HOW THE BERLIN WALL CAME DOWN

germanbrothers:

Or, how one guy’s fuck-up led to the creation of the most powerful nation in Europe

Okay, so we seem to have a bit of a misunderstanding about the Berlin Wall and how it came down. People assume that a whole bunch of dudes just took to the wall one day with sledgehammers and shit, and they were crawling through the other side with the holes in the wall etc etc.

Well, sorry to break it to you, but that didn’t actually happen. The date slotted for the event is November 9th, but the wall didn’t actually come down until the 10th. Why is that? Let me explain.

Here’s a bit of background:

• The wall was constructed by East Germany (GDR/DDR) on 13 August, 1961.
• GDR government claimed that it was to prevent fascism from seeping into East Germany.
• It also prevented like, everybody, from leaving GDR who wanted to.
• Allied forces occupying West Germany granted the country it’s freedom within 2 years after WWII, but the Soviet Union refused to agree to plans to make GDR a self-sufficient government.
• Tensions increased as time went by, and there seemed to be no plans for USSR to step away and grant GDR its freedom.

Okay cool. We all know about the terrible conditions of the GDR, about Reagan and his jelly donuts, and we’ve all heard incredible escape stories of people going over/under/through the wall to get out.

So this is how it all ended.

In the summer of 1989, Hungary had dissolved its boarder defenses with Austria, and over 13,000 East German tourists escaped to Austria through Hungary that September. Well, Hungary didn’t exactly like that and stopped more East German’s from going to Austria, returning them to Budapest.

These tourists flooded the West German embassies and refused to leave, because fuck that shit.

The East German government was like, shit son, fuck that, and refused any more travel to Hungary. The same shit was happening with Czechoslovakia, and by this point the GDR government was like, U GUIS, COME ON.

How East Germans react to mass emigration.

So people were getting pissed that they couldn’t go places. Even those people that didn’t necessarily want to FLEE GDR were mad that their vacation plans were cancelled. So in September, 1989, people started to demonstrate.

They started in Berlin, but soon spread throughout the entire country, meeting on Monday evenings to demonstrate. They started out chanting “We Want Out!” so they could go to the West.

By November, shit was getting real. On 4 November, 500,000 people had gathered in Alexanderplatz in Berlin to demand change (if you want a comparison, that is the entire population of East Berlin, in one fucking square). 

People were leaving in droves through Czechoslovakia, or Hungary.

On 9 November, the Politburo led by Egon Krenz had decided that GDR refugees could leave, but only through designated points between West and East Germany, and only with official permission from the government. They were supposed to take place the next day, 10 November, to give the border guards time to be notified.

Günter Schabowski, the spokesperson for the GDR , was told about this new change only an hour before a major press conference that night – a note was literally slipped to him that people could do this, but only with permission, and that was it.

He basically had no idea wtf it was and wtf to do with it.

So when the Press Conference went on, he told people about the change. And somebody – most people think it’s NBC’s Tom Brokaw – asked when it would take effect.

Schabowski, having no idea what the answer was, just bullshitted something and was like, “Uh, immediately?”

“Uh, I think? Son of a bitch, I don’t get paid enough for this shit.”

Protesters in East Berlin were hearing the broadcast and immediately demanded that the gates be opened right away. Guards were immediately asked by supervisors to use “lethal force” and revoke citizenship of those who fought, but nobody really did. Completely overwhelmed by the HALF A MILLION FUCKING PEOPLE demanding that they open up, they did so at 10:45 pm.

People swept onto the other side of the city in droves, overwhelming the guards who were trying to ask people for identification and notice of permission. But of course the people were like, LOL FUCK YOU and went through.

West Berliners were there too, with champagne and flowers and everyone danced and got horrendously intoxicated and it was a great party all around.

Exactly like this.

The next day, people started to tear the wall down, taking bits with them for souvenirs.

And the following year, on 9 October 1990, East and West Germany became reunited as a single Germany.

THE END.