Sometime around 1986, someone added this line to the Berlin Wall: “whoever builds walls needs them.”1 After the Second World War, Germany was divided in two. In 1949, the German Democratic Republic was established. It was neither democratic nor a republic. The means of production were owned by the state so they had total control over how much basic goods and services cost. In the early days, there were food shortages. As a totalitarian regime, no one was permitted to question or speak against the government. The Stasi, the state security service, conducted widespread surveillance and paid average citizens to be informants. People were turned in by neighbors, friends, even their children. Lives were destroyed by unseen hands.2
Between 1949 and 1961, which was when the wall was built, more than 3.5 million East Germans broke the law to defect to the West, fleeing East Germany for good. It didn’t look good for the new country to have so many people jumping ship. What’s more, the people who left tended to be highly educated and have specialized skills. The country couldn’t rebuild or sustain itself without them. East Germany built walls because it needed them. In full-throated propaganda-mode, they called the wall an “anti-fascist protective rampart.” But that wall in Berlin…it seemed to be more like a prison wall. It was built and reinforced many times. By 1980, it was 12 feet high, almost four feet wide, and 96 miles around. Once the wall was built, more than 100,000 people tried to escape to freedom, but only 5% made it to the other side.3
A wall like that would stand forever, right? A government that invasive, that powerful, that ruthless even with its own citizens… how could it ever fall?
Babylon could never fail, yet, in one crucial moment, its fate was sealed. The power behind the Iron Curtain seemed so untouchable. But, after years of protests and demonstrations, a curious thing happened on November 9, 1989. Günter Schabowski, the leader of the ruling party, gave an international press conference. There had been a meeting of the Politburo earlier in the day where they had decided to begin easing some travel restrictions. People would be permitted to leave East Germany a little more easily, assuming they had a visa and their passport. But Günter Schabowski wasn’t at that meeting. So, when he was before the foreign press, he talked about the change in travel regulations. He didn’t know the details – just that it would be easier for everyone to go from East to West. The press were shocked. They asked him when this would go into effect. It was supposed to be gradually introduced, but Schabowski didn’t know that. Fumbling with his words, he said, “as far as I know—effective immediately, without delay. He was asked if that applied to Berlin and he said that it did. People went nuts. The news reported that the well-respected Schabowski had declared live that the borders were open! People arrived at the checkpoints en masse, greatly outnumbering the guards. At first the guards at the Berlin Wall tried to hold them back, but, ultimately, they opened the gates for fear that the crowd would turn violent. Graffiti on the wall had said, “walls are not everlasting;” “this wall will fall.” The writing on the wall was true and the regime came down.4
[1] https://www.eastsidegalleryexhibition.com/topics/what-is-wall-art/wall-paintings-in-west-berlin/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Germany & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall
[4] https://timenote.info/en/Gunter-Schabowski & https://www.historyonthenet.com/the-berlin-wall-and-gunter-schabowski & https://www.brooklynstreetart.com/2018/02/12/berlin-wall-milestone-down-as-long-as-it-was-up &