The Fatal Mistake That Brought Down the Berlin Wall

Berlin spent nearly 30 years divided by a concrete wall, one side totally cut off from the other. In today's epic video we take a look at how a small mistake led to the fall of the Berlin Wall. This is a perfect example of how one event can have a ripple effect that changes the course of history.

🔖 MY SOCIAL PAGES

💭 Find more interesting stuff on:

All videos are based on publicly available information unless otherwise noted.

[TetsuShima]

Communists: "I don't understand...How could the wall fall in just a few decades? The one built by the Roman Emperor Hadrian lasted much longer"
Germans: "I don't know. Because no Roman ever considered jumping it, maybe?"

[TetsuShima]

There is an amazing movie about the Fall of the Berlin Wall called "Goodbye, Lenin!", in which a young East German (played by Daniel Brühl) tries to prevent his communist mother, who was in a coma when the Wall fell, from knowing of the fall of the socialist regime. I highly recommend it!

[feste]

I'm literally having tears in my eyes right now. This is such an important part of our history and we talk about it a ton in school and stuff - a thing that shouldn't be forgotten is that quite a lot of people, including me and my brother, wouldn't be alive if not for that historical moment. My parents are from different parts of Germany, with my mother being from western Berlin and my father from eastern Germany, and they couldn't have met if not for that happening...

[ingvarjensen]

And I was one of the hundreds who entered the West at Bornholmer Strasse just where mentioned Harald Jäger opened the gate! I just had turned 25 three days before. What a time!!!

[ives]

“Now what belongs together will grow together.” – Willy Brandt, Berlin, November 10th 1989

[Newdivide]

One such escapee was Conrad Schumann. He was an East German border guard who defected by jumping over a barbed wire while the wall was build

[cazc]

Funny enough a have a very small piece of the Berlin Wall. I used to clean for an ex army Chaplin who was there at the time and had just put a bit in his pocket. He knew my interest in all that kind of jazz and would constantly have him tell me everything he ever did and went especially that night. He gave it to me the Christmas before he died.

[Freddie_]

"Niemand hat die Absicht eine Mauer zu errichten"

[markodoescher]

A unique event of peaceful and happy reunion after a long separation. What a night! 🥳

[youoscar]

I'm a south korea pepole and because of the circumstances between north and south,
I don't think we could become together like germany in a short time, we are already hard in our own situation and many of us even don't want a unite korea.
But I'm envy germany and hope north and south be together someday.

[kirkmorrison]

When I was in grade school, my best friend's family had gotten out during the time the wall was going up. There were two buildings close together they handed him across and the rest of the children and the parents jumped over.

[ives]

“The Wall was an edifice of fear. On November 9th, it became a place of joy.” – Former German President Horst Köhler, Berlin, November 9th 2009

[noamuth]

Great video. What also pushed the agenda, was the incident at the GDR ambassy in Prague and the opening of the border in hungary. East Germany was bleeding out via these locations, so that was the reason for the changes in travel ban. There were protests before these incidents in Leipzig, called Monday demonstrations. They sparked the fire, but were not without the use of violents. While the events in Berlin were without bloodshed, many protesters in Leipzig got hurt. But at the end: It was the only revolution without a massive bloodshed.

[arosan]

On average, children laugh about 400 times a day, while adults laugh about 15 times a day. I tell the facts to the whole Internet and I will tell you more)

[ives]

“Many small people, who in many small places do many small things, can alter the face of the world.” – East Side Gallery, Berlin, 1990

[benedictsalako]

I want to believe the team of the infographic show who produce animated videos work harder than those producing regular videos .

[PrimitiveAK]

Man that was a wild day in the news and media lemme tell ya 😂😂😂

[HansBezemer]

Ok, I have several problems with this video. (1) Border crossings looked nothing like shown early in the video; (2) Between 1953 and 1961 there were no walls in Berlin you had to climb over. You could do the trip by public transport; (3) There were NEVER any mines between "The capital of the GDR" and Westberlin; (4) The fourth generation wall wasn't introduced until the early '70-ies.

[Anonymous-elhi]

Movie directors: let's do this as a movie totally original

[jackbarnhill]

Clever how you managed to ignore the role of the US and Ronald Regan. “Mr. Gorbechev tear down this wall”