One of the moments in recent world history that is incorrectly believed happened on this date, Nov. 9, in 1989 when the Berlin Wall finally started to come down.
The wall had been constructed in the early 1960s as a way to seperate East Germany, which was a bloc of the Soviet Union, from West Germany, which was more of a open democracy with more freedoms. Ironically, East Germany was called German Democratic Republic.
But despite what most Republicans and Americans think, President Ronald Reagan had absolutely nothing to do with it. In fact, his speech where he said “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” occured two and a half years before. It’s the same way Republicans tried to take the credit when Osamba bin Laden was taken out claiming George W. Bush had set the gears in motion even though he hadn’t been commander-in-chief for two and a half years.
It was actually a misunderstanding in a news report when Hanns Joachim Friedrichs proclaimed, “This 9 November is a historic day. The GDR has announced that, starting immediately, its borders are open to everyone. The gates in the Wall stand open wide.” Within no time, people were gathered at the gates en masse wanting to cross over into West Germany. Months prior to this, there had been changes in leadership in the GDR and other parts of Europe such as Poland and Hungary.
The people began gathering late on the night of Nov. 9 to the point the guards were overwhelmed and began checking with their supervisors who told them to be more aggressive. However, as the people grew and it began to get more attention, no one was willing to fire warning shots in the air. By 10:45 p.m. at the local time Harald Jäger, the commander of the Bornholmer Straße border crossing yielded, allowing the guards to open the checkpoints and allowing people through.
It’s also been reported that German Stasi officer Heinz Schafer may have ordered the opening of the gate at Waltersdorf-Rudow earlier that night but it didn’t get the media attention the other was receiving. Regardless, it was the beginning of the end. But the wall didn’t just tumble down all at one time.
Over the next year, a full demolition was ordered. The wall was reported 155 kilometers long or about 96 miles. So, they couldn’t just knock it off like picket fence. But it’s believed German people began to chisel and break off pieces of the wall on Nov. 9 leading to its eventual destruction.
This is believe to have been the start of the collapse of the Soviet bloc in eastern Europe which would eventually lead to the full dissolution of the Soviet Union more than two years later on Dec. 26, 1991.
Zane Says 