The fall of the Wall in brief
- 13 August 1961: East Germany closes the border between East and West Berlin and starts building the Wall.
- Autumn 1989: people leave for the West through Hungary, then demonstrations spread across East German cities, notably the Monday demonstrations in Leipzig.
- 9 November 1989, around 7 pm: at a press conference, a government spokesman announces new travel rules that apply "immediately".
- During the night of 9 to 10 November: border guards give way to the crowd and open the barriers, first at Bornholmer Straße.
- 22 December 1989: the Brandenburg Gate reopens.
- 3 October 1990: German reunification.
Why the Wall was built
After 1945, Germany and Berlin were divided into four occupation sectors. In the 1950s, millions of East Germans left the country, most of them through Berlin, where the border between East and West stayed open. On the night of 12 to 13 August 1961, East Germany closed that border with barbed wire, then with a concrete wall. It completely encircled West Berlin over about 155 km. According to the Berlin Wall Foundation, at least 140 people died in connection with the border regime in Berlin; the last person shot while trying to escape, Chris Gueffroy, died in February 1989, nine months before the fall.
1989: how the Wall fell
The fall of the Wall was not decided: it was the result of pressure from the population in a country in crisis.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2 May 1989 | Hungary starts dismantling its border fence with Austria. |
| Summer 1989 | Thousands of East Germans cross to the West through Hungary or take refuge in the embassies in Prague and Warsaw. |
| 9 October 1989 | More than 70,000 people march in Leipzig and the authorities do not intervene. |
| 18 October 1989 | Erich Honecker, East Germany's leader since 1971, is replaced by Egon Krenz. |
| 4 November 1989 | Several hundred thousand people demonstrate on Alexanderplatz in East Berlin. |
| 9 November 1989 | Berlin's borders open. |
On 9 November, the government had prepared a reform of foreign travel to calm the protests. At the evening press conference, Günter Schabowski, a Politburo member, read out the text and, asked when it took effect, answered that as far as he knew it was "immediately, without delay". The news went out on radio and television, in East and West. East Berliners went to the border crossings, where the guards had received no orders. Around 11:30 pm, the Bornholmer Straße crossing in the north of the city opened under pressure from the crowd; the other crossings followed during the night. At dawn, people from both halves of Berlin were standing together on the Wall.
After 9 November: demolition and reunification
The first pieces of the Wall were chipped off in the following days by residents and visitors, the "Mauerspechte" (Wall woodpeckers). New crossing points opened within weeks, including the Brandenburg Gate on 22 December 1989. Official demolition began in June 1990 on Bernauer Straße. The Wall disappeared almost everywhere within a year or two, and East Germany joined the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990.
Where to see the Berlin Wall today
The Wall was not preserved: you look for it in pieces today. Two landmarks help you follow it: the double row of cobblestones in the road, which marks the position of the main wall, and the information signs of the Berliner Mauerweg.
| Place | What you see | Price | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin Wall Memorial, Bernauer Straße | 1.4 km of preserved border strip, observation tower, exhibition | Free | Outdoors daily 8 am-10 pm; centres Tuesday-Sunday 10 am-6 pm |
| East Side Gallery | 1,316 m of Wall painted in 1990 | Free | Open 24 hours a day |
| Topography of Terror | About 200 m section of Wall, exhibition on the Gestapo and SS | Free | Daily 10 am-8 pm |
| Checkpoint Charlie | Reconstructed border post, open-air exhibition; Mauermuseum | Outdoors free; Mauermuseum €18.50 | Mauermuseum daily 10 am-8 pm |
| Tränenpalast | Former departure hall at Friedrichstraße station | Free | Tuesday-Friday 9 am-6 pm, weekend 10 am-6 pm |
| Potsdamer Platz | Wall segments, cobblestones in the ground | Free | Open access |
| Brandenburg Gate | Symbol of reunification, line of the Wall in the ground | Free | Open access |
Prices and hours checked in October 2026.
If you can only see one, choose Bernauer Straße: it is the only place where you can still see the border strip as it was. The East Side Gallery is the longest and most photographed section, but it is a rear wall repainted in 1990, not the border itself. The full one-day route, step by step, is in our guide following the Berlin Wall.
Guided tour of the Wall
On site, the signs explain each place well, but a guided tour connects the pieces: the guide tells the stories of escapes, of life on each side and of the evening of 9 November exactly where it happened. The most-booked Wall walking tour in our selection, "East Berlin and the Wall", lasts about three hours and takes in the Bernauer Straße memorial and the East Side Gallery. It is presented in the box on this page. For another angle, our guide to East Germany and Ostalgie points to the DDR Museum on daily life in the East.
9 November 2026
9 November 2026 is the 37th anniversary of the fall of the Wall. Commemorations are held every year at the Bernauer Straße memorial. The Berlin programme was not yet complete in October 2026: a storytelling salon with eyewitnesses is announced at Bernauer Straße, but times must be confirmed with the Berlin Wall Foundation. The Kieler Straße watchtower opens exceptionally that day. Arrive early: these places are free and very busy on that date.
Read next
To go further, follow the full day in the footsteps of the Wall, read our guide to the area around the East Side Gallery for places to eat and drink near the Wall, and fit the visit into a stay with Berlin in 3 days. Our pages on the Stasi Museum and the Hohenschönhausen Memorial complete the picture of the East German dictatorship.
