On this day, November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

HISTORY

How NPR covered the fall of the Berlin Wall

November 7, 20225:00 AM ET
JACK MITCHELL



West-Berliner climb on the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989, to ask for its fall. After months of mass protests against regime and amid a widening exodus of citizens to the West via Hungary, thousands of East Berliners on Nov. 9, 1989 started streaming toward checkpoints leading to West Berlin.

Francoise Chaptal/AFP via Getty Images

"In the past 24 hours, the political landscape of Europe has been irrevocably changed."

That's how NPR's Linda Wertheimer began an All Things Considered broadcast alongside co-host Robert Siegel, 33 years ago this week — as the Berlin Wall began to crumble.

The wall stood for almost three decades as a fortified monument to the Cold War, carving the German capital into communist east and democratic west. When it finally toppled on Nov. 9, 1989, Berliners let loose a tidal wave of pent-up emotion.

The BBC's Graham Leach was there, filing reports that aired on NPR. Take a listen to his reporting on the raucous celebrations that night:

{snip}

[sarisataka]

1. I remember watching

As an impossibility played out on TV.

[DFW]

2. Man, do I remember THAT day.

My wife and were taking the weekend off in Hamburg, as we often did in those days. The socialist regime in the East was already crumbling, and Gorbachëv, anything BUT a Stalinist, was not inclined to further prop up a Stalinist-oriented regime that had erected a “death strip (Todesstreife) “ around its complete border with the West to kill anyone attempting the horrible crime of “Republikflucht (fleeing the Republic).”u

This was a Thursday evening when we got go our hotel room. The East Germans had by mutual agreement with West Germany, allowed some West German press representation at its press conferences. They were trying to think up new concessions almost daily to stem the increasing tide of their citizens fleeing west, whether over the Hungsrian-Austrian border, or over the fences of the West German embassy compound in Prague.

The East Germans were so desperate to hold their “real existing socialism” together, they weren’t able to coordinate their moves. At the government afternoon press conference that afternoon, Politburo member Günter Schabowski, casually let slip that all Easterners would be allowed to cross back and forth into West Berlin. He announced it with as little fanfare as if he were mentioning that there would be a coffee break in half an hour. Stunned, the western journalists at the press conference, being televised live in both East and West, asked when this new rule would come into effect? Confused, Schabowski said, “as far as I know, immediately.”

My wife and just stared at each other gaping and asking each other, “did you just hear what I think I just heard?”

Suddenly, the eastern side of the few crossing point gaps in the wall, usually only there to process diplomatic visits and official deliveries, were swamped with thousands of East Germans demanding to be let into West Berlin. No one had informed the border guards!!! It was their job to kill anyone trying to cross over to the west without official sanction. But they realized SOMETHING must have happened. One guard post managed to call its command post, where the military and secret police were equally as clueless. But the commander was no idiot. If 5000 people were peacefully gathering at a crossing, and peacefully demanding to be let into the west, obviously something was going on about which he hadn’t been informed, and besides, they couldn’t shoot them all. So, the commander shrugged and said, “let them through.” And so a new chapter of history began right in front of our eyes.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. NBC News special report from 1:13 P.M. on November, 9, 1989 -- 32 years ago today:

From abqtommy

Tue Nov 9, 2021: NBC News special report from 1:13 P.M. on November, 9, 1989 -- 32 years ago today:

Link to tweet

[MarineCombatEngineer]

4. I was stationed in S. Korea at the time of the wall coming down,

we watched it happen on TV in the barracks and cheered it on.