An administrative error toppled the Berlin Wall
The Afterlife of the Berlin Wall
Thirty years after the Berlin Wall fell, its legacy still divides Germans. The barrier was built in 1961 to stop mass defections, and around 100 people died trying to cross it. It came down on 9 November 1989 only because SED official Günter Schabowski mistakenly announced immediate travel freedoms at a press conference. Reunification followed within a year, but eastern alienation persists, fueling the far-right AfD. The Wall itself was commodified and memorialized, its meaning contested ever since.
In the end, an administrative error toppled the Wall and exposed the atrophy at the heart of the East German government.