--- title: Berlin Wall History 25 Years After the Fall: 9 Essential TIME Stories description: As the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall approaches, look back at its history from beginning to end canonical: https://time.com/3557321/berlin-wall-stories/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-07T16:00:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:23.549Z article:section: History og:title: Berlin Wall History 25 Years After the Fall: 9 Essential TIME Stories og:description: As the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall approaches, look back at its history from beginning to end og:url: https://time.com/3557321/berlin-wall-stories/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Berlin Wall History 25 Years After the Fall: 9 Essential TIME Stories twitter:description: As the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall approaches, look back at its history from beginning to end twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 9 Essential Berlin Wall Stories > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: TIME Remembers: The Day The Berlin Wall Fell [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Remembers: The Day The Berlin Wall Fell](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/jV5CSSDl.m3u8) (2:02)  _Published 2014-11-07. Take a look back in time to the fall of the Berlin Wall with two reporters who were working when it happened_  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Nov 7, 2014 4:00 PM UTC  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Nov 7, 2014 4:00 PM UTC [](https://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/berlin-map1.png)From the Aug. 31, 1962, issue of TIME For a structure that stood only about 12 ft. high, the Berlin Wall left quite a mark on modern history. Throughout the 28 years during which it endured, TIME followed the wall’s surprise construction, those who died attempting to get across, and finally its fall and aftermath. You can trace that tale[ through our timeline of the Berlin Wall’s history ](http://time.com/3559122/berlin-wall-timeline/)or, below, read how the wall went down in the words of those who were watching it happen: **Aug. 25, 1961:** [**Berlin: The Wall**](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,895623,00.html) The Berlin Wall went up quickly and with no warning on Aug. 13, 1961\. Though it was at that point less a wall than a fence, it startled the world. For nearly a decade, Berlin — a divided city situated within the Eastern portion of a divided country — had been the easiest way to cross from East Germany to West, but the East had been facing a dwindling population and took drastic measures despite earlier promises to preserve freedom of movement: --- > “” --- **Aug. 31, 1962:** [**Wall of Shame**](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,938872,00.html) **(** **_see map at top_** **)** A year later, protests erupted in West Berlin, sparked by cruel treatment of an attempted escapee named Peter Fechter — who was shot and left to bleed in the no-man’s-land between the two sides. TIME explored whether extended violence and further protest was likely to become a constant in the divided city, finding that many Berliners believed such an outcome unlikely but felt that the Wall would stand for the rest of their lives: --- > “” --- **Aug. 18, 1986:** [**East-West Tale of a Sundered City**](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,962064,00.html) **by Jill Smolowe** On the 25th anniversary of the wall’s construction, TIME checked in on the city and found that Germans on the two sides of the Wall had evolved into two very different groups of people. West Berlin was more modern, East Berlin was quieter, their economies were distinct — but Berliners from both sides still harbored hopes that they would one day be reunited. Even with a quarter-century of division under their belt, they felt that they could all get along: --- > “” --- **June 22, 1987:** [**Back to the Berlin Wall**](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,964707,00.html) **by George J. Church** The Berlin Wall had already been the site of much speechifying when President Ronald Reagan appeared there in 1987 — but by that point, something that changed. In the USSR, the words _glasnost_ and _perestroika_ had entered the political vocabulary. Mikhail Gorbachev spoke of openness, and his influence in East Germany presented a glimmer of hope that the Berlin Wall might not be forever. Reagan urged that hope on with one of the most famous lines of his career: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this Wall.” --- > “” --- **Oct. 16, 1989:** [**Freedom Train**](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,958775,00.html) **by William R. Doerner** On the occasion of Eat Germany’s 40th birthday, the Berlin Wall had begun to lose its oomph. Originally meant to prevent traffic between the two sides of the city, it was made far less effective when it became possible to get to West Germany by other routes: --- > “” --- **Nov. 20, 1989:** [**Freedom!**](http://wp.me/p5HMd-eVOS) **by George J. Church** Until the Wall fell at midnight on Nov. 9, 1989 — losing its power as suddenly as it had gone up, though it would take many months for the concrete to be dismantled — TIME had been planning to run a cover story about the election of the first black governor in the United States, Doug Wilder of Virginia. But, as then-managing editor Henry Muller recounted in a letter to readers, “then came the stunning announcement that East Germans be allowed to travel through the Berlin Wall and would be granted freer elections as well. Bonn bureau chief Jim Jackson called me to urge that we change the cover, but my fellow editors and I hardly needed to be persuaded.” The result was 12 pages of reporting and photography and, as Muller put it, “history as it is made, each day and each week”: --- > “” --- **Dec. 4, 1989:** [**Selling a Piece of the Rock**](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,959153,00.html) Coverage of the wall’s fall wasn’t all about serious pronouncements on the future of Europe. There were also some gems like this one, the story of some American entrepreneurs who were marketing chunks of the Wall as timely gifts for that holiday season: --- > “” --- **Dec. 18, 1989:** [**What the Future Holds**](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,959393,00.html) **by Frederick Painton** About a month after the Wall fell, TIME gathered five experts on European politics and economics to predict what would be next for the continent — including whether the end of the Wall would inevitably lead to the reunification of Germany: --- > “” --- **Oct. 8, 1990:** [**Germany: And Now There Is One**](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,971314,00.html) **by Bruce W. Nelan** --- > “” --- **_Read more about the fall of the Berlin Wall_** [**_here in TIME’s archives_**](http://wp.me/p5HMd-eVOS)**_, where the Nov. 20, 1989, cover story is now available._** ## Transcript [ NOISE ] 1989 was, was a year no one expected to be very interesting, and it turned out to be just revolutionary. That night is one that just stands out, it, it's like yesterday. That was huge. Well it was, it was stunning. I mean, nobody knew what was going on. Something was bubbling early in that week. They weren't sure what. And I was thinking the Wall will never fall. What are you thinking now? The Wall will fall. I mean, this represents a huge victory. Straight to the United States, after 40 years of the Cold War. It was huge. I mean, we got to the moon. We built three different kinds of nuclear weapons. [ MUSIC ] [ APPLAUSE ] People were cheering, and shouting, and laughing. And, it was very confused, nobody knew what to do. These people didn't know if they were going back or not. And he hooks the hand of stopping the West Berlin. And it's destroying the world with soot ash, it's dumped. And probably my most distinct memory of the whole night was this huge crowd, very happy, partying. I mean they were screaming tore out, tore out, open the gate. The reply was swift. And the next day, it was this bright, clear, just blindingly sunny day and I went out to one of the crossings. And if someone had laid planks across the sand into no man's land. And people were streaming through. They were just walking through from the east to the west. And as I got to the west side there was a crowd oh, several hundred people, West Germans. And they were just applauding. Nothing else no cheering, just applauding. And it was really just a stunning moment and I think I realized at that point, you know, this is done. I don't know what's gonna go on with reunification but the wall is, is history. 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