Original subtitles

NARRATOR: The Berlin Wall.

Part of the Iron Curtain that out Europe in two.

Beyond the wire,

armed force had always held down

the peoples of the Communist world.

In 1989,

the Wall was still intact.

But there was a new mood in Moscow.

[speaking Russian ]

The use of force had discredited itself completely.

It was no longer possible to stabilize the world

by military methods.

We saw a real opportunity

because of this recognition

on the part of the Soviet Union

that they weren't gonna win an arms race.

They weren't gonna, "bury you."

We were the beneficiaries of this.

D ♪

NARRATION: December 1988.

Gorbachev met George Bush

and outgoing President Ronald Reagan.

Gorbachev had decided that the Cold War

must be brought to an end.

The Americans remained cautious.

There were pressures on Mr. Gorbachev

from his right, if you wanna call it that,

from his military, God knows from who else,

who didn't wanna see the rapidity

of this change.

NARRATION: By 1989, Gorbachev was determined

to loosen Soviet control

over the nations in the Communist Bloc.

[speaking Russian ]

NARRATION: Gorbachev told the peoples of Eastern Europe

that they had the right to choose their own futures.

But his listeners wondered what would happen

if non-Communists won power.

Would the Soviet Union really stand aside?

[speaking Russian ]

Gorbachev was convinced

that when these countries got their freedom,

they would choose socialism with a human face.

He believed they would not turn away from Moscow,

nor run off to the West.

He thought they would be grateful to Moscow

and keep up ties of friendship

with the Soviet Union.

NARRATION: But not everybody wanted freedom from Moscow.

Communist leaders like East Germany's Erich Honecker,

relied on Soviet support to stay in power.

[Speaking German ]

To imagine that the Soviet Union,

after 40 years of alliances,

would leave every socialist country

to fend for itself

and turn its back on them,

as if there had never been a brotherly community.

This was unheard of.

NARRATION: Hungary 1956.

Soviet tanks smashed the Hungarian attempt

to win democracy and independence.

Imre Nagy and other leaders of the uprising

were executed.

Economic reforms improved life for a while,

then hit disaster.

By 1989,

the Communist government was losing control.

But Soviet troops remained in the land.

The Hungarian people were growing angry again.

Fear drove the regime to promise political changes,

and more democracy.

The country was in -- close to an abyss,

close to a total crisis situation.

Economically, we accumulated by that time

a huge debt.

Politically, all the key players

within the country

realized that there is no way

to get a better life

via reforming the socialist model.

In March, 1989,

Prime Minister Nemeth visited Moscow.

The Hungarian leaders were planning

free multi-party elections.

But would this be too much for Gorbachev?

I said, "I don't know, as of this moment,

when we will have the first election.

But knowing that you stationing

in the territory of the country,

roughly 80,000 soldiers,

and having in mind the experience of '56,

when your tanks crushed

the revolutionaries

and all the forces

who fought that time for freedom,

will you repeat the '56 exercise

or not?“

And Gorbachev, without hesitation,

responded quite clearly to me,

"I don't agree

with the multi-party system--

The introduction of the multi-party system

in Hllngary

but that's not my responsibility.

That's your responsibility.

There will be no instruction

or order by us

to crush it down."

So that was quite important message.

NARRATION: A nameless grave in Budapest

hid the murdered leaders of the 1956 uprising.

Now the government agreed to rehabilitate them,

the dead and the living.

Erzsebet Hrozova was 18

when she fought in the uprising.

She spent 12 years in prison.

[Speaking Hungarian ]

I felt as you do when a plaster is removed

and at last you can breathe freely.

You don't have to lower your head anymore.

I felt I could breathe again.

NARRATION: lmre Nagy and his comrades

were given a public funeral.

The Government declared

that the 1956 revolution was justified.

The crowd listened to the names of the martyrs.

NEMETH: I was stunned to see that

on that list,

young boys when they imprisoned them,

arrested them,

they were 14, 16 years old

and they waited until they celebrated

their 18th birthday.

And next morning,

they killed some of them.

The reburial meant to us

a reconciliation with our past and history.

It meant a new start,

a fresh start

especially in the political side

of our life --

and a renewal.

NARRATION: A month before,

the Cold War had lost a symbol.

The Hungarian government took down

the barbed wire on its border

with Austria and the West.

The Soviet Union did nothing.

Although travel was still not completely free,

the Iron Curtain was starting to unravel.

I refused to give to the Home Minister money

in that year's budget

for the renewal, or the refurbishment

of the old barbed wire system.

[Speaking Hungarian ]

They said that the Iron Curtain

was technically obsolete.

It didn't work as a barrier any more.

They should not maintain a construction

that endangered people's lives.

NARRATION: Hungary's boldness alarmed

the hardline Warsaw Pact leaders.

None was more shocked than the East German ruler

Erich Honecker.

His state formed the Soviet Empire's frontier

with the West.

[Speaking German ]

Honeckefls first reaction was

to send the Minister of Foreign Affairs to Moscow

to protest against this decision.

Moscow's answer was,

"We can't do anything about it."

This was unique.

It was the first time that Moscow had said

anything like this to us.

[ Chanting ]

NARRATION: The Poles, like the Hungarians,

were breaking with the communist system.

[Speaking Polish]

Faced with a wave of political strikes,

led by the Opposition movement Solidarity,

the regime had given way.

[Speaking Polish]

I knew that the communist system was finished.

The only problem was, what would be

the best way to get rid of Communism.

In 1981, with Soviet approval,

Solidarity had been crushed by the Polish army.

Its leaders were imprisoned.

Now, in early 1989,

the government opened roundtable talks

with Solidarity.

The Polish communists were prepared to share power,

to discuss a shift towards democracy.

[Speaking Polish]

Democratic institutions were being formed.

They were substitutes for a full democracy,

but we were different

compared to the other countries of the Bloc.

We were in a way a heretical island.

NARRATION: In June, elections were held.

So/idarnosc.

- Solidarnosc. - Solidarnosc.

NARRATION: They produced a stunning defeat

for the Communists.

Solidarity won 99 out of 100 seats

in the Senate.

Within weeks, the first anti-Communist Prime Minister

in the Soviet Bloc took office.

[Speaking Polish]

When we knew that Gorbachev was thinking about reform,

we saw he would not oppose our reforms,

and that was important to us.

NARRATION: At the Warsaw Pact Summit,

the leaders were divided.

Honecker, like Romania's Nicolae Ceausescu,

was alarmed by what was happening

in Poland and Hungary.

[ Gorbachev speaking Russian ]

INTERPRETER: Honecker and particularly Ceausescu

were against our reforms.

On one occasion,

we were having a meeting with him,

in his residence on the outskirts of Bucharest.

He and his wife, Raisa and myself,

were having a discussion.

Our passions really ran high.

We spoke in such loud voices

that we had to remove all our security people

so that they wouldn't hear us.

[ Man speaking Hungarian]

INTERPRETER: We heard that Ceausescu of Romania,

Jakes of Czechoslovakia

and Honecker were organizing some sort of conspiracy.

They wanted to talk Gorbachev into intervention

against Poland and Hungary.

They said that these nations had already

passed the limits of what was acceptable

in socialist countries.

When I heard the first proposal

from Ceausescu on this,

I looked

at the other side of the table

where the Soviet delegation

was seated

and our eyes crossed each other's eyes.

He was signalling to me that,

"Okay, don't argue against it."

So in other words he sent me

by his eyes

an important message --

that you don't have to say a word.

It will not happen.

And it did not.

NARRATION: In July,

President Bush visited Poland and Hungary.

The West gave them moral support

for democratic change, but little more.

We did have some modest economic packages

for both countries,

but really we did not wanna

kinda pump money down a rat-hole either.

We wanted to be sure that the economic reforms --

the moves towards free markets --

those things were for real,

that they were gonna continue.

NARRATION: In Hungary,

Bush was presented with a piece of barbed wire,

a souvenir of Hungary's dismantled Iron Curtain.

We believe that the artificial,

physical, and spiritual wail

still existing in the world

some day shall collapse everywhere.

And that is just beautiful.

Thank you, sir.

I'm kind of an emotional sort of person anyway.

I cry too easily. I did then. I do now.

And I had tears in my eyes

when I was given this symbol

of the end of the Cold War.

NARRATION: On his Wyoming ranch,

James Baker, Bush's Secretary of State,

discovered a real friendship for Eduard Shevardnadze,

the Soviet Foreign Minister.

MAN: Excuse me, I'm from the parks service.

Do you guys have a fishing license?

Absolutely.

Two of them.

NARRATION: Baker confirmed to Shevardnadze

that the United States would tread carefully

in Eastern Europe,

and would not exploit Soviet problems there.

BAKER: What was achieved at Jackson Hole was,

I think, a new atmosphere of trust.

Everyone on the American side,

as a matter of fact, felt it was very important

that we assist Gorbachev and Shevardnadze

and the reformers in the Soviet Union

in any way we could,

to arrive at a soft landing.

The Cold War didn't have to end with a whimper.

It could have gone out with a bang.

NARRATION: Already, in Communist China,

a surge of demands for human rights and democracy

had ended in tragedy.

On Tiananmen Square, in Beijing,

tanks and troops had attacked peaceful demonstrators

and slaughtered them.

[gunfire]

The world shuddered.

Would reform in Eastern Europe end like this?

Erich Honecker, in East Germany,

admired the Chinese solution to political protest.

Honecker refused to admit that anything was wrong

with his own system.

[speaking Russian ]

I told them that they were responsible

for the situation in their own countries.

"You decide what reforms you need.

We need perestroika.

Whether you need perestroika is up to you."

Honecker said, "We've done our perestroika.

We have nothing to re-structure."

NARRATION: But in reality,

East Germany was rotting away.

Pollution poisoned air and water.

The economy was running down.

The police state stifled all initiative.

There was apathy in public,

daydreams in private.

[Speaking German ]

Most people in the GDR

withdrew into their private lives.

You went to your job,

saw to it that your private life was

protected from harm.

Then you withdrew into your home,

with your friends in your own private world.

You criticized society at home,

but only among people you trusted.

[woman speaking German ]

INTERPRETER: There was a video camera installed

in the building opposite us

which was trained on our window.

Every private word we said,

every dispute about who had to do the dishes,

every argument with the children

was listened to and noted down.

Everyone who entered our house was videotaped.

NARRATION: That summer, East Germans rushed

to take holidays in Hungary.

There was an escape hatch

Hungary's border with the West was weakening.

In Budapest, East Germans besieged

the West German Embassy,

demanding help to emigrate.

[Speaking German ]

It was known that every German from the GDR

who chose to live in freedom and democracy

would get all possible support from us.

NARRATION: The West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl

had confidence in Gorbachev.

Kohl planned to rescue the Hungarian economy

if the East Germans were allowed to go West.

He trusted Gorbachev not to block the deal

with the Hungarians.

[Speaking German ]

[cheers and applause]

NARRATION: The Hungarians agreed to let the East Germans

cross to the West.

Honecker called the refugees moral outcasts.

[Speaking German ]

I believe he felt a mixture

of anger and utter contempt

for these masses of people...

these ungrateful people,

who had run over to the other side.

NARRATION: The refugees had been travelling

from East Germany to Hungary

in the hope of getting to the West.

Now East Germany blocked travel to Hungary.

Desperate, the fleeing East Germans

turned to Czechoslovakia.

They gathered at the West German Embassy

in Prague.

[Speaking German ]

We had no prospects.

I didn't want my child to grow up under that repression.

It wasn't just that we couldn't travel --

it was small everyday things.

NARRATION: When the Embassy was full,

the refugees climbed into the garden.

We didn't know what was going to happen to us.

We knew there were many people inside waiting,

but we weren't sure

whether there would be police inside

or even the state security police -- the Stasi.

We walked fearfully along the fence,

and then people from inside the Embassy came up

and said, "Don't you want to come in?"

We were astonished and said, "Yes."

"Wait," they said. "We'll get a ladder."

We climbed the fence and were inside.

At first we saw just people.

It was frightening. People everywhere.

NARRATION: More and more refugees crammed themselves

into the Embassy and refused to leave.

[Speaking German ]

NARRATION: The Czech police made futile attempts

to stop the inrush.

Inside the Embassy,

the overcrowding and squalor grew worse

day by day-

Both German governments, East and West,

were at their wits' end.

West Germany's Foreign Minister, Hans Dietrich Genscher,

came to Prague.

Under Soviet and West German pressure,

Honecker had consented to a face-saving deal.

[ Honecker speaking German ]

[cheers and applause]

NARRATION: The refugees could go to West Germany,

but only if their train

crossed East German territory first.

Then Honecker could claim that he had expelled them

and cancel led their citizenship.

[cheers and applause]

[ Spannaus speaking German ]

The train stopped.

Two men opened the doors.

"Good day, we are from the state security

and will collect your identity cards now."

And I will never forget how they had to bend down

to collect these documents,

because the people threw their identity cards

at their feet.

The feeling was, "There's your card.

You can't threaten me anymore."

It was very satisfying.

NARRATION: Back in Prague,

a new wave of refugees stormed the Embassy fence.

Their last chance of reaching the West

seemed to be vanishing.

Within a few days, another 7,000 people

had scrambled into the Embassy garden.

Some East Germans chose to stay and protest.

The Lutheran churches were sheltering

an opposition movement.

Inspired by Gorbachev, the protestors dreamed

of turning East Germany into a democracy.

[Speaking German ]

Gorbachev gave us great hope.

First of all,

he tried to change his country

in the same way as we wanted to change our country,

through perestroika --

a gradual liberalization.

NARRATION: In Leipzig,

the police struck back.

On September 4th,

Western journalists filmed plainclothes security men

as they attacked the demonstrators.

[chanting in German]

NARRATION: Soon came a new chant of defiance --

"We are staying here."

[Speaking German ]

"We are staying here," was a protest

against what the GDR had done --

namely to drive young people to leave the country

because they had no prospects.

That was a turning point.

And people said, "We still have hope."

NARRATION: Every Monday in Leipzig,

there were demonstrations at the Nikoli church.

They swelled into mass protests.

The police tried to stop them.

But the government was losing its nerve.

[Speaking German ]

In short, we were speechless

because we were helpless.

Because this country

and this leadership

had never before experienced a conflict

which was so openly expressed.

NARRATION: Only Honecker seemed to notice nothing amiss.

On the eve of East Germany's 40th anniversary that October,

he was confident as he waited

with his colleague Egon Krenz

to greet his senior guest, Mikhail Gorbachev.

The Soviet delegation already knew

that the East German regime was tottering.

[cheers and applause]

The outward show

of victorious celebration went ahead.

Then, at the torchlight parade

of Communist youth,

the marchers dropped their rehearsed slogans.

They began to chant another name...

"Gorby."

[chanting cheering]

Honecker pretended not to notice.

[ Gorbachev speaking Russian ]

These were specially chosen young people,

strong and good-looking.

They were in a cheerful mood,

but they started chanting slogans...

"Gorby help us!

Gorby stay here!"

Rakovvski, the Polish leader, came up to us

and said, "Do you understand German?"

I said, "I do, a little bit."

"Can you hear?" I said, "I can."

He said, "This is the end."

And that was the end.

The regime was doomed.

[Speaking German ]

This was a vote of no confidence against us.

"Gorby, Gorby" did not mean

do it exactly as it was done in the Soviet Union.

"Gorby, Gorby" meant,

we need change here in the GDR.

NARRATION: In a series of increasingly surreal meetings,

Gorbachev tried to inject a sense of reality.

[speaking Russian ]

Honecker and I spent about three hours talking.

He couldn't understand

why I wanted a meeting.

But we had a serious discussion.

I told him what we were doing.

He told me what they were doing.

He described it all as one victory after another.

But I said,

"He who lags behind events, loses."

[Speaking German ]

It was absolutely clear to me that both sides

spoke about two completely different things.

They did not try to meet in the middle.

During the whole conversation

they did not agree on a single thing.

NARRATION: As the leaders met at the closing reception,

a plot was hatching against Erich Honecker.

A group in the East German Politburo had decided

to try and get rid of him.

[Speaking German ]

We could no longer afford to hesitate

in removing Honecker.

We had to act fast.

You could see that he did not understand

what was going on.

He had an autocratic approach

to what was happening around him.

He couldn't cope with the situation.

[Speaking German ]

NARRATION: At dinner with Gorbachev

and the leaders of the Warsaw Pact countries,

Honecker was a complacent host.

Meanwhile, a hostile crowd was gathering outside.

Gorby, help us!

Gorby, help us!

Gorby, help us!

Gorby, Gorby!

Gorby, Gorby!

Gorby, Gorby!

Gorby, Gorby!

Gorby, Gorby!

Gorby, Gorby!

[chanting continues]

Honecker was planning to stamp out

the new opposition.

No one was sure how far he would go.

[Speaking German ]

There was a permanent fear that there might be

a "Chinese solution" to the problem,

and that weapons might be used.

We could never ignore this possibility.

Sometimes we even thought

that Soviet tanks might appear.

NARRATION: That evening, the demonstrations in Berlin continued.

[chanting in German]

NARRATION: in Leipzig earlier that day,

the authorities made ready to meet the demonstrations

with armed force.

[Speaking German ]

On the afternoon of October 7,

the entire square was cordoned off

by the police.

It was the first time I saw the power of the police.

They stood in a phalanx with their helmets,

and shields, and face masks.

And standing there right up to them

we felt their force and violence.

[chanting continues]

NARRATION: That night, the police charged

and scattered the demonstrators.

But an even larger protest rally was called

for two days later.

The army was on standby.

[Speaking German ]

They realized they they could ho longer

control the events with the police alone.

They wanted to use us to increase the pressure

on the situation.

[Speaking German ]

Almost all paramilitary brigades were mobilized.

The voluntary police force were out in strength.

More than 8,000 men were armed

and sent with their equipment to Leipzig.

We were issued with twice as much ammunition

as normal.

Usually we had 6O rounds.

Now they gave us 120 rounds.

[Speaking German ]

One of us had a friend in the hospital

and he'd heard that blood reserves had been ordered,

and that spare beds were to be kept free

on that day.

The city was in a state of emergency.

Shops had to close at 5:00.

We felt very intimidated.

At work, people warned each other,

"Don't go into town tonight.

Who knows what's going to happen?"

NARRATION: As the Leipzig demonstration moved off,

the local Communist Party leaders realized

that 70,000 people were already on the streets.

Alarmed, the Soviet Ambassador telephoned

the commander of Soviet forces in the region.

[ Kochemasov speaking Russian ]

"I urge you to immediately order the troops

back to the barracks.

That's the first thing.

Secondly, stop all maneuvers.

Third, stop all flights

of military planes.

And under no circumstances

interfere in the developments."

[ Chanting ]

NARRATION: The Leipzig Communists begged the opposition

to talk with them.

Then, without higher orders,

they pulled back the East German police and troops.

The demonstration went off peacefully.

For East Germans, this was the turning point.

[Speaking German ]

People almost fell into each others' arms

and said, "Oh, my goodness.

Now something is happening

and now finally we're starting to talk to each other.

And if we talk to each other

we won't shoot at each other."

NARRATION: Now Honeckefls allies deserted him.

He was voted out of power

by Egon Krenze and the entire Politburo

on October 17.

[Speaking German ]

It was high time for him to go.

It would have been impossible for us to get out

of this deep valley with him at the top,

even if he had mustered all his authority for change.

NARRATION: Now Egon Krenz was in charge.

He promised democratic reforms.

He assured the people that he would make it easier

for East Germans to travel West --

the issue which had set off the whole crisis.

[Speaking German ]

Of course we felt under tremendous pressure.

It was non-stop.

We had to make a move.

NARRATION: On November 1,

Krenz visited Gorbachev in Moscow.

[ Krenz speaking German ]

We talked very openly

about the question of free travel.

And he said to me,

"|f you don't find a new formula

which allows the GDR citizens to travel,

then things won't look good for you."

[speaking Russian ]

Egon Krenz was unfortunately devoid

of any charismatic qualities.

He wasn't accepted by the people.

He wasn't attractive to the masses.

He couldn't find the words

to speak to people

because he only spoke the old party jargon.

[Speaking German ]

By '89, many people, myself included,

were no longer prepared to look for dialogue.

I remember that we said,

"Now our readiness for dialogue has expired."

Now it's confrontation."

NARRATION: In vain, Krenz offered new freedoms.

The street demonstrations grew bigger,

and asked for more.

In East Berlin on November 4th,

a crowd of half a million people gathered.

[Speaking German ]

[ Applause ]

HEYM: If you live in a system that is suppressive,

you don't walk upright,

you always go this way,

with your head down.

And now was a chance to walk upright

and to show your face

and to show the power of the people.

NARRATION: On November 9, 1989

Gunter Schabowski told journalists in Berlin

that restrictions on travel to the West

would be lifted.

The Government meant the change to start next day.

But Schabowski mistook the timing.

[Speaking German ]

NARRATION: The news flashed around the city.

East Berliners rushed to see

if the checkpoints in the Wall

were really opening.

[chanting in German]

NARRATION: The border guards were baffled.

[Speaking German ]

We didn't get any instructions from our superiors,

DONE.

Only -- observe the situation.

We tried many times to speak to our superiors,

but nobody got back to us.

You have to bear in mind that our soldiers

were fully armed on this day as always.

And they had one order.

NARRATION: That order was to stop anyone trying to escape,

but the crowds were huge now.

Suddenly, the guards gave in.

They opened the barriers.

[shouting applause]

They opened the borders

and didn't take any counter measures.

They didn't consult me or get my approval.

[shouting applause]

[Speaking German ]

[woman speaking German ]

INTERPRETER: I found myself in a group of people

who were applauding.

I didn't understand right away why.

Then I realized.

I really was in West Berlin,

and West Berliners had come to the border

and they were applauding us.

We were all crying and embracing each other.

Even now when I think about it,

my heart is racing.

It was so moving.

[ Cheers, car horns]

[Speaking German ]

West Berliners arrived

from the other direction.

They began to demolish the Wall

in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

[Speaking German ]

There was a common idea.

Now we have to get rid of the Wall.

Everybody had different reasons.

For me it was that I had relatives oh the other side

who couldn't come over.

When I remembered my aunt,

and how I couldn't see her before she died,

it made me so angry.

It was liberating to do something against the Wail.

[Speaking German ]

BUSH: It was emotional for me,

but I must confess that I had in mind

not over-reacting.

The stupidest thing that any President

could have done then would have been

going over there, danced on the Berlin Wall,

and stick his fingers right into the eyes

of the Soviet military and of Gorbachev.

Who knows how they would have had to react?

[distant cheers and applause]

Next morning, I got a phone call.

They told me what had happened.

I said, "You made the right decision."

Because how could you shoot at Germans

who walk across the border

to meet other Germans oh the other side?

So the policy had to change.

NARRATION: Across this Wall, two worlds had

faced each other in arms.

Now their enmity was dumped into history.

Germany would be reunited.

But Europe's revolution against Communism

was not yet done.