Book Description

This paper will trace the series of events, since WWII, which ultimately led to the opening of the Berlin Wall and intra-German border on November 9, 1989. It will focus largely on the East German view and it will demonstrate that most of East Berlin's policies were reactive rather than proactive in nature, especially when it came to decisions made in Bonn, Moscow, or Washington. It will also delve into the factors responsible for East Germany's enduring communist rule and the limited prosperity which ironically helped foster its ultimate fall. For a while, in many areas, the German Democratic Republic's methods of censorship, control, and political indoctrination, achieved the necessary results, but they also produced high levels of personal alienation, resentment, and political mistrust. In time these all too human reactions were increasingly more difficult to eradicate or suppress by the authorities. In league with the rapidly changing international events of the times, East German anger and frustration finally erupted that led to the dramatic and historic moments of the "Peoples Revolution" in November, 1989. To a large degree, the communist regime, was swept from power by a popular revolt from below. The implosion of East Germany was in effect the West's tipping point for victory in the Cold War. It was second only in importance to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Not enough has been said of the East Germans' role in bringing down the Wall. This paper will attempt to act as a corrective measure to this oversight.