German Reunification: The Fall of the Berlin Wall

The Fall of the German Democratic Republic

The swift and unexpected downfall of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was triggered by the decay of other communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

The Breach of the Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was, in effect, breached in the summer of 1989 when a reformist Hungarian government began allowing East Germans to escape to Austria. By the fall, thousands of East Germans had followed this route, while thousands of others immigrated to West Germany.

In an effort to halt the deterioration of its position, the SED Politburo deposed Honecker in mid-October and replaced him with another hard-line communist, Egon Krenz. Under Krenz, the Politburo sought to eliminate the embarrassment occasioned by the flow of refugees to the West through Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland.

On the evening of November 9, Günter Schabowski, a communist functionary, mistakenly announced at a televised news conference that the government would allow East Germans unlimited passage to West Germany, effective "immediately." While the government had, in fact, meant to require East Germans to apply for exit visas during normal working hours, this was widely interpreted as a decision to open the Berlin Wall that evening, so crowds gathered and demanded to pass into West Berlin. Unprepared, the border guards let them go. In a night of revelry, tens of thousands of East Germans poured through the crossing points in the Wall and celebrated their new freedom with rejoicing West Berliners.

Political Shifts and the End of the SED

The opening of the Berlin Wall proved fatal for the German Democratic Republic. Ever-larger demonstrations demanded a voice in government for the people, and in mid-November, Krenz was replaced by a reform-minded communist, Hans Modrow, who promised free, multiparty elections. When the balloting took place in March 1990, the SED, now renamed the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), suffered a crushing defeat.

The Path to German Unity

The final barrier to reunification fell in July 1990 when Helmut Kohl prevailed upon Mikhail Gorbachev to drop his objections to a unified Germany within the NATO Alliance in return for sizable (West) German financial aid to the Soviet Union. A unification treaty was ratified by the Bundestag and the People’s Chamber in September and went into effect on October 3, 1990. The German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic as five additional Länder, and the two parts of divided Berlin became one Land.