2024-05-2916:11 Status: Tags: Iron curtain
On the morning of November 9th, 1989, Günter Schabowski, a Communist Party spokesman for East Germany’s Communist Party, announced new regulations that would allow residents of East Germany to travel to West Germany and West Berlin without prior authorization from the government. However, due to the vague nature of his statement as well as his uncertain response when asked how soon the new rules would be put into effect, Schabowski stated: “As far as I know, immediately, without delay.” Due to the announcement being broadcast on TVs, the news spread quickly, and thousands of East Berliners eagerly rushed to border crossings, where the confused guards who hadn’t received any orders of the modern opening eventually succumbed to the pressure of the masses and allowed people to travel as they wished.
Following the opening of the borders, excitement spread, and celebrating East and West Berliners eventually begin to climb and tear down the wall with their hands, embodying the tides of change that eventually led to the reunification of Germany, the collapse of Soviet Union and Communism, and spelling the end of Cold War.
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, negotiations between East and West Germany, and the powers backing them (France, UK, US, USSR) began with the intention of reuniting Germany into a single country. A treaty named “The Treaty on The Final Settlement with Respect to Germany,” was signed on September 12th, 1990, and eventually came into action on October 3rd, 1990 where East and West Germany were officially reunited to form the Federal Republic of Germany.4