The Fall of the Berlin Wall

The fall of the Berlin Wall was one of the hallmarks of the collapse of the Soviet Union, as the Iron Curtain began to lift in certain parts of the Soviet bloc. East and West Germany had been separated physically since 1961, isolating Eastern Germans from German cultural reconstruction. With the opening of Hungary's and Czechoslovakia's borders in 1989, however, a mass exodus of East Germans began; in an attempt to prevent the state from collapsing, the government (weakened by movements abroad such as Solidarity) announced the opening up of travel between West and East Germany. When the an East German spokesman announced that travel between the states could begin directly, a jubilant crowd overwhelmed the checkpoints and was soon climbing and destroying the wall, bringing down the most potent symbol of Soviet control and uniting Germany once again. Although the allowance of travel was meant to stop-gap the decline of East Germany, the small crack instead opened the floodgates, and the government collapsed soon after. East and West were free to mingle once again, to bring together Western culture and Eastern communist isolation to create a uniquely postwar German mindset and identity. Two very different experiences came together to form a new Germany.
BBC Article
ABC Report