The Fall of the Berlin Wall and German Reunification

The Berlin Wall was built in 1961. It was a symbol of the Cold War. Its fall on 9 November 1989 showed that the Cold War was over. Pressure had been building up for movement from east to west as part of Gorbachev's thawing of relations. At a press conference in November 1989, a communist party official Gunter Schabowski accidentally announced that people would be allowed to cross from east to west with immediate effect. This started a chain of reaction which resulted in the demolition of the Berlin Wall. They began to flood the crossing. Eventually, East and West Berliners began to break down the wall. Negotiations between the government between East and West Germany began to deal with the floods of people moving across the border. They finished the reunification of Germany on 3rd October 1990.