35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall
Maueröffnung am Potsdamer Platz. Berlin, 12. November 1989 © Stiftung Berliner Mauer
In 2024 we will celebrate the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989. To mark the occasion, the Berlin Wall Foundation is offering a special program throughout the city. The program will focus on different experiences and perspectives on the events of autumn 1989, as well as the period that followed in East and West Germany and Europe.
The Peaceful Revolution in the GDR is part of a major European democracy movement that brought down the communist dictatorships one after the other. The Peaceful Revolution would not have been possible without the events in Eastern Europe and Poland in the 1980s. They are inseparably linked to the end of the Berlin Wall. Three special events in the program are dedicated to these developments, and we are also expecting a delegation with participants from the Solidarność movement in Berlin.
How do we remember the fall of the Wall today? What thoughts come to your mind when you think of the autumn of 1989 in Berlin? We are interested in these questions and are eager to start a dialogue about them. That's why we'll be travelling around the city on our bike from the beginning of October to collect your opinions and memories! We invite you to join us!
Program
Most of our events and tours will be only be held in German.
The Live Speaking at our various locations and at the East Side Gallery bicycle will take place in both German and English. Our ‘Ask the Artist’ offer will take place in German or English, depending on the artist.
Further information will be announced shortly.
Exhibitions
35 Years Since the Fall of the Wall. 17 Perspectives
Opens on September 27
In the memories of those who experienced the fall of the Wall personally, it is a complex event that has not only positive connotations. The walk-in video installation presents conversations with 17 contemporary witnesses about how they experienced the fall of the Wall and the transformation process that followed, and how 1989 affected their lives.
“Let us in!” The Opening of the Wall at Checkpoint Charlie
Opens on October 11
The photographer Mathias Brauner used his cameras to capture the situation at Checkpoint Charlie when the Wall fell. Unlike well-known photographs of other inner-city border crossings, most of his images show the minutes leading up to the opening of the border from a West Berlin perspective. Brauner’s black-and-white photographs vividly convey the tension and excitement at the border crossings.
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Berliner und Berlinerinnen am Brandenburger Tor © Stiftung Berliner Mauer, Foto: Michael-Reiner Ernst
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Offene Grenze auf der Bösebrücke an der Bornholmer Straße nach dem 9. November 1989 © Stiftung Berliner Mauer, Foto: Lothar Kruse
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Geöffneter Grenzstreifen am Reichstag. © Stiftung Berliner Mauer, Foto: Edmund Kasperski
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Westberliner warten auf Öffnung der Mauer an der Bernauer Straße/Eberswalder Straße. Berlin, 10./11. November 1989 © Stiftung Berliner Mauer, Foto: Jörg Bernhardt
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Menschenmenge auf der Grenzmauer am Brandenburger Tor. Berlin, 9. November 1989 © Stiftung Berliner Mauer, Foto: Thomas Grass
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Menschenmenge auf der Grenzmauer am Brandenburger Tor. Berlin, 9. November 1989 © Stiftung Berliner Mauer, Foto: Thomas Grass
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In der Ebertstraße klopfen Mauerspechte Stücke von der Grenzmauer ab © Stiftung Berliner Mauer, Foto: Edmund Kaperski
Timeline
Significant events in 1989
- 29 January: The Communist Party renounces its leadership role in Hungary.
- 6 February: First Round Table meeting in Warsaw. The Communists resign from power.
- 11 March: The Initiative for Peace and Human Rights (IFM), founded in Berlin in 1986, announces its expansion throughout the GDR.
- 5 April: Reinstatement of Solidarność in Poland.
- 2 May: Hungary opens its border after acceding to the Geneva Convention on Refugees in March and dismantles the first border barriers.
- 7 May: Opposition groups expose mass election fraud during the local elections in the GDR.
- 4 June: Tian'anmen massacre: The Communist leadership in China violently crushes protests by the democracy movement. On the same day, the opposition wins the first round of the partially free parliamentary elections in Poland.
- 18 June: The second round of the Polish parliamentary elections. The ‘Civic Committee Solidarność’ wins all 161 seats in the Sejm and 99 out of 100 seats in the newly established Senate.
- 19 July: Wojciech Jaruzelski becomes President of Poland with the acquiescence of the opposition. He holds the office until 1990.
- 19 August: Pan-European picnic near Sopron, several hundred GDR citizens use this symbolic act to escape.
- 4 September: The first Monday demonstration takes place in Leipzig.
- 9 October: 70,000 participants gather in Leipzig for the first major demonstration.
- 30 October: 300,000 people join the Monday demonstration in Leipzig.
- 4 November: Largest unorganised demonstration in the history of the GDR. Between 500,000 and one million people demonstrate on Alexanderplatz in Berlin.
- 9 November: Fall of the Berlin Wall. The border troops surrender to the pressure of the crowd, initially at the Bornholmer Strasse border crossing.
- 4 December: After the Monday demonstration, demonstrators occupy the Stasi headquarters and prevent its further operation.
- 7 December: At the ‘’Central Round Table‘’ in Berlin, the GDR government and the SED begin to discuss the democratic transformation of the GDR and the removal of the SED from power with representatives of the opposition and the church.
- 22 December: The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin is reopened 28 years after the Wall was built.