Changes

As reforms in Hungary in 1989 led to the dismantling of the secure border between Hungary and Austria, large numbers of East Germans began taking "vacations" to Hungary, from which they never returned, using vacation visas to travel to Hungary, and from there via Austria to West Germany. As East German authorities began blocking travel to Hungary, East Germans began going to other Eastern bloc countries, especially Czechoslovakia, where they stormed the compounds of the West German embassy in Prague and refused to leave until granted permission to leave for West Germany. The GDR regime relented and allowed those East Germans camping out at West German embassies to travel on sealed trains through the GDR to West Germany.

As reforms in Hungary in 1989 led to the dismantling of the secure border between Hungary and Austria, large numbers of East Germans began taking "vacations" to Hungary, from which they never returned, using vacation visas to travel to Hungary, and from there via Austria to West Germany. As East German authorities began blocking travel to Hungary, East Germans began going to other Eastern bloc countries, especially Czechoslovakia, where they stormed the compounds of the West German embassy in Prague and refused to leave until granted permission to leave for West Germany. The GDR regime relented and allowed those East Germans camping out at West German embassies to travel on sealed trains through the GDR to West Germany.

At the same time, protest movements in East Germany began to growth, fueled in large part by the explosive growth of the "Prayers for Peace" demonstrations help every Monday evening at the St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig. This rising protest, along with the exodus of GDR citizens to West Germany, led to pressures for liberalized travel permissions. The SED Politburo discussed such measures in early November 1989, promising to ease restrictions. However, when Gunther Schabowski, SED chief for East Berlin, read the Politburo report on East German television at 7 p.m. on November 9, 1989, he looked surprised as he read the vague language in which the party promised the border would be opened for "private trips abroad." Immediately, thousands of East Germans began to flood the border checkpoints and crossings in East Berlin, and the torrent of people opened the borders in effect, leading to joyous celebrations around the Berlin Wall. Many Germans began to destroy the Wall literally, using sledgehammers, axes and other tools to chip away at the concrete. The symbolic and then literal fall of the Berlin Wall marked an end to an important psychological barrier separating the two Germanies, leading to widespread desires for unification of East and West Germany. On July 1, 1990, an economic, monetary and social union of the two Germanies was created, preparatory to the incorporation of East Germany's six ''Bundesländer'' (federal states) into the Federal Republic on October 3, 1990, when the GDR became part of the FRG.<ref>http://www.coldwar.org/articles/80s/fall_berlin_wall.asp</ref>

At the same time, protest movements in East Germany began to grow, fueled in large part by the explosive growth of the "Prayers for Peace" demonstrations help every Monday evening at the St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig. This rising protest, along with the exodus of GDR citizens to West Germany, led to pressures for liberalized travel permissions. The SED Politburo discussed such measures in early November 1989, promising to ease restrictions. However, when Gunther Schabowski, SED chief for East Berlin, read the Politburo report on East German television at 7 p.m. on November 9, 1989, he looked surprised as he read the vague language in which the party promised the border would be opened for "private trips abroad." Immediately, thousands of East Germans began to flood the border checkpoints and crossings in East Berlin, and the torrent of people opened the borders in effect, leading to joyous celebrations around the Berlin Wall. Many Germans began to destroy the Wall literally, using sledgehammers, axes and other tools to chip away at the concrete. The symbolic and then literal fall of the Berlin Wall marked an end to an important psychological barrier separating the two Germanies, leading to widespread desires for unification of East and West Germany. On July 1, 1990, an economic, monetary and social union of the two Germanies was created, preparatory to the incorporation of East Germany's six ''Bundesländer'' (federal states) into the Federal Republic on October 3, 1990, when the GDR became part of the FRG.<ref>http://www.coldwar.org/articles/80s/fall_berlin_wall.asp</ref>

[[Image:World clock.jpg‎|right|thumb|300px| '''World Clock''' on Alexander Platz, East Berlin.]]

[[Image:World clock.jpg‎|right|thumb|300px| '''World Clock''' on Alexander Platz, East Berlin.]]