Who was the Chancellor of Germany when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989?
"a demonstration in East Berlin drew as many as 1 million East Germans. Finally, on 9 November 1989, the Berlin Wall was opened, and East Germans were allowed to travel freely. Thousands poured through the wall into the western sectors of Berlin, and on 12 November, East Germany began dismantling it. On 28 November, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl outlined the 10-Point Plan for the peaceful unification of the two German states, based on free elections in East Germany and a unification of their two economies. In December, the East German ""Volkskammer"" eliminated the SED monopoly on power, and the"
"Krenz who was chosen as successor proved to be ineffective, and on 9 November 1989 the Berlin Wall was opened, becoming a symbol of the SED's complete loss of power. Within the first four days of the Wall's opening, 4.3 million people or 25% of the East German population had made the trip across the border to West Germany with many choosing to remain there to take advantage of the higher quality of life. Since 8 November a new Politburo had been in power when the previous one had unanimously resigned. Amongst the new members was former First Secretary of"
"as Mikhail Gorbachev became Soviet Party Secretary in March 1985. Gorbachev took a substantially changed approach to relations between Moscow and East Berlin, but Vyacheslav Kochemasov nevertheless remained in his ambassadorial post for more than five of the Perestroika-Glasnost years that ensued. During the evening of 9 November 1989, as The Berlin Wall came down, there was widespread speculation as to how the Soviet Ambassador to the German Democratic Republic might react. Vyacheslav Kochemasov did nothing. In this connection it was Kochemasov who on 16 April 1990 handed over to East Germany's recently elected prime minister, Lothar de Maizière, the"
"Leipzig, in 1962 Helmschrott received a Diploma in Journalism. Between 1986 and 1990 he was a member of the State Council of East Germany. The Berlin Wall fell on 9 November 1989, and on 15 November 1989, reacting to events more quickly than many party colleagues, Helmschrott had at his own request been replaced both at the ""Bauern Echo"" and from his political positions as Presidium member and in the party secretariat. That left the presidency of the DBD (Democratic Farmers' Party), and he resigned from this in January 1990. In June 1990 the DBD merged with the CDU (Christian"
"to this level during the lifetime of the German Democratic Republic. From 1986 till 1989 Brünner was a member of the country's powerful National Defense Council, and for approximately the same period, from 1986 till 17 March 1989, he sat as a member of the People's Chamber. Following the events during the closing weeks of 1989, however, on 31 December 1989 Horst Brünner was released from active service, along with his fellow Colonel Generals and Wolfgang Reinhold. On 9 November 1989, as the Berlin Wall came down, and the government spokesman Günter Schabowski announced at a press conference (mistakenly, as"
"and Lucia Siu, and in ""Enacting Dismal Science"" edited by Ivan Boldyrev and Ekaterina Svetlova. The German news anchorman Hanns Joachim Friedrichs once argued that a good journalist should never act in collusion with anything, not even with a good thing. In the evening of November 9, 1989, the evening of the fall of the Berlin Wall, however, Friedrichs reportedly broke his own rule when he announced: ""The gates of the wall are wide open."" („Die Tore in der Mauer stehen weit offen.“) In reality, the gates were still closed. According to a historian, it was this announcement that encouraged"
"to look for solutions to their problems with further demonstrations: he was booed. On 9 November 1989 the Berlin Wall was breached. The German Democratic Republic was still hosting approximately 300,000 Soviet troops at this time, and after it became clear that the fraternal troops had no instructions to repress the demonstrations violently, the gate to reunification was seen to have been left open. Johannes Chemnitzer resigned his offices on 10 November and was expelled from The Party on 13 December 1989. Johannes Chemnitzer Hans Chemnitzer (born Wildenfels 24 March 1929) is a former East German national and regional politician."
"diplomat in Berlin at the time of Reagan's speech, and US Ambassador to Germany from 1997 to 2001, said ""[The speech] wasn't really elevated to its current status until 1989, after the wall came down."" The muted response in the Western media contrasted with the reaction from the East: East German Politburo member Günter Schabowski considered the speech to be ""absurd"", and the Soviet press agency TASS accused Reagan of giving an ""openly provocative, war-mongering speech."" It was Schabowski who two and a half years later, on 9 November 1989, became the person to open the wall by providing a"
"fence and thousands of East Germans escaped to the West — although even then, very many people inside and outside Germany still believed that a real reunification would never happen in the foreseeable future. The turning point in Germany, called ""Die Wende"", was marked by the ""Peaceful Revolution"" leading to the removal of the Berlin Wall, with East and West Germany subsequently entering into negotiations toward eliminating the division that had been imposed upon Germans more than four decades earlier. On 28 November 1989—two weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall—West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl announced a 10-point program"
"the GDR's social programmes and the alleged constant threat of a West German invasion, many of its citizens looked to the West for freedom and prosperity. The Berlin Wall, rapidly built on 13 August 1961 prevented East German citizens from escaping to West Germany, eventually becoming a symbol of the Cold War. Ronald Reagan's ""Mr. Gorbachov, Tear down this wall!"" speech at the Wall on 12 June 1987 influenced public opinion, echoing John F. Kennedy's famous ""Ich bin ein Berliner"" speech of 26 June 1963. The fall of the Wall in 1989 became a symbol of the Fall of Communism,"
"August 1961. West Berliners gathered on the western side of the gate to demonstrate against the Berlin Wall, among them West Berlin's governing Mayor Willy Brandt, who had spontaneously returned from a federal election campaigning tour in West Germany earlier on the same day. It was closed throughout the Berlin Wall period until 22 December 1989. When the Revolutions of 1989 occurred and the wall was demolished, the gate symbolized freedom and the desire to unify the city of Berlin. Thousands of people gathered at the wall to celebrate its fall on 9 November 1989. On 22 December 1989, the"
"abolished on 1 July 1990 as East Germany joined West Germany in a currency union. On 21 July 1990, ex-Pink Floyd member Roger Waters staged a gigantic charity concert of his former band's rock extravaganza ""The Wall"" to commemorate the end of the division between East and West Germany. The concert took place at Potsdamer Platz – specifically an area of the former no man's land just to the north of the Reich Chancellery site, and featured many guest superstars. It was preparations for this concert, rather than historical interest, that brought about the first detailed post-Cold War survey of"
"Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1969 to 1974. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for his efforts to strengthen cooperation in western Europe through the EEC and to achieve reconciliation between West Germany and the countries of Eastern Europe. He was the first Social Democrat chancellor since 1930. Fleeing to Norway and then"
"136 to more than 200 in and around Berlin. In 1989 a series of revolutions in nearby Eastern Bloc countries—Poland and Hungary in particular—caused a chain reaction in East Germany that ultimately resulted in the demise of the Wall. After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on 9 November 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the Wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, euphoric people and souvenir hunters chipped away parts"
"Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that physically and ideologically divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989. Constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany), starting on 13 August 1961, the Wall cut off (by land) West Berlin from virtually all of surrounding East Germany and East Berlin until government officials opened it in November 1989. Its demolition officially began on 13 June 1990 and finished in 1992. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area (later known as the ""death strip"") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, ""fakir"
"was a deep anxiety over prospects for a reunified Germany. In September 1989, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher pleaded with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev not to let the Berlin Wall fall and confided that she wanted the Soviet leader to do what he could to stop it. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, French President François Mitterrand warned Thatcher that a unified Germany could make more ground than Adolf Hitler ever had and that Europe would have to bear the consequences. On 21 November 1989, Crosby, Stills & Nash performed the song ""Chippin' Away"" from Graham Nash's 1986 solo"
"Erich Honecker Erich Honecker (; 25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994) was a German politician who, as the General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party, led the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1971 until the weeks preceding the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. From 1976 onward he was also the country's official head of state as chairman of the State Council following Willi Stoph's relinquishment of the post. Honecker's political career began in the 1930s when he became an official of the Communist Party of Germany, a position for which he was imprisoned during the Nazi"
"Turkish, and had either low-skilled jobs or were unemployed. Willy Brandt (1913–1992) was the leader of the Social Democratic Party in 1964–87 and West German Chancellor in 1969–1974. Under his leadership, the German government sought to reduce tensions with the Soviet Union and improve relations with the German Democratic Republic, a policy known as the ""Ostpolitik"". Relations between the two German states had been icy at best, with propaganda barrages in each direction. The heavy outflow of talent from East Germany prompted the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, which worsened Cold War tensions and prevented East Germans from"
"the dictatorship of the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (""SED""). It was a dangerous situation, with the possibility of a clash between the demonstrators and armed forces. One of the speakers at the Alexanderplatz demonstration was Friedrich Schorlemmer. He called for change and a new beginning, but he also pleaded for nonviolence. After the Berlin Wall had been opened on 9 November 1989, a lot of people left East Germany. Schorlemmer and others published a passionate appeal to stay and build up a new and better kind of society there: ""Für unser Land"" (""For our country""). Still, the majority"
"the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was founded by CEO of Axel springer Mathias Döpfner and the CEO of RHJI Leonhard Fisher as a privately funded project. The museum was opened by Chancellor Angela Merkel with former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev also in attendance. The museum will tell the story of the Glienicke Bridge, which from 1949 to 1989 was famous as the ""Bridge of Spies"" as it was used for exchanging captured agents between the Soviet bloc and the free West. A video installation by Stefan Roloff is part of"
"Walter Scheel Walter Scheel (; 8 July 1919 – 24 August 2016) was a German politician. A member of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP), he first served in government as Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development from 1961-1966. He led the FDP from 1968-1974. During the Chancellorship of Willy Brandt, Scheel was Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs and Vice Chancellor. Scheel became acting Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 7-16 May 1974 following Brandt's resignation after the Guillaume Affair. He was elected shortly after as President of Germany, remaining in the role until 1979. Scheel"
"Hans-Joachim Willerding Hans-Joachim ""Jochen"" Willerding (born 19 April 1952) is a former politician (SED) of the German Democratic Republic. On 8 November 1989 he was elected to membership of the powerful Central Committee of the country's ruling Socialist Unity Party where he sat as the committee's youngest member. A couple of days later the Berlin Wall was breached, setting in motion events that would lead to reunification in October 1990. Much sooner than that, however, the promising career of Willerding at the top level of the East Germany's political power structure was cut short on 2 December 1989 when the"
"of public debate when he collapsed during a speech at a party event in early 2015. Horst Seehofer Horst Lorenz Seehofer (born 4 July 1949) is a German politician serving as Leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU) since 2008 and Minister of the Interior, Building and Community since 2018 under Chancellor Angela Merkel. From 2008 to 2018, he was Minister President of Bavaria; he also served as President of the Bundesrat between 2011 and 2012. First elected to the Bundestag in 1980, he served as Federal Minister for Health and Social Security from 1992 to 1998 and as Federal"
"Ministry of Defense, Federal Chancellery, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety). In 1987 Chancellor Kohl appointed him as his chief speechwriter. After the fall of the Berlin Wall Mertes co-authored the „Ten Point Program for German and European Unity” which Kohl presented on November 28, 1989. In 1993 he became Director, Policy Planning, and in 1995 he was appointed Director-General, Policy Planning and Cultural Affairs at the Federal Chancellery. After the change of government from Helmut Kohl to Gerhard Schröder in 1998, Mertes joined the editorial team of the German weekly Rheinischer Merkur and remained the"
"Guido Westerwelle Guido Westerwelle (; 27 December 1961 – 18 March 2016) was a German politician who served as Foreign Minister in the second cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel and as Vice Chancellor of Germany from 2009 to 2011, being the first openly gay person to hold any of these positions. He was also the chairman of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) from May 2001 until he stepped down in 2011. A lawyer by profession, he was a member of the Bundestag from 1996 to 2013. Guido Westerwelle was born in Bad Honnef in the German state of"
"1984 and 1989 Jähnichen was a member of the local council in his hometown of , on the edge of Leipzig. Between 1989 and 1990 he was a member of the CDU party executive. The fall of the Berlin wall in November was the first of a series of events that by August 1990 had led to the end of East Germany as a stand-alone state and the reunification of Germany. During this period, between May and November 1990, Jähnichen served as the first freely elected council leader (""""Landrat"""") in Borna district. Between February 1990 and September 1994 he served"
"In 1971, after an absence of 17 years, again became a member of the National Legislative Assembly (""Volkskammer""). In 1976 he was placed on the candidate list for membership of the Central Committee Politburo, membership of which followed in 1980. In 1986 he became a member of the Central Committee's powerful ""Cadre Commission"". At the end of 1989 Horst Dohlus's political career fell victim to the rolling demise of the German Democratic Republic. On 9 November 1989 the Berlin Wall was breached. The German Democratic Republic was still hosting approximately 300,000 Soviet troops at this time, but after it became"
"role of the Institute continued to involve de facto censorship of published history to ensure compliance with party doctrine. In this context, following the breach of the Berlin Wall which took place in November 1989 and the flood of high level resignations that ensued, the Institute found itself leaderless. On 21 December 1989 Günter Benser found himself elected director of the institute by his fellow members, with 298 votes in support, 14 abstentions and one vote against his election, and he duly took over the directorship vacated, after a twenty-year incumbency, by Günter Heyden. Twenty-five years later Benser was still"
"the Berlin Wall, on 9 November 1989, that Christmas Day, when Leonard Bernstein conducted a performance of Beethoven's Ninth at the site of the former East German–West German border in Berlin, a concert telecast nationally in the United States, he substituted ""Freedom"" for ""Joy"" to reflect his own ""personal message"". In February 1952, the United States Customs Service seized the passport of Paul Robeson, preventing him from leaving the United States to travel to the Fourth Canadian Convention of the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; but, after ""The convention heard Robeson sing"
"the Berlin Wall and along the border with West Germany. This led to the acceleration of the process of reforms in East Germany that ended with the German reunification that came into force on 3 October 1990. The SPD in coalition with the Greens won the elections of 1998. SPD leader Gerhard Schröder positioned himself as a centrist ""Third Way"" candidate in the mold of Britain's Tony Blair and America's Bill Clinton. Schröder, in March 2003, reversed his position and proposed a significant downsizing of the welfare state, known as Agenda 2010. He had enough support to overcome opposition from"
"the Berlin Wall in November 1989, and the ensuing evidence that the Soviet leadership had issued no orders to the military for the violent suppression of the burgeoning revolution opened the way for a succession of events that would lead to the demise, as a standalone one-party dictatorship, of the German Democratic Republic and, in October 1990, German reunification. In regional Stasi establishments across the country one feature of the revolutionary phase was a desperate scramble to destroy the paper records that the ministry officers had assiduously and meticulously built up and safeguarded during nearly four decades. Protestors rushed across"
"to 37%; long-time SPD Chairman Brandt subsequently resigned in April 1987 and was succeeded by Hans-Jochen Vogel. The FDP's share rose from 7% to 9.1%, its best showing since 1980. The Greens' share rose to 8.3% from their 1983 share of 5.6%. With the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, symbolised by the opening of the Berlin Wall, there was a rapid move towards German reunification; and a final settlement of the post-war special status of Germany. Following democratic elections, East Germany declared its accession to the Federal Republic subject to the terms of the Unification"
"Helmut Schmidt Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1974 to 1982. Before becoming Chancellor, he had served as Minister of Defence (1969–1972) and as Minister of Finance (1972–1974). In the latter role he gained credit for his financial policies. He had also served briefly as Minister of Economics and as acting Foreign Minister. As Chancellor, he focused on international affairs, seeking ""political unification of Europe in partnership"