3 October - Day of German Unity

BM Dr. Guido Westerwelle

Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Westerwelle on the occasion of the Day of German Unity

The Berlin Wall was built 50 years ago. It was toppled 28 years later by people who took a courageous stand for their freedom. The moving images of the peaceful revolution of 1989 still linger in my mind.

Beschlossen

20 Years of German Unity

On 3 October 1990 the GDR acceded to the Federal Republic of Germany. Much has changed since then – nationally and internationally. How does reunification look after 20 years?

Brandenburger Tor mit Berliner Mauer

50th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall

Fifty years ago the Berlin Wall was erected between East and West, dividing the country and the people. Countless lives were affected by the construction of the Wall. [...] Little by little, people are starting to forget how much pain and suffering was caused by the division of Germany, how the division was overcome, and what elation was felt when the Wall fell.

Mauerfall in Berlin

10 events leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall

19 August The "Pan-European Picnic" on the Austrian-Hungarian border: 600 GDR citizens flee to the West. By this time the Federal Republic of Germany's representation in East Berlin and its Embassies...

Maueröffnung am Brandenburger Tor

Berlin’s Second Fall of the Wall at the “Festival of Freedom”

As a bulwark of concrete and barrier fences the Wall cut through Berlin for a length of over 43 kilometres – dividing the city and the whole of Germany. Now, 20 years after the fall of the wall on 9 November 1989, the symbol of almost three decades of German division will fall again on the same date, but this time it will be purely symbolic.

Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer: Gedenkinstallation für Fluchtopfer.

“History should not be allowed to repeat itself”

It tore families and friends apart, divided Berlin and the country for almost 30 years and was seen as a symbol of the Iron Curtain: when the Berlin Wall was built on August 13, 1961, it signalled the beginning of the violent division of Germany. Over the coming days and months, events will be commemorating this incisive moment in modern German history and marking the 50th anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall.

Wendekinder: The 1989 Generation

How did the fall of the Berlin Wall shape the lives of those who were born the year it came down?  We asked four young people how they perceive Germany's unity and division twenty years later.

Message from Federal President Christian Wulff on the Day of German Unity 2011

Bundespräsident Christian Wulff

On 3 October we Germans remember with joy and gratitude our national unity, which we regained on 3 October 1990. On that day, our nation’s decades of division came to an end.