The Berlin Wall, built in 1961 to stop East Germans fleeing to the West, was the most powerful symbol of the divided Europe. Its sudden fall in 1989 had several connected causes.

The Failure of Communism

By the 1980s the communist economies of Eastern Europe were stagnant. People in the East could see, often on Western television, the higher living standards and greater freedom enjoyed in the West, and resentment grew.

Gorbachev's Reforms

The reforming Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). Most importantly, he abandoned the old policy of using Soviet troops to crush protests in Eastern Europe. Without the threat of Soviet tanks, communist governments lost their main source of power.

The Wave of 1989

This unleashed a wave of peaceful protest across Eastern Europe. When Hungary opened its border with the West, thousands of East Germans escaped, and mass demonstrations spread through East German cities. On 9 November 1989, a muddled official announcement suggested the border was open. Huge crowds gathered, the overwhelmed guards stood aside, and people poured across — then began to dismantle the wall by hand.

Significance

The fall of the wall symbolised the collapse of communism in Europe and the effective end of the Cold War. Within a year, in 1990, East and West Germany were reunified into a single country.

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