9 November 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Expect the web to be full of interesting commemorative coverage of this anniversary. There will be lots to look at and lots to search for, so I’ve put up this page as a kind of directory which you can bookmark and return to now and again to see what’s been added.
Update 09 November 2009. The day is finally here! Congratulations Germany, have a fantastic celebration!
Update 02 November 2009. Besides this page, I have posted a lot of content about the Berlin Wall and East Germany in the weeks leading up to the anniversary. Be sure to check them out too!
Sections
Major Media
- German magazine Der Spiegel has added a good quantity of English-language content at their “20 Years After the Wall” topic page. I highly recommend this as a source of English-language content from the German perspective. Update 09 November 2009: Der Spiegel has now, on the day of the anniversary, put up an even better English-language page with lots of links to photos and such.
- Germany’s international broadcasting network, Deutsche Welle, has a nice slide show in English entitled “What’s left of the Berlin Wall”. What makes it most interesting are the textual descriptions that accompany each photo.
- German television network ZDF, in its Mediathek, makes it possible to search for and watch clips from its television shows. When you get there, use the upper-right search box and enter “DDR” as the search term. You’ll get a very nice collection of results, but of course they won’t be so enjoyable if you do not understand German. If you do understand German, this feature is highly recommended, particularly (in my opinion) because of the series of clips called “Countdown Mauerfall” (Countdown to the Fall of the Wall), which shows original ZDF news broadcasts from 1989.
- BBC’s “GCSE Bitesize” entry for Berlin Wall. The target audience is, of course, students studying for their GCSEs. Three short pages of info about the Wall.
- BBC’s “On This Day” entry for the 9th of November. Includes video and the recollections of witnesses.
- The BBC has also devoted an entire section of their news site to the revolutions of 1989.
- AP_Berlin19 is a Flickr account belonging to the AP and containing several photos showing scenes of celebration from November 1989. (Update 15 Aug 2009: the photos seem to be gone. Hopefully they’ll be back.)
- The Wall Street Journal Online has an interesting timeline of events leading up to the fall of the Wall, as seen from within the pages of their own publication.
- From the German newspaper the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, this very nice interactive page showing click-able parts of the Wall. Each click gives you more info. Nice job, FAZ! (Unfortunately just in German.)
Government
- Berlin.de, the official Berlin website from the Online Communications division of the Berlin Mayor’s office, has a large section dedicated to the Wall, including photos, documentation, listings of memorial sites, information concerning the 20th anniversary, and more.
- The Stiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur, the official German federal government organization that investigates, appraises and publishes material about the East German communist dictatorship, dedicates a section of their site to the 20th anniversary of the “Peaceful Revolution and German Unity”. The material is only in German.
- Moments in Time 1989/1990 (German name: Wir waren so frei) is a project of the federal office of civic education. It has lots of information in both German and English, and many of the photos are licensed under Creative Commons licenses, giving the opportunity for the images to be used elsewhere.
- Freiheit, Einheit, Demokratie (Freedom, Unity, Democracy) is presented as the official Federal Government website for the anniversary and is maintained by the Interior Ministry. It has a collection of speeches (Reden & Texte)and photos (Bildergalerie). Most content is available only in German, though some of the speeches are available in English as well.
- The German Embassy in London has a rather good collection of Berlin Wall and German reunification material. The link I’ve given takes you to their article “A Short History of German Reunification”, but also look along the left-side navigation when you get there, and you’ll see other available links.
Other Organizations
- The Brandenburg Technical University has a fantastic web site that allows you to view the perimeter of the Berlin Wall on a map. The map contains several pinned locations, which you can click on to see photos of what’s there. The name of the side is “Denkmallandschaft Berliner Mauer” (“Memorial Landscape of the Berlin Wall”). Sadly, at the time that I type this it is only available in German. Nevertheless, I think it could be fun to click around and see things even if you don’t understand the captions. Give it a try: when you get to the front page, click on the map to the right of the screen, which takes you to the main map screen. When you get there, just start clicking on things.
- The German History Museum’s Living Museum Online has several sections of interest concerning German History. The sections most relevant to the Wall are Geteiltes Deutschland (Divided Germany) and Deutsche Einheit (German Unity). Unfortunately all texts are available only in German. But if you cannot read German, at least enjoy the very significant collection of images.
- The Berlin Wall Association’s Memorial Site and Documentation Center is quasi-governmental in the sense that it was established by the Berlin Senate. The website’s front page contains a clickable diagram of the three main structures that make up the memorial site on Bernauer Strasse in Berlin. If you visit the “Documentation Center” portion of the site, there are a few PDFs available for download in the “Publications”. The documents are available in both German and English.
- The Marienfelde Refugee Centre Memorial, “the museum documenting flight and emigration during Germany’s post-war division”, has a website with photos and information. The Memorial is located at Marienfelder Allee 66-80 in Berlin. I particularly liked their “Object Stories” section; check out the story of Bärlihupf.
- Zeitbild, a German publisher and communications agency, in cooperation with the federal interior ministry, created a colorful brochure about the GDR and reunification for German students. It’s available (only in German) as a PDF at the link.
- The federal office for civic education, German radio (Deutschlandradio) and the Center for Research into Contemporary History put together Chronik der Mauer (Chronicle of the Berlin Wall), a website with text, photos and an interesting collection of videos. The site has some English content and is most definitely worth checking out if you do not know German. There are even some videos in English, such as that of the first President Bush explaining his subdued reaction to the events in Berlin in November 1989. The German content is much more complete in the sense that it provides a continuous timeline of events between 1961 and 1990. There are also old radio clips. Fantastic stuff!
Private Websites
- Friedliche Revolution und Mauerfall (Peaceful Revolution and the Fall of the Wall), is a private site belonging to Hinrich Olsen. It has loads of photos as well as very interesting and thoughtful texts. It quickly became my favorite of the private sites. BUT: it’s only in German, so the texts won’t be useful for people who cannot read the language. Nevertheless I highly recommend it for its photo collection.
- Retracing the Berlin Wall is a private site belonging to Roy Popiolek. I’ve given the link to the English language version of the site; other languages are available. It looks like the site may not have been updated in quite a while, but I recommend it nevertheless because of its nice collection of photos and an especially nice gallery that shows the art drawn on the east side of the wall, complete with credit given to the artists. Unfortunately, the links to pop up those art works are broken, so you’re not able to see them in greater detail.
- Mauerfotos.de, available in both English and German, is a private site belonging to Matthias Hoffmann. As its name implies, it’s primary focus is photographs. However it also includes a “‘Archive of Collective Memory of the Berlin Wall” wherein visitors to the site have posted their own thoughts, memories and stories (almost entirely in German.) The photo section of the site impresses me because of its searchability.
- Berlin Wall Online (German version is Berliner Mauer Online) is a private site owned by Heiko Burkhardt. It’s chock full of photos and text.
Videos
- I rather like garibaldus’s video at YouTube titled “Mauerbau-Zusammenfassendes Video“. It puts together several video clips, accompanied by the fantastic music from the soundtrack of Requiem for a Dream. The music definitely heightens the emotions while watching. The text at the end of the video reads, “The Berlin Wall was erected on 16 August 1961. From 1 August 1961 to 15 August 1961, 159,730 people fled to West Berlin; that’s about 2500 daily. On 24 August 1961, someone was shot for the first time while trying to escape: Günter Liftin. The final person to be shot for attempting to flee was Chris Gueffroy, on 5 February 1989; he was just 20 years old. Altogether, 192 people died at the border.” By the way, the actual number of deaths is now being carefully examined via an academic study.
- YouTube user DeathValleySnowman posted a 6-part documentary series titled “Escape from GDR“. The link is to the first episode; you’ll easily find the others as related items once you’re there at the YouTube page.
- YouTube user hellpastel posted the documentary clip he titled “Berlin Wall Shoots / Schiessbefehl an der Mauer” and provided English subtitles, which is really cool. Check it out.
- One of my favorite videos on this subject at YouTube comes from user hellpastell. It shows a German report (with subtitles) of the mass of people and cars waiting for the Wall to open on 09 November 1989 at the Bornholmer Strasse checkpoint. I like it so much because it’s very up close and personal with the people who were there that day on the eastern side of the border. It’s just fun to see and hear all of these people geared up and ready for that first jaunt across the border. “Tor auf! Tor auf! Tor auf!“
- The Guardian is devoting a five-part video series to the topic “Berlin Wall: 20 Years On”. At the time I am typing this (19 October 2009), only the first in the series is available. If it’s any indication of the quality of the rest, I’m very impressed.
Bill Dawson is an American citizen who, having married an Austrian, lives and works in Vienna, Austria. A programmer by trade, he studied history as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley. 
Found your site via http://cityofnewalbany.blogspot.com
What a very well thought out and informative site you have, absolutely love it. Keep up the grand work!
Edward
Thank you, Edward. And those are some great photos at your site! I particularly liked the Dusk photo from 7/21.
Thanks again,
Bill
Hello Bill, found you when you left your link on World Magazine Blog. Nice site! Having lived in Germany for 8 years, I’m interested in this site.
About the berlin Wall, I just wanted to share a piece of artwork with you. I wrote about it on the Regerts thread on WMB. It was drawn by a retires Special Forces artist named Vaclev Havel. He drew it in 1987/88 and the plaque on the wall in the picture puts the end of the wall at 199 with the last digit left off. He was close in his prophetic prediction. I have a signed print framed in my house. As far as I know, no such Berlin Wall Memorial exists.
Here’s the link:
https://www.sfa4-24.org/~sfafoutw/quartermaster/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=15
Hello Klasko, thank you for stopping by! I’ve just taken several minutes to familiarize myself with the SFA 4-24 chapter. Very, very interesting. Were you stationed at Flint? The Havel drawing also looks fantastic.
There is a memorial at the Wall in Berlin, as shown here at their official site:
http://www.berliner-mauer-gedenkstaette.de/eng/index_gedenk.html
A lot of private persons have also shared photos at Flickr.com:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=berlin+wall+memorial
I hope you come back often to enjoy this site!
Thank you,
Bill
Yes Bill, we were at Flint from 1987-1991 when it drew down.
We moved with 1/10th SF to Stuttgart and left in 1992. Our housing area was actually in Ludwigsburg. We drew that down too. 
One Berlin, One Germany, One Europe, One World
My recollection of the late summer of 1988 was one of endless wonders for at a young age I made my very first trip to a great foreign country. I visited a country in Europe that left a lasting legacy in me and for which I came to know quite fondly as my second home. It all began with a very memorable letter of acceptance informing me of my participation in the 2nd International Training Program in Biotechnology (ITP). The letter came from GBF, Germany’s National Research Center for Biotechnology. GBF and the state of Lower Saxony funded generously my trip and stay in Germany. It brought me to the charming cities of Braunschweig, where GBF is located, as well as to Hannover, and Berlin. I consider this unforgettable six-week sojourn in Germany as the best thing that ever happened to me. Reminiscing on my arrival in Braunschweig, brings back fond memories of a cool beautiful sunny Sunday morning and a venerable city crisscrossed by clean streets of cobbled stone though almost devoid of people and vehicles. Since I come from a densely populated city like Manila, the difference for me becomes starkly conspicuous. Attendance in the trade fair known as Biotechnica 88 in Hannover and the cultural trip to Berlin was part of the ITP training course. The training course enriched me not only scientifically but culturally as well. It gave me a deep and profound standpoint as to Germany’s identity, culture, and role in the modern world. History tells us that it was just in the last century that Germany went through periods of revolutions, redemption, and resurrection. The mighty German Empire ruled by Prussia disintegrated after the First World War. A fleeting bright moment followed the collapse of the empire with the birth of the “Weimar Republic”. This beautiful republic, bearing the promise of freedom, peace, and prosperity for all Germans and Europeans, unfortunately died in its infancy. What followed was the darkest and most chilling period in world history: the rise to power of Hiltler’s National Socialist Party. Because of the NAZI, Germany suffered widespread destruction and utter defeat in the Second World War that left the whole of Europe in shamble. Though it seemed that everything was lost, Germany made acts of contrition and contrite reparation for his mortal misgivings. Soon the “Heart of Europe” underwent an immensely remarkable transformation marked by sincere reconciliation and rapid socio-economic development. Germany literally became the engine of peace and prosperity for Western Europe. In just a few years, the Fatherland rebuilds himself from the smoldering cauldron of the last world war to rise meteorically into today’s proud global economic power as a free, united, and flourishing German nation. Germany’s city of the world Berlin, once separated into two rival ways of life, has assumed a truly cosmopolitan personality breathing a sophisticated culture and a cheerful urbanity uniquely its own. When Pres. John F. Kennedy bravely visited Berlin and spoke the famous words “Ich bin ein Berliner”, a city instantly captured the hearts and minds of people all over the world. Suddenly everyone was a Berliner who knew fully well to which side of the divided city he belongs. It highlighted the great divide of “Us against Them”; of a world partitioned by the “iron curtain” living precariously on détente. When I visited Berlin for the first time in 1988 as part of my ITP course, I cannot help but ponder and marvel at the character of an occupied city; a city torn between west and east, democracy and communism, freedom and tyranny, heaven and hell. A city sanctified by the Nordic gods with beauty, power, and nobility. I experienced what it was like to cross into East Germany and to enter into West Berlin. As I toured the city striding along the wide sidewalks of the famous KuDam and visiting the partly destroyed Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, I saw American, British, French and Russian soldiers and an imposing wall dividing the city. This wall of shame stood arrogantly between the famed “Gate of Brandenburg” and me. All I can do was to stare at the Brandenburg Gate protruding behind the wall from my place of security within West Berlin. In 1990, I made my second trip to Germany to attend Biotechnica 90. Funding for this trip came through the kindness of the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft (CDG). After attending Biotechnica 90, I went to straight to Berlin on my own initiative for it was something that I would not miss for the world. Something wonderful has happened in Berlin and I simply had to be a part of it. It was an afternoon of warm sunny blue skies when I arrived in Berlin and made a bee-line to the Brandenburg Gate. This time something remarkably wonderful was readily apparent unlike my previous visit in 1988. From afar, lo and behold, I saw the gate standing majestically free! The wall of shame that put us asunder in 1988, was nowhere to be found. I was able to enter without hindrance through the monumental colonnades bearing aloft the victorious chariot of Aurora, the goddess of dawn. Indeed, a new age of peace and prosperity has dawned on Germany and the world in 1989. As I gazed around me, I went through the gate slowly with much trepidation but with overwhelming sentiments of joy and thanksgiving. So thankful, that the mighty “Westerly Winds of Freedom” knocked down decisively like tumbling dominoes the Wall of Berlin followed by the Iron Curtain of Eastern Europe and finally the fortress of the powerful Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR). What was once thought to be impossible, the unification of two German nations divided by conflicting global powers, happened overnight so miraculously without the loss of life? Not since the fall of the walls of Jericho has another wall in history received the ire of the free world to be torn down as the Berlin Wall. “Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall” were the words of Pres. Ronald Reagan that reverberated like the loud trumpet sounds of Joshua’s army that soon brought down the Berlin Wall. In its wake, not only was a nation unified but a continent as well. Demarcation of East and West in Europe became a thing of the past and for the rest of the world as well. I strode happily behind the Brandenburg Gate all the way through the famous and spacious boulevard called “Unter den Linden Strasse” extending into the very heart of East Berlin. My triumphant march, full of fervor, took me all the way to the imposing monumental bronze statue of Emperor Frederick the Great. I was in East Berlin till evening as I enjoyed and treasured every moment of that historical day in September of 1990 as a year had not even passed since the dreaded wall still stood and divided the city. Indeed, it was fortunate for me to have the rare chance of being in divided Berlin in 1988 and in unified Berlin in 1990, the years between the historical events of 1989. If Tony Bennet left his heart in San Francisco, in Berlin I left not only my heart but my soul as well. I will never forget my Berlin experiences of 1988 and 1990 for it was indeed so great to be young then in Germany and to be caught up in a turning point in world history. Let us also not forget the major role played by our beloved Pope John Paul II in ending communism that actually started in his home country of Poland. In closing, on the occasion of the 20 years of anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, I am one with the free world in celebrating an event marking the birth of a new world of peace and prosperity.
Wow, Edward, thank you for your putting your memories here! I really appreciate it.
It’s a great day today!