9. november: important date in history:
- Fall of the wall of berlin (1989)

BERLIN WALL HISTORY & TIMELINE

This Sunday, November 9, 2025, marks the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. How much do you know about the history of the Wall? Why was it built? Does the name Walter Ulbricht ring a bell? The Wall story actually begins many years before it was built. There were already two Germanys by 1949. And Martin Luther King Jr. crossed into East Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie in 1964 using a credit card as ID.

 BERLIN WALL TIMELINE

 1945 | The Potsdam Conference takes place just south of Berlin from 17 June to 2 August. The Allied victors (USA, Great Britain, France, Soviet Union) divide Germany and Berlin into four occupation zones.

1948 | On 24 June the Berlin Blockade begins. The Soviet Union cuts off all land and water transit routes running between Berlin and West Germany, turning West Berlin into an isolated island surrounded by East Germany. With all land access now blocked, the Allies begin the Berlin Airlift ("Luftbrücke") on 26 June. For the next eleven months, Berlin is supplied only by aircraft, everything from coal to food.

1948 | In September the Soviets force the Berlin city council to leave the “Red City Hall” (Rotes Rathaus, named for its red brick exterior) in the east sector.

1949 | On 12 May the Soviet Union lifts the blockade, but the Airlift continues until September.

1949 | On 23 May the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland, West Germany) is founded, followed by the creation of the German Democratic Republic (Deutsche Demokratische Republik, East Germany) on 7 October. The West German capital is Bonn, while East Germany declares East Berlin its capital city.

1953 | The Workers Revolt of 17 June takes place all across East Germany. Workers go on strike to demand better working and living conditions, as well as free elections and unification. Soviet forces help the GDR brutally crush the revolt. Today Berlin’s Straße des 17. Juni is named for this historic uprising.

1955 | The Allies proclaim Germany a sovereign state on 5 May, officially ending the occupation.

1960 | On 12 September Walter Ulbricht (1893-1973) becomes the head of the German Democratic Republic (Chairman of the Council of State of the GDR. He is also the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED).

1961 | In an effort to stop the growing numbers of people leaving the GDR, Ulbricht orders the construction of the Berlin Wall. Early on 13 August, East German troops and workers begin stringing barbed wire and setting up barriers that will eventually become the Berlin Wall. The wall surrounding Berlin will extend 165 km (100 miles). Berlin is now a divided city and East Berlin is a prison from which its citizens can no longer escape.

1963 | On 26 June, US president John F. Kennedy makes his now famous Berlin speech in front of the Schöneberg City Hall in the western half of the city: “All free men, wherever they live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, ‘Ich bin ein Berliner.’”

1964 | On 13 September Martin Luther King Jr. visits divided Berlin. After full day in West Berlin, at around 7 pm King crosses into East Berlin at Checkpoint Charlie using his American Express Card as ID. US authorities had confiscated his passport in a vain attempt to keep King from visiting East Berlin.

1971 | An agreement between East and West Germany, signed on 17 December, makes it easier for older East Berliners to travel to and from West Berlin and West Germany.

1973 | Walter Ulbricht dies in office on 1 August. Willi Stoph replaces him for three years, until Stoph is in turn replaced by Erich Honecker, the man who was in charge of building the Wall, in 1976.

1982 | US president Ronald Reagan visits West Berlin for the first time on 11 June.

1986 | The La Belle bombing: On 5 April a bomb explosion kills three people, two of them US soldiers, in a Berlin disco known as La Belle. 230 people, including 50 Americans, are also injured in the terrorist blast, later blamed on Libya with the knowledge of the East German secret police (Stasi). In 2004, Libya paid $35 million in compensation to the non-US La Belle bombing victims. Part of the Lockerbie jetliner bombing settlement in 2008 went to US La Belle victims.

1987 | During his second West Berlin visit, President Ronald Reagan makes a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate in which he demands: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall!”

1989 | On 19 August, over 700 GDR refugees cross the Hungarian-Austrian border at Sopron. Hungary has been in the process of opening its border with Austria since May.

1989 | In October the East German government comes under increasing pressure to reform. On 4 October there are mass anti-government demonstrations in Dresden, Leipzig and East Berlin. Erich Honecker is forced to resign his top government and party leadership position on 18 October. On 23 October the “Monday Demonstrations” begin in Leipzig. With the slogan “Wir sind das Volk!” (“We are the people!”) East Germans demand radical reforms and the resignation of the government. On 7 and 8 November GDR government and SED-Politbüro members resign.

1989 | On 9 November, during an evening news conference, an East German government spokesman mistakenly announces that citizens of the German Democratic Republic will now be permitted to travel without restrictions — effective immediately. (The announcement was supposed to be delayed until the next day.) Unaware of this sudden change in policy, border guards are overwhelmed by crowds of East Berliners who want to cross into West Berlin. Over the next few months the Berlin Wall will soon almost completely disappear.

1990 | In February, 118 artists from 21 countries gather to create the East Side Gallery along a 1.3 km section of the Wall running along Mühlenstraße in Berlin-Friedrichshain from the Ostbahnhof (East Train Station) to the Oberbaum Bridge. The Gallery has its official debut on 28 September.

Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy (hidden behind King) at the Berlin Wall in West Berlin (Bernauer Straße at Schwedter Straße) on 13 September 1964, while Werner Steltzer, the director of the Berlin Information Center, indicates points of interest. Dr. King had been invited to the German capital by Berlin mayor Willy Brandt. He also visited East Berlin during this trip. Credit: United States Information Service Bonn, Public Domain, National Archives Identifier: 175539559