Wall Stories by Germany.info Readers

Waltraut Lehmann - Shoreline, WA

“The next day, November 10, a Friday, was dress-down day in our office, meaning we could wear blue jeans and casual shirts…. I pointed out that I was wearing black, red, gold in honor of the event of the previous day.”

• Waltraut Lehmann

Michael Laverty - Manassas, VA

“On the evening of the 9th of November, I was at work and we had a television turned to the American channel, AFN. An announcer came on and announced that East Berliner's were happily rushing through the gates into the West!”

• Michael Laverty

Oliver Markwirth - San Francisco, CA

“Following the first weekend after the fall of Berlin Wall, I drove to Dallas, Texas, to celebrate its demise with my family and our German-American friends. Like those East Germans, we were having the best time of our lives, too.”

• Oliver Markwirth

Steven Schneider - Hugo, MN

“The fall of the Wall was not about tearing down one border but a fundamental crack in the mental walls that divided the East from the West. And while I was very happy about this, I was sad because I was 9,000 kilometers away and could not share the happiness with my German friends.”

• Steven Schneider

Freedom Without Walls: 1989-2009

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marked the beginning of a new era in history. It was the end of the cold war, the beginning of a fully united Europe and proof that peaceful change is possible, even in the moments when it seems most unlikely. 

• Freedom Without Walls

Reunification

Following the peaceful overthrow of the East German regime in 1989, in the summer of 1990 negotiations about the reunification treaty commenced in Berlin. Eventually, on October 3, 1990, East Germany acceded to the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany

• Reunification