Brandenburg Gate Reopens: Berlin Reunites at Last
The East German guards just stepped aside. No ceremony, no official order — the crowd pushed through and nobody stopped them. Within hours, strangers from both sides were dancing on the wall with sledgehammers. The Brandenburg Gate had stood locked since 1961, a monument turned prison door. For twenty-eight years, families waved from opposite sides of the columns, close enough to see each other's faces but separated by minefields and armed patrols. When it finally opened on December 22, 1989, a month after the wall fell, an estimated one million people flooded through in the first weekend. Germany wouldn't officially reunify for another ten months, but the gate opening made it inevitable — you can't put that many reunited families back in their separate boxes.
December 22, 1989
37 years ago
Key Figures & Places
Berlin
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West Germany
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East Germany
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Brandenburg Gate
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German reunification
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Brandenburg Gate
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East Germany
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West Germany
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Berlin
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Otto Hahn
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Nuclear fission
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Berlin Wall
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Wochenpost
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Auflage (Publikation)
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Wochenzeitung
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Die Tänzerin Fanny Elßler
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Johann Strauss II
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Hans Adler (Autor)
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