The Berlin Wall
East Germany walls in West Berlin to stop its people fleeing; 28 years later, a peaceful revolution brings the Wall down.
- A History of Germany 1918–2014: The Divided Nation — Mary Fulbrook, Wiley-Blackwell (2015)
- The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook — Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, Ch. Links Verlag (2011)
- Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall — Anna Funder, Granta (2003)
- The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall — Mary Elise Sarotte, Basic Books (2014)
- Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949–1990 — Katja Hoyer, Allen Lane (2023)
Before 1961 the border through Berlin was the GDR’s open wound. Between its founding in 1949 and 1961, millions of East Germans, many of them young and skilled, left for the West, most of them through the city.
- A History of Germany 1918–2014: The Divided Nation — Mary Fulbrook, Wiley-Blackwell (2015)
- Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949–1990 — Katja Hoyer, Allen Lane (2023)
The Wall goes up
In the early hours of 13 August 1961, East German troops and workers sealed the sector boundary with barbed wire, soon replaced by concrete. The regime called it the “anti-fascist protection rampart”. It grew into a 155-kilometre system of walls, fences, watchtowers and a “death strip” around West Berlin, while the whole inner-German border was fortified too. Families and friends were cut apart overnight.
- A History of Germany 1918–2014: The Divided Nation — Mary Fulbrook, Wiley-Blackwell (2015)
- The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook — Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, Ch. Links Verlag (2011)
At least 140 people were killed at the Berlin Wall or died in connection with it between 1961 and 1989, most of them shot or killed in accidents while trying to escape; the youngest was a child. Hundreds more died along the inner-German border and on other escape routes.
- The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook — Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, Ch. Links Verlag (2011)
Life behind the Wall
The GDR offered guaranteed work, cheap rents, extensive childcare and high rates of women’s employment, alongside shortages, a ten-year wait for a Trabant car and no freedom to travel west. The Ministry for State Security, the Stasi, built one of the densest surveillance systems in history, relying on a vast network of informers among colleagues, friends and even spouses.
- Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall — Anna Funder, Granta (2003)
- Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949–1990 — Katja Hoyer, Allen Lane (2023)
The peaceful revolution
In 1989, as Gorbachev’s reforms loosened the Soviet bloc and Hungary opened its border with Austria, tens of thousands of East Germans fled through Hungary and Czechoslovakia. At home, people gathered after prayers for peace at Leipzig’s Nikolaikirche and marched on Monday evenings, chanting “Wir sind das Volk”, “We are the people”. On 9 October about 70,000 marched in Leipzig, and the security forces did not shoot.
- The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall — Mary Elise Sarotte, Basic Books (2014)
- A History of Germany 1918–2014: The Divided Nation — Mary Fulbrook, Wiley-Blackwell (2015)
On the evening of 9 November 1989, Politburo spokesman Günter Schabowski, fumbling at a press conference, announced new travel rules that he said took effect “immediately”. Crowds gathered at the crossings, and at Bornholmer Straße an overwhelmed officer opened the gate. That night Berliners danced on the Wall.
- The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall — Mary Elise Sarotte, Basic Books (2014)
The date is double-edged: 9 November is also the date of the 1938 pogrom against Jews, and of the failed Hitler putsch of 1923. That is one reason Germany’s national day is 3 October, the day of reunification, instead.
- Germany: Memories of a Nation — Neil MacGregor, Allen Lane (2014)
For many in the West, and for victims of the regime, the GDR was simply an unjust state built on walls, surveillance and prisons. Many former East Germans agree, yet also remember job security, close communities, childcare and friendships, and resent being told their whole lives were a lie. Historians such as Katja Hoyer have argued for seeing that everyday life alongside the repression.
- Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949–1990 — Katja Hoyer, Allen Lane (2023)
- Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall — Anna Funder, Granta (2003)
- Lütten Klein: Leben in der ostdeutschen Transformationsgesellschaft — Steffen Mau, Suhrkamp (2019)
Why it matters today
9 November 1989 is one of the happiest days in German memory, and the peaceful revolution in the East is a source of pride. But four decades of division created two societies, and many people who grew up in the GDR feel their lives, achievements and losses under the dictatorship are still misunderstood or dismissed by West Germans.