On 9 November 1989, the Berlin Wall falls and thousands of Berliners express their joy by climbing the Wall, the symbol of the separation of the two German States for almost 30 years.
During the night of 9 to 10 November 1989, the Berlin Wall comes down. For the first time in 28 years, all Berliners are able to move freely throughout the city.
In this interview excerpt, Jacques Delors, President of the Commission of the European Communities from 1985 to 1995, discusses the statement that he made for the television channel Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) following the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In this interview excerpt, Wilfried Martens, Belgian Prime Minister from 1979 to March 1981 and December 1981 to 1992, describes his experience of the fall of the Berlin Wall and remembers the negotiations between Helmut Kohl and his European partners to secure acceptance of German reunification.
On 10 November 1989, the day after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Willy Brandt, former Mayor of Berlin and Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), delivers an address in the John F. Kennedy Platz in which he emphasises the historic dimension of the fall of the Wall and places the event in the context of European unification.
In this interview, Jean François-Poncet, former French Foreign Minister and current Senator for Lot-et-Garonne, recalls the attitude of the French President, François Mitterrand, in November 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down and the following year when Germany was reunified.
In this interview, Élisabeth Guigou, Secretary-General of the Interministerial Committee for Questions on European Economic Cooperation (SGCI) from 1985 to 1990 and Policy Officer to French President François Mitterrand from 1988 to 1990, discusses François Mitterrand’s attitude to the upheavals that culminated in the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the reunification of Germany in 1990.
In this interview excerpt, Willy Claes, Belgian Minister for Economic Affairs from 1973 to 1974, from 1977 to 1982 and from 1988 to 1992 and Foreign Minister from 1992 to 1994, admits that the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 took him by surprise. This historical event, which signalled the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), paved the way for German reunification. Claes also emphasises the importance of the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) during this period.