Berlin, August 13th, 1961 At midnight, the trucks come. East German troops and workers disembark, lining up behind the white lines that separate East and West Berlin. The soldiers have orders
to fire if approached. Berlin has been divided
since World War II, the communist
German Democratic Republic surrounding an enclave of the western
Federal Republic of Germany. But that division was political. People crossed the border
to work and see family. Couples lived on either side. No more. East Germany
was suffering a brain drain, doctors, lawyers and professors fleeing to the west
via the easy crossing. The embarrassment became
too much for the Soviets. The soldiers string barbed wire, the workers tear up the streets. Four days later,
the first concrete slabs arrive. They're building a wall. This episode is sponsored
by World of Tanks. Download the game
on PC at the link below and use the code CHECKPOINTC
to claim your $15 starter pack. 28 years later, the wall still stands. On one side, it’s filled with color,
graffiti, political slogans, art. On the other, bare concrete. It’s twelve feet high,
four feet wide, and 87 miles long. It encircles the city, an island linked only to West Germany
by rail, road, and air corridors. But the wall is only one obstacle. Behind it sits a 110 yard “death strip” covered with gravel, the buildings that stood there cleared. Flood lights glare down on it. There is no cover. Machine gun bunkers watch over it and it’s seeded with mines,
anti-vehicle moats, and dogs. By 1989, somewhere between 140
and 192 people had died trying to cross. Five thousand more made it, digging tunnels, ramming through in cars, even floating across in hot air balloons. The wall has become a fact of life. For West Berliners
it was a good place to find parking. Pubs nearby featured photos of West and East Berliners
clinking steins over the barbed wire. And rock musicians,
from Genesis, to Springsteen, to Bowie hold concerts close to it
so those over the wall can hear. The wall, people think,
will not fall anytime soon. Some in the west say it shouldn’t, reunification would be too expensive, the number of East German refugees would wreck the economy. Kennedy had declared himself a Berliner, and the wall didn't fall. Reagan challenged
Gorbachev to tear it down, and the wall didn't fall. As the new president
George H.W. Bush comes into office, he’s decided to focus on Asia, deeming European problems too static. Nothing will change there. In reality,
the wall is about to come down. The people who'd destroy it
are mostly unknown in the west. Mid-range communist officials and leaders of Eastern Bloc nations, some looking to sabotage
the Iron Curtain, some to maintain it. But in the end,
the wall would fall by accident. June, 1989 East Germany is in trouble. In fact, communism
is in trouble in general. Nearly bankrupt
from a multi-decade arms race and supporting proxy conflicts, battered from
its invasion of Afghanistan and its image tarnished
by the Chernobyl disaster, the Soviet Union needs change. Its new leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, comes to power with two new ideas; a new economic and
social policy called perestroika, introducing market elements
and reforms to the socialist model, and also glasnost, a new openness of government. He’s hailed
as a peacemaker in Europe, especially after negotiating with Reagan to eliminate a whole class
of nuclear weapons. He talks about giving the governments
of Eastern Bloc countries a freer hand. No one believes him at first. The USSR had previously intervened
to crush opposition movements in countries like Hungary,
Poland, and Czechoslovakia, but nations of the Eastern Bloc realize he’s genuine. It starts to snowball. Poland holds its first free elections
in June 1989, kicking out the communists, and sweeping in
the Solidarity Party. In Hungary, the central committee picks a Harvard-trained economic minister, Miklós Németh, to be Prime Minister. They know he’s reform-minded, but if his reforms fail he’ll make a good scapegoat. But Németh secretly believes that a reformed communist state
will be on economic life support. He wants Hungary to join the west before the rest of the Eastern Bloc, so it gets a few years
of special treatment and development aid. To make that a reality. he has to bring down
the Iron Curtain, be seen doing it. The easiest way to do that is trigger a flood
of East German refugees. He announces, on television, that it’s become
too expensive to maintain Hungary’s border with Austria. International news watches as Hungarian officials
switch off the electric fence. In a meeting with Gorbachev, Németh has telegraphed this move, asking if the USSR would intervene. Gorbachev says no. But the flood of East German escapees didn’t arrive. So Németh pushed it further. He announces a picnic. A Pan-European Picnic, where Hungary would open a gate and allow visitors from Austria to cross and join the fun. A sign of thawing tensions. A ruse for a great escape. Németh holds it
during tourist season, when thousands of East Germans
are vacationing in Hungary. He even busses some in for the event and gives them maps, so they knew where the border is. For safety, you know! Because the border is right there. And the gates are very open. And the guards are so busy
checking Austrian passports you might accidentally
wander into Austria. No one wants that, right? Because Austria is so close
to West Germany. Chaos.
600 East Germans take off at a run, through the open gate. West German officials
and Red Cross volunteers wait on the other side. Hungary, claiming to be “overwhelmed”
by East German refugees lets thousands
cross the border each day. After the East Germans
bar the border with Hungary, the “great escape” spreads
to Czechoslovakia. The West German embassy in Prague gives out asylum visas, allowing East Germans
to cross the Czech-Austrian border and head to the west. By November 9th,
250 000 have fled East Germany. 30-mile traffic jams snarl the autobahn. Mass protests calling for democracy, economic reform,
and the right to free travel, explode in Leipzig and East Berlin. But the East German leader
Erich Honecker, who built the wall and who controls the Stasi, one of the most feared
secret police, refuses to make reforms. When Gorbachev visits Honecker in Berlin, a crowd gathers, chanting: “Gorby, save us!
Gorby, save us!” It's the moment
Honecker’s subordinates have waited for. They vote him out in a coup, planning to save East Germany with reforms to keep it running
and them in power. The first thing on the agenda? A new travel law. November 9th, 1989
A Press Conference in East Berlin GĂĽnter Schabowski,
a communist party boss, reads the press briefing on live TV. He doesn’t realize that this speech, unrehearsed and unscripted, will do what no speech before has ever accomplished. It will bring down the wall. He reads off new dull regulations, saving the new travel law for last. East Germans will be able to apply
at checkpoints to go to West Berlin. They will need a visa in their passport, or a special stamp on their ID card. Next item. “Wait,” said a journalist. “Effective when?” Around Berlin, everyone stopped, staring at the TV. The press release was supposed
to be dated the next day, November 10th. The idea was that people would line up
to get their visas. If Schabowski had known that, and said so, maybe that would’ve happened. Instead,
he just shuffled the paper, found the wording, shrugged and said: “As far as I know, immediately. Without delay.” East Berliners stood, stunned. Then they went. Dropped everything and left. Closed shops,
left telephone switchboards, snatched up passports
and thronged the checkpoints. The first woman at Checkpoint Charlie, crossing to the former American sector, wore a coat thrown over her bathrobe. She had curlers in her hair. They insisted the guards let them cross. Schabowski had said they could on TV. Immediately. Without delay. Panicked border guards
went into their booths and tried to dial
officials for confirmation. There were thousands of people outside. But Schabowski had gone home, unaware of the firestorm he’d created. Most of the party leaders were at the opera. So after a few hours the border guards shrugged. "Okay, open up." The first people
through the wall didn’t walk, the surging crowd carried them. And they were met by West Germans
holding flowers and champagne. A spontaneous party started. Boom boxes and pop music. East and West Germans kissed, climbed the wall,
chanted to tear it down. They were climbing both sides now, the colorful and the blank. Hammers and chisels came out. People took turns pecking at the wall. It was wild. It went on for days. Woodstock with sledgehammers. The Cold War ended not with nuclear annihilation, but a street party. The celebration did more to undermine the German Democratic Republic than anything else. The images of partying refugees
were hard to dismiss, and weakened East Germany so that reunification became inevitable. Not with a melding of states, but with East Germany
absorbed into the Federal Republic. And the party continued. in a month,
Czechoslovakia’s last communist leader fell to the Velvet Revolution. Bulgaria had ousted its hardline leaders
and called elections. The next year, it was Russia itself. Not everywhere was it easy or peaceful. Street fighting rocked Romania, and the breakup of Yugoslavia would roil the Balkans for over a decade. But considering that Europe
had lived 44 years, divided and fearing world war, it seemed almost unreal how quickly the barriers melted away. Though the wall’s destruction
meant great things for geopolitics, it meant even more to everyday people. Families reunited. East German children tasted oranges and bananas
for the first time. Europeans once again could travel and learn from each other without artificial divisions. They had torn down the wall and could now build a future. Thank you to World of Tanks
for Sponsoring this episode. They've been rolling
over virtual walls since 2010, and from the looks
of this tank action, they're showing no signs of stopping. Literally! If that looks up your alley, download the game for free
at the link below and use the invite code CHECKPOINTC to claim your 15$ starter pack.
The Berlin Wall, the perfect example of the failure of tyranny. It showed the world that people were willing to lay down their lives if it meant a little more freedom.
thumbnail is too weird type of screaming