who took down the Berlin Wall and why?

Question

who took down the berlin wall and why, in 1989.

Answer 1

At the beginning it was the citizens of Berlin who started chipping away at the Wall, but after a few days the new East-German government started removing whole sections. Why? East-Germans wanted a more humane socialism and the lifting of all travel restrictions.

"On 1989-08-23, communist Hungary removed its border restrictions with Austria, and in September more than 13,000 East German tourists in Hungary escaped to Austria."

"The long-time leader of East Germany, Erich Honecker, resigned on 1989-10-18 and was replaced by Egon Krenz a few days later. Honecker had predicted in January of that year that the wall would stand for a "hundred more years" if the conditions which had caused its construction did not change."

"Protest demonstrations broke out all over East Germany from September 1989, initially they were of people wanting to leave to the west chanting "Wir wollen raus" We want to leave" [...]. This was the start of what East Germans generally call the peaceful revolution of autumn 1989. The protest demonstrations wanted to create a "socialism with a human face," and by November 4, 1989, the protests had swelled significantly, with 1 million people gathered that day on Alexander Platz in East Berlin."

"Meanwhile the wave of refugees leaving East Germany for the West had increased and had found its way through Czechoslovakia, tolerated by the new Krenz government and in agreement with the still communist Czechoslovak government. In order to ease the complications, the politburo led by Krenz decided on 1989-11-09 to allow refugees to exit directly through crossing points between East Germany and West Germany, including West Berlin. On the same day, the ministerial administration modified the proposal to include private travel."

"November 9 is thus considered the date the Wall fell. In the days and weeks that followed people came to the wall with sledgehammers in order to chip off souvenirs, demolishing lengthy parts of it in the process. These people were nicknamed "Mauerspechte" (wall woodpeckers)."

"The East German regime announced the opening of ten new border crossings the following weekend, including some in symbolic locations (Potsdamer Platz, Glienicker Brücke, Bernauer Straße). Crowds on both sides waited there for hours, cheering at the bulldozers who took parts of the Wall away to reinstate old roads. Photos and television footage of these events is sometimes mislabelled "dismantling of the Wall", even though it was merely the construction of new crossings. New border crossings continued to be opened through summer 1990, including the most famous one at the Brandenburg Gate on 1989-12-22."

"Technically the Wall remained guarded for some time after November 9, even though at an ever decreasing intensity. In the first months, the East German military even tried to repair some of the damages done by the "wall peckers". Gradually these attempts ceased, and guards became more and more lax, tolerating the increasing demolitions and "unauthorised" border crossing through the holes. On 1990-06-13, the official dismantling of the Wall by the East German military began in Bernauer Straße."

"The dismantling continued to be carried out by military units (after unification under the Bundeswehr) and took until November 1991. Only a few short sections and watchtowers were left standing as memorials."

"Berlin Wall : The Fall, 1989" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_wall#The_Fall.2C_1989

Answer 2

Let me enlighten you with no name calling. Reagan did a lot more to bring about the end of the Cold War than Obama did to get Bin Laden. Reagan executed a strategy that called for not negotiating with the Soviets, which brought a lot of criticism his way. Remember, he walked away from the talks in Iceland. It was his plan to not cave into Soviet demands just to appease them. Now, in the final analysis, Reagan does not deserve all of the credit for the collapse of the USSR. There were a lot of internal factors in the Soviet Union (sort of like what we are going through now economically) that meant they could not continue to exist as they were constructed. But the pressure that Reagan put on them, combined with a leader in Gorbachev who was looking to change the USSR brought the result more quickly than it should of. Contrast that with Obama. He basically did nothing new in regards to pursuing Bin Laden. He merely let the military and intelligence agencies continue their work. Name the new strategy that Obama implemented to get Bin Laden. You can't do it because there is none. He merely okayed an operation that was told to him by his subordinates. Now, in the final analysis, Obama deserves some credit. If that operation had gone wrong (dead soldiers. no Bin Laden, etc), it would have been Obama who stuck his neck out for it. But I believe that the decision he made was a no brainer. He was basically told that we had a high probability of finding Bin Laden in this place, and a surgical commando operation was the best method to guarantee its success. I think any President would have doen the same thing.

Answer 3

Both East and West Berliners took down the wall. Basically the Soviet Union self destructed (all communist states eventually will, their doctrine is inherently flawed), and could no longer maintain control over their satellite states.

Answer 4

after the comunist ussr colapsed i think then they took down the wall

Answer 5

Try wikipedia

Answer 6

David Hasselhoff still claims that he has had a major influence on that lol

Answer 7

this dude took it down cuz he wanted a sandwich that was on the other side....