Human Chain

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world events often move quickly, But it is hard to match, the Tempo and the force of change in 1989.

it culminates in one of The Most famous scenes in recent History - The Fall of the Berlin Wall .

The Fall of The Wall , partly because of a bureaucratic accident, But it was in the midst of a wave of revolutions, the Soviet Union led Communist Eastern bloc teetering on the edge of collapse and helped define a new World Order .

How come The Wall down? It was on 9. In November 1989, Five Days after half a million people gathered in East Berlin in a mass protest, that the Berlin Wall is located in the middle of Communist East-Germany West-Germany in ruins.

GDR leaders had tried to calm down the mounting protests by the loosening of the boundaries, the traveling easier for The East Germans. She had not intended to open The Border completely.

The changes were meant to, is pretty low - But the Way they were delivered, had great consequences.

comments to be handed to the new rules, spokesman Günter Schabowski, were- - had no Time to read them before his regular press conference. When he read The Note out loud for the First Time , the reporters were flabbergasted.

"Private trips outside the country, can now be applied for without preconditions," he said. Surprised, journalists, immediately for further details.

Shuffling through his notes, Mr Schabowski said that as far as he was aware, it was effective immediately.

In fact, it was planned to start on the next day, with details on applying for a visa.

But the news was all over the Television and East Germans flocked to The Border in large numbers.

Harald Jäger, a Border Guard is responsible, that on the evening that he had seen The Press conference in Confusion And Then saw the audience arrive.

There were emotional scenes, as The East Berlin to The West , arrived Mr hunter desperately called his supervisor, But she gave no orders to open the Gate or to stop the fire, the audience. With only a handful of guards, hundreds of angry citizens faced, the force would have been of little use.

"would hurt people or be killed without shots fired in the fight, or if there was a panic among the thousands gathered at The Border crossing," he said to the mirror.

"This is why I gave my people The Order : Open the barrier!"

thousands of flows, celebrate and cry in scenes beamed around The World . Many climbed The Wall at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate , chipping away and hacking at The Wall with hammers and pointed.

A turbulent year had reached a climax.

Why did you come to The Wall down? After the second World War , Europe was carved out of the Soviet Union and its former Western allies and the Soviets gradually an "Iron Curtain " was built, the division of The East from The West .

the Defeated Germany was divided, the forces due to the occupation - the US, Britain, France and the USSR, with The Eastern part occupied by the Soviets. East Germany , officially known as the German Democratic Republic was in the Soviet Union on foot in Western Europe .

But Berlin was split in four ways, with the British, French and American zones to The West of the town and a Soviet zone in The East . West Berlin was an island surrounded by Communist East Germany .

The Wall was finally built in 1961 because East Berlin was haemorrhaging people in The West .

in the 1980s, the Soviet Union , in view of the acute economic problems and major bottlenecks, and when a reactor in Chernobyl exploded power plant in the Ukraine in April 1986, it was a symbolic moment, in the imminent collapse of The Communist bloc.

Mikhail Gorbachev , the relatively young Soviet leader, who introduced took power in 1985, a reform of the policy of "glasnost" (openness) and "perestroika" (restructuring).

But events moved far faster than he could foresee.

Revolutionary wave of reform movements were already awakened in The Communist Eastern bloc. Years of activism and the strikes in Poland , culminated in his ruling Communist party to make the vote of the banned solidarity trade Union .

in February 1989, solidarity was looked at in discussions with the government, and partially free elections in the summer, to capture seats in the Parliament. Although the Communists retained a quota of seats, solidarity swept the Board, where it was allowed.

Poland 's solidarity movement was successful, partly free elections in Hungary also started mass demonstrations for democracy in March. In may, 150 miles (240 km) of Barbed Wire of The First crack were dismantled along The Border with Austria - in the Iron Curtain . 1956 Hungarian revolution was brutally suppressed by the Soviets, But was not successful.

By August, The Revolutionary wave had really re-lit at the edges. Two million people in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - then part of the Soviet Union - considered one of The Most memorable demonstrations of the so-called Singing Revolution , when formed 370 miles (600 km) Human Chain demand across the Baltic republics Independence .

Many East Germans were overwhelmed by emotions as they crossed into Austria In The Heat of August, Hungary opened its borders to Austria in The West , so the GDR-refugees an escape.

The Iron Curtain fell, buckling.

Czechoslovakia, whose push for the liberalisation of the reform was violent, in 1968, suppressed, unless other means of escape. The East Germans travel to the neighboring socialist nation, without limitation, could, and arrived in The West German Embassy there evacuated by The Hundreds , finally, to The West with the train.

East Germany ended with the closure of The Border with Czechoslovakia in October, to stem The Tide .

But The Revolution in the GDR itself had.

East Germany rebelsIt began with protesters rallying for freedom in the centre of The City of Leipzig.

At 9. October, celebrates within a few days of East Germany 's 40th anniversary, 70,000 people took to The Streets .

There were demands for free elections from The West of Germany, and the talk of reform, from East Germany , the new Communist leader, Egon Krenz . No one knew that The Fall of the Berlin Wall was a few weeks away.

to hold the end of October, the Parliament in Hungary, which had been among The First to be adopted in mass demonstrations, legal provisions for direct presidential elections and multi-party parliamentary elections.

And Then on the 31. October, the numbers calling for democracy in East Germany swelled to half a million. Mr Krenz flew to Moscow for a meeting - he recently told the BBC that he had not insured that the German Reunification was on The Agenda .

learn More about the GDR, 1989

4. November, a month after The East German protests had started around half a million people gathered in Alexanderplatz in The Heart of East Berlin.

Three Days later the government resigned. But there was no intention to give Way to democracy and Egon Krenz remained head of The Communist party and the country's De Facto leader.

He would not be there long. Five Days later, Mr Schabowski gave his world press conference change.

Why don't the Soviets with violence? Earlier in '89, in Beijing protesters in Tiananmen Square , who had called, were crushed for democracy in China, in a major military crackdown.

The USSR had its military, prior to put down insurrections. So Why Not now?

Within the Soviet Union itself, it did, the killing of 21 pro-Independence demonstrators in the Soviet Republic of Georgia. But elsewhere in The Communist bloc, they did not.

In a break with the Soviet policy, Mikhail Gorbachev decided against The Threat of military force for the suppression of mass demonstrations and political revolution in the neighbouring countries.

"We now have the Frank Sinatra doctrine", a foreign Ministry spokesman Gennadi Gerasimov said on US Television . "He has a song," I (Did) It My Way . 'So every country decides for itself which Way to take. "

A new Chapter in the European historyOn 3. In December, Mr. Gorbachev and US President George HW Bush sat next to each other in Malta, and released a statement to say that the Cold War between the two Powers , soon to end.

More Than half a million people gathered in Prague in November 1989 demonstration as a Czechoslovak communism was overthrown in The 1989 wave of revolutions was over yet.

Student demonstrators in Prague clashed with police, the release of the Velvet Revolution that toppled Czechoslovak communism within a few weeks.

In Romania, demonstrations that ended in violence and saw The Fall of The Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu . A new government took over, as the ousted leader in his castle, escaped, and an angry crowd stormed it.

The Romanian Revolution was the only one in Eastern Europe , the year saw the shedding of blood He and his wife Elena were captured and executed on Christmas Day . More Than 1,000 people died in riots, and after The Revolution , setting Romania, apart from the largely bloodless events elsewhere.

Postscript-to-1989And the Soviet Union itself?

soviet union, hungary, romania, cold war, germany, berlin, berlin wall, poland

Source of news: bbc.com