25th ANNIVERSARY OF THE Fall of the Wall

25th ANNIVERSARY OF THE Fall of the Wall

2014 is a historic year for Berlin; It marks the 25th anniversary of the most significant event in recent German history, the Fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989. Furthermore for many Germans to remember the day many exhibitions and events will take place today 9th November 2014.

It is better to go far back and remember to know and understand that the Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a barrier that existed between 1961 and 1990, constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin until it was opened in 1989. 

For those you don’t know the barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area later known as the "death strip" that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses.

Moreover The Eastern Bloc claimed that the wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a socialist state in East Germany. The victims of the uprisings against the Communist dictatorship in Berlin 1953, Budapest 1956 or Prague 1968 will never been forgotten.

In 1989 the first free labor union was founded in the communist Poland. The end of the communist system had begun. The Soviet Union could control their satellites yet but with the new leader Gorbatshov their politics changed in 1984.