What Really Toppled the Berlin Wall

In 1989 East Germans punctured through the Berlin Wall, reuniting the country after decades of bitter separation. In this episode we follow the creation and and destruction of the Berlin Wall--and look for its meaning in our own era.

SHOW NOTES

Günter Schabowski, the Man Who Opened the Wall

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/07/opinion/gnter-schabowski-the-man-who-opened-the-wall.html

Fall of Berlin Wall: How 1989 reshaped the modern world

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50013048#:~:text=The%20wall%20came%20down%20partly,define%20a%20new%20world%20order

How a Mistake at a Press Conference Helped Topple the Berlin Wall

https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-10-02/how-mistake-press-conference-helped-topple-berlin-wall

Transcript of Press Conference

https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/113049

History.com: Berlin Wall

https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/berlin-wall

The Surprising Human Factors Behind the Fall of the Berlin Wall

https://www.history.com/news/reasons-berlin-wall-fall

Mikhail Gorbachev wins Nobel Peace Prize

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mikhail-gorbachev-wins-nobel-peace-prize

What was the Berlin Wall and How did it Fall

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-was-the-berlin-wall-and-how-did-it-fall

Blunder that brought down the Berlin Wall

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7666435/The-blunder-brought-Berlin-Wall-thirty-years-on.html

The Berlin Crisis: Standoff at Checkpoint Charlie

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/24/berlin-crisis-standoff-checkpoint-charlie

‘The day the wall came down’: How The Post covered the Berlin Wall’s fall 30 years ago

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/11/09/the-day-wall-came-down-how-post-covered-berlin-walls-fall-years-ago/

1961: What Germany was like when the Berlin Wall was built

https://www.dw.com/en/1961-what-germany-was-like-when-the-berlin-wall-was-built/a-17708563

Economy of the Soviet Union

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_Soviet_Union#Comparisons_with_other_countries

MUSIC IN THIS EPISODE

“Arbeiter von Wien! Workers of Vienna!”

Franz Schubert “Erlkönig”

Peter Kraus “Sugar Baby”

“Estonian Singing Revolution”

East German (GDR) National Anthem

“Unsere Panzerdivision! Our Tanks Division!”

David Hasselhoff “I’ve Been Looking for Freedom”