Search -
The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall
The Collapse The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall Author:Mary Elise Sarotte On November 9th, 1989, massive crowds of East Berliners surged toward the Berlin Wall, drawn by an announcement that would catch the entire world by surprise: residents of the city?s Eastern half could now freely move to the West. The Wall—the greatest symbol of the Cold War—had fallen, literally overnight. — As Mary Elise Sarotte reveals, there ... more »was nothing deliberate or planned about the dramatic fall of the Berlin Wall. It was an accident. A carelessly worded memo, a bumbling press conference, the bravery of ordinary people in East and West Berlin—these factors combined to bring about the end of nearly forty years of oppression and fear in Berlin. Based on new archival evidence and interviews with key actors, The Collapse is the definitive telling of the event that came to represent the end of Communism in Europe.« less