In October 1989, during the anniversary of the GDR, people participated in the parade and chanted: Perestroika! Gorbachev, help!
The malcontent increased and In the days that preceded the 9th of November 1989, half a million protestors gathered in East Berlin in a mass protest, with the wish to see the Berlin Wall dividing communist East Germany from West Germany crumbled completely.
At that time, the East German leaders decided to loosen up the borders and make it easier for people to travel from one side of Germany to the other.
However, they underestimated how these little changes actually drove people to want the wall destroyed.
New rules where given: private travel outside the country was now be applied for without prerequisites. What was planned was for people to apply for a visa first.
The news extended through the television and East Germans took their chance and walked to the boarders, in huge numbers, ready to cross.
The guards at the border witnessed how the crows arrived after the press conference gave information on the possibility to travel to the other side. Superiors did not have orders to attack the crowd but neither to let them cross.
As the people lined up, the guards saw no other option than opening the barrier.
People pushing and scuffling could have created a disastrous situation. Once the order to open the wall was given, the crowd started passing through the wall and also climbing it while chipping it off with hammers and axes. The morning after the collapse of the Wall, Gorbachev and Soviet leaders decided to not respond with force to claim their power back. Everything settled in a peaceful way, dissolving tensions that would otherwise have created a disaster.
The construction of the Wall started on the 13th of August 1961, under the German Democratic Republic GDR, also known as East Germany.
The Wall was designed to cut off West Berlin from East Germany. It was like a fortress, impossible to climb, guarded by towers placed along the concrete wall.
The barrier included an area called “the Death Stip”, 160 yards open space, that separated Berlin East from Berlin West. This area contained watchtowers, anti-vehicle trenches, guard dogs and machine guns. The area was impossible to cross. The wall was built to prevent East Germans to flee to West Germany. East Germany was a socialist state. GDR considered it as anti-fascist protection and before the wall was erected, 3.5 million Germans fled from the Eastside to the West.
From 1961 up to 1989, the Wall prevented any type of crossing or emigration. More than 100,000 tried to escape and an estimate of 136-200 died in this process.
Nowadays, the Wall does not exist anymore, and the city flourished where once death awaited whoever tried to cross. It is easy for future generations to forget what cannot be seen anymore. That is why here at IMS Vintage Photos we wish to preserve all these incredible photographs from the past. Each photo from our collection is truly unique and has historic provenance.
We must remember the nightmares from the past, so to prevent them from happening again. And we can do that through celebrating such amazing victories and successes as the Berlin Wall Fall.
IF YOU WISH TO COMMEMORATE AND PROTECT THESE MOMENTS FROM BEING HIDDEN FOREVER FROM THE PUBLIC, THEN VISIT OUR COLLECTION AND GIVE A NEW LIFE TO THE HAPPY MEMORIES OF THE PAST!