A recent Harvard graduate, she was considering law school or a career in medicine until her transformative time in East and West Berlin set her on a path to history. But elsewhere in the communist bloc, they did not. Mr Krenz flew to Moscow for meetings - he recently told the BBC that he had been assured German reunification was not on the agenda. The fall of the inner German border took place shortly afterwards. Three days later, the government resigned. 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On 9 October, within days of East Germany celebrating its 40th anniversary, 70,000 people took to the streets. On 4 November, a month after the East German protests had begun, around half a million people gathered in Alexanderplatz in the heart of East Berlin. Please try again. The USSR had used its military to put down rebellions before. Subscribe for free to get the latest breaking news and analysis sent to your inbox. Years of activism and strikes in Poland culminated in its ruling communist party voting to legalise the banned Solidarity trade union. The Day the Wall Came Down are two sculptures by Veryl Goodnight honoring the spontaneous end of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. God had chosen Israel to be a light or an example to the world and He knew they must remain loyal to the laws of God, so by Joshua taking Jericho by force, He … Mr Jäger frantically called his superiors, but they gave no orders either to open the gate - or to open fire to stop the crowd. East Germans could travel to the neighbouring socialist nation without restriction, and began to flood the West German embassy there by the hundreds, eventually being evacuated to the West by train. And then on 31 October, the numbers demanding democracy in East Germany swelled to half a million. By the 1980s, the Soviet Union faced acute economic problems and major food shortages, and when a nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl power station in Ukraine exploded in April 1986, it was a symbolic moment in the impending collapse of the communist bloc. Ecstatic crowds gathered at the scene, where families and friends separated for nearly 30 years were finally reunited. It was the other way around – Eastern Berliners defecting to the West – that made up the bulk of escapees. In fact it had been planned to start the next day, with details on applying for a visa. … In the heat of August, Hungary opened it borders to Austria in the west, allowing East German refugees an escape. Directed by Lothar Mendes. There was an error submitting the form. There were calls for free elections from West Germany, and talk of reform from East Germany's new communist leader Egon Krenz. .css-1xgx53b-Link{font-family:ReithSans,Helvetica,Arial,freesans,sans-serif;font-weight:700;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;color:#FFFFFF;}.css-1xgx53b-Link:hover,.css-1xgx53b-Link:focus{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}Read about our approach to external linking. He would not be there long. With only a handful of guards facing hundreds of angry citizens, force would have been of little use. That night, enormous crowds swarmed the wall from both sides and started destroying it. Shuffling through his notes, Mr Schabowski said that as far as he was aware, it was effective immediately. It began with demonstrators rallying for freedom in the centre of the city of Leipzig. Mikhail Gorbachev, the comparatively young Soviet leader who took power in 1985, introduced a reform policy of "glasnost" (openness) and "perestroika" (restructuring). Scripture says, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days” (Hebrews 11:30). With Lee Bowman, Marguerite Chapman, Edgar Buchanan, George Macready. Here's why it's still significant. To this day, parts of the wall remain in Berlin and serve as a popular tourist attraction and a powerful reminder of the Cold War. Has a song, ` I ( did ) it my Way. that free here. One by one its constituent republics declared independence `` he has a song, ` I ( ). West – that made up the Wall was torn down 30 years.. ( did ) it my Way. Solidarity trade Union created to support the series `` Way... Better quality of life world-changing press conference in Prague clashed with police, triggering the Velvet revolution which overthrew communism... 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