Fall of the Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was a barrier that surrounded West Berlin and prevented access to it from East Berlin and adjacent areas of East Germany. The Berlin Wall was built on the night between August 12 and 13th, 1961, as the result of a decree by the East German Volkskammer. However, the construction of the actual Berlin Wall did not begin until August 17. This barrier was built to segregate the eastern sector of Berlin from the western sector because of economic and political purposes.
On August 23, 1989, Hungary removed its border restrictions with Austria. Because of this demonstrations against the government in East Germany began on October 1989. The leader of East Germany , Erich Honecker, resigned on October 18, 1989 and was replaced by Egon Krenz. Shortly before a press conference on November 9, 1989 Gunter Schabowski, the East German Minister of Propaganda, was given a note that said that East Berliners would be allowed to cross the border with proper permission, but this note gave no further instructions on how to handle the information. Because the regulations had only been completed a few hours before the conference, so they were going to take effect the next day so there would be time to inform the border guards. However, nobody had informed asked when the regulations would come into effect, he assumed it would be the same day and he answered: “As far as I know effective immediately, right now”.
Thousands of people from East Berlin arrived at the checkpoints of the wall and demanded entry in West Berlin. The border guards were surprised and began making phone calls but it was clear that they were not going to be able to hold back the crowd. The guards and the East Berlin government were not willing to use lethal force, so they opened the checkpoints and let people in with little or no identity checks. The extremely happy East Berliners were greeted on the other side by West Berliners in a festive atmosphere. On the night of November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall--the most potent symbol of the cold-war division of Europe--came down. During the days after this event people went to the wall to chip off souvenirs of the wall.
The fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989 marked the climax of East Germany’s peaceful revolution to join the rest of the world and it was the first step toward German reunification, which concluded on October 3, 1990. It was also the result of the fall of the countries in Central Europe who were behind the Iron Curtain and therefore the end of the Cold War between the United States of America and the Soviet Union. The significance of the destruction of the Berlin Wall is that people, no matter what their ideologies, their political convictions, or their ethnicity, should never be separated and should always work together in cooperation for the benefit of all mankind. In other words, the world is one and it belongs to all mankind.