BERLIN: Within a matter of weeks and without bloodshed, the feared East German regime was swept aside by demonstrators in 1989 and the Berlin Wall torn down, leading to Germany’s reunification less than a year later.
1989
-May 2: Hungary began dismantling the Iron Curtain that had defined its border with Austria since 1966. East Germans were quick to take advantage and head west.
- October 6-7: Unprecedented protests disrupted ceremonies marking the 40th anniversary of East Germany’s (GDR) communist regime.
- October 9: Police and the army stood by as some 70,000 people in Leipzig participated in a candlelight march to demand political reforms and more freedom.
- October 18: Egon Krenz, the Politburo’s youngest member, became communist party general secretary after Erich Honecker was forced to resign. On October 24 Krenz also replaced Honecker as GDR president.
- November 4: Nationwide demonstrations began in the GDR. More than one million gathered in East Berlin to demand greater freedom.
- November 9: Communist border guards opened the Berlin Wall, which was built in 1961, after the regime granted long-denied freedom to travel to the West.
Over the subsequent weekend, three million East Germans visited West Berlin or other parts of West Germany. November 13: Communist reformer Hans Modrow was elected head of the GDR government, one-third of which was non-communist.
- December 21-22: Modrow and then West German chancellor Helmut Kohl officiated over the reopening of Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the symbol of German division.
1990
- January 30: Gorbachev accepted German reunification in principle.
- March 18: The GDR held its first free elections and conservatives pushing for a rapid reunification won a large victory.
- July 1: The West German Deutschmark became the official currency of the GDR.
- Oct 3: After being divided for more than 40 years, Germany was reunited and regained its full sovereignty.
