When did the Berlin Wall fall?

The Berlin Wall fell on 9 November 1989.

The Wall had stood for 28 years, 2 months, and 27 days – from 13 August 1961 until that extraordinary night in November 1989.

The fall was not the result of a single event but the culmination of months of growing pressure: mass emigration through Hungary and Czechoslovakia, the Monday demonstrations in Leipzig, and the replacement of hardline leader Erich Honecker with Egon Krenz.

The immediate trigger was a bungled press conference by East German spokesman Günter Schabowski, who mistakenly announced that new travel regulations were effective “immediately.” Thousands of East Berliners rushed to the crossing points, and overwhelmed border guards opened the gates – first at Bornholmer Straße, then at all other crossings.

The scenes of jubilant crowds dancing on the Wall at the Brandenburg Gate became one of the defining images of the 20th century. Germany was formally reunified less than a year later, on 3 October 1990.