Aftermath

Berlin plans a week of events on freedom, democracy and human rights around the 37th anniversary, with Governing Mayor Kai Wegner as patron. visitBerlin says organisations can host their own events. No separate official ceremony for 9 November itself had been confirmed when this page was updated on 20 October 2026.

Berlin marks 65 years since the Wall went up Aftermath

Political and public figures gathered on the memorial grounds on Bernauer Straße to honour people killed at the Wall, and an installation and open-air exhibition stood at the Brandenburg Gate. The Berlin Wall Foundation records at least 140 people killed at the Wall or in connection with the GDR border regime.

The Wall has now been down as long as it stood Aftermath

On 5 February 2018 the Berlin Wall had been open for exactly as long as it had divided the city. Outlets differ by a day on the count, depending on whether the first or last day is included.

Germany reunifies Aftermath

East Germany joined the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990, now German Unity Day. Opening the Wall made reunification possible, but it did not complete it: the process needed an election, a currency union, a treaty between the two German states and one with the four wartime powers.

Official demolition of the Wall begins Aftermath

People had chipped at the Wall since 10 November 1989, but East German border troops began the official demolition on 13 June 1990. On 1 July 1990 East Germany adopted the West German mark and border controls between the two states ended. Parts were kept as memorials, including along Bernauer Straße.

East Germany holds its first free election Aftermath

The first free vote for the East German parliament set the course towards unity. In the same weeks the Two Plus Four negotiations between the two German states and the four wartime powers began, and Mikhail Gorbachev agreed in principle that Germans should decide on unity themselves.

The Brandenburg Gate opens Aftermath

The most famous crossing point stayed closed on 9 and 10 November. People stood on the Wall beside it, as in the photograph, but the Gate itself opened on 22 December. The picture below was taken on 1 December, when the Gate was reachable from the East but not yet open to the West.

Kohl presents his ten-point plan for unity Aftermath

Three weeks after the opening, Chancellor Helmut Kohl set out a ten-point programme towards German unification. Within days the SED leadership collapsed, and a Round Table of the opposition and the old state met on 7 December.

Berliners celebrate and East Germans stream west Aftermath

The next morning brought reunions, climbing on the Wall and crowds at the border. The East German news agency reported that about one million GDR citizens visited West Berlin on the Saturday, and the authorities announced ten new crossings, including Potsdamer Platz, Glienicker Brücke and Bernauer Straße.

Bornholmer Straße opens The night

Thousands gathered at Bornholmer Straße, one of the main crossings, with no clear order from above. Lieutenant-colonel Harald Jäger, the commander, eventually gave way and had the barrier raised; the Haus der Geschichte records the way to West Berlin as open at 23:29, while some reports give 22:45 as the time of his order. Another gate, Waltersdorf-Rudow, may have opened a couple of hours earlier. Other crossings opened through the night.

It was not a single ceremonial act. It was a series of decisions at individual checkpoints, each under crowd pressure and without instructions from the centre.

Schabowski reads the note: “immediately, without delay” The night

At a televised press conference Günter Schabowski presented the new travel rules. At 18:53 Riccardo Ehrman of the Italian agency ANSA asked whether the draft published on 6 November had been a mistake; Peter Brinkmann of Bild pressed on when the rules would apply. Both later claimed to have asked the key question, and accounts differ. Schabowski looked through his papers and answered that, as far as he knew, it was effective immediately, without delay (sofort, unverzüglich). Asked whether that included West Berlin crossings, he said it did.

Within minutes the West German agency dpa reported that East Germans could cross “immediately”. West German television carried the story at 19:17 and 20:00, and East Berliners watching West German channels went to the border.

Krenz hands Schabowski the travel text The night

The leadership had prepared a travel regulation to ease pressure after weeks of protests and departures. The intent was to keep state control: citizens would apply, and the rules would be published by press release the next morning. Egon Krenz gave the text to Schabowski to announce at the press conference, although Schabowski had not been present for the discussion. The Haus der Geschichte notes that he read the exit rule from the draft but missed that its conditions applied only from the next day.

His handwritten sheet, preserved in the museum’s collection, carries the heading “Für PK (nicht länger als 1900)”: for the press conference, no longer than 19:00.

Draft travel rules published; government and Politburo resign Pressure

On 6 November the Interior Ministry published draft travel rules, which West Berlin’s mayor Walter Momper rejected as “complete trash”. On 7 November Krenz approved the resignation of prime minister Willi Stoph and two-thirds of the Politburo, and the Central Committee re-elected him general secretary. On 8 November the Politburo enacted the part on permanent emigration.

About 500,000 demonstrate at Alexanderplatz Pressure

Five days before the Wall opened, hundreds of thousands filled Alexanderplatz in East Berlin, in a demonstration called by Berlin artists and cultural figures. Banners demanded free press and reform. The state allowed it, which showed how far its control had slipped.

Leipzig marches and Honecker falls Pressure

On 9 October about 70,000 people marched in Leipzig after church services; no shots were fired. A week later about 120,000 marched. On 18 October Erich Honecker resigned and Egon Krenz took over. The German government calls 9 October the first major victory over the SED dictatorship.

Genscher tells refugees in Prague they can leave Pressure

Thousands of East Germans had sheltered in the West German embassy in Prague. Foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher told them they could leave for West Germany, and the first departures began the next day.

Hungary opens its border to East Germans Pressure

On 11 September Hungary opened its border for East Germans, allowing them to travel to the West through Austria. It followed the Pan-European Picnic of 19 August, when tens of thousands set off for Hungary, and Hungary’s start on dismantling its border fortifications on 2 May 1989.

Hungary begins dismantling its border fence Pressure

Hungary began taking down its border fortifications with Austria. As routes through Eastern Europe changed, East Germans found ways to leave without crossing the Berlin Wall, which put the East German government under new pressure.

The last deaths at the Wall Division

Chris Gueffroy was shot dead by border guards on the night of 5–6 February 1989 and is described as the last person killed by gunfire at the Wall. On 8 March Winfried Freudenberg died after his home-made gas balloon crashed, and he is usually described as the last person to die trying to escape across it. The Berlin Wall Foundation says the order to shoot was lifted in April 1989.

East Germany seals the border and builds the Wall Division

On 13 August 1961 East German authorities began sealing off West Berlin with barbed wire and barriers, which grew into walls, fences, guard positions and controlled crossings. They wanted to stop people leaving: by August 1961 the GDR had lost at least four million people, about a sixth of its population, according to the Berlin Wall Foundation. The barrier cut streets, rail lines and families in two.

Berlin becomes a divided city in a divided country Division

After the Second World War Germany was divided into American, British, French and Soviet zones, and Berlin, deep inside the Soviet zone, was divided among the same four powers. As relations soured the city became a Cold War front line: the Soviet blockade of the western sectors lasted from June 1948 to May 1949 and was met by the Western airlift. In 1949 the Federal Republic was founded in the West and the German Democratic Republic in the East.