The "muren" imprisoning East Germany was a testament to how much communism was truly something people wanted.

Hungary is celebrating the twentieth anniversary of its emancipation from communism. It was back in 1989 that the newly elected reformist government of Budapest took the first step towards the fall of the Iron Curtain, the tearing down of the Berlin wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War after four-and-a-half decades spent at the edge of a Third World War.

Migrations had not been allowed between the communist sphere of influence and the western capitalist nations. In fact, this measure culminated in the impenetrable wall separating Berlin in 1961 to halt a massive exodus of peoples away from communist totalitarianism and towards the freedom of the West. A prominent Hungarian man in 1989, Lazlo Nagy simply wanted to initiate the Eastern European push towards democracy. In his own words, “The Soviet Bloc was like an air balloon with over-pressure so it needed only a prick of the needle and we were holding the needle.” Poland was the first to declare a Republic free of Moscow’s meddling but it was Hungary that would actively destroy Moscow’s puppet-masters.

To this end, Hungary declared its own republic and decided to open its border with Austria. This simple measure represented a hole in the European “Iron Curtain” and through a long and costly journey, Eastern Europeans and many Eastern Germans could freely travel to Hungary, on to Austria and then finally to any country they desired. Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission commemorates the Hungarian initiative of 1989 by stating it “gave hope to millions of citizens for a Europe whole and free.” He remembers it as “The walk to freedom, democracy and European solidarity.”

What followed was a renewed exodus to the west, a humiliation of Moscow’s waning power and the rise of mass protests in Berlin demanding that the Wall be brought down. Wir wollen raus! or “we want out!” was chanted towards East Berlin’s Communist headquarters as insurgents and resistance members were beginning to organize in the nation’s Catholic churches. Fortunately, East Germany, with the implied blessing of Moscow, decided to gradually reduce isolationist measures. Unfortunately for them, someone would screw up their hastily drawn-up plan.

A Typo to Freedom

The East German Party Secretary for Propaganda, Günter Schabowski, was given a memo to deliver in front of the press and live radio and television services. The memo allowed limited business and private travel across the European divide with the presentation of properly acquired permits. The tourists would then be expected to return home. This measure was to take place the following day and would allow Eastern Europe to regroup while people applied for travel permits that could be subtly delayed indefinitely. History only knows if Mr. Schabowski was feeling sick, tired or inattentive but he went on to summarily tell the people that crossings were to be permitted between East and West Germany. Further on, when asked “When will this take effect?” a dumbfounded Propaganda secretary looked at his scribbled note, didn’t find any help and said “That is…as far as I’m aware…it is right now, immediately.”

Schabowski had just come back from the communist "party".

What followed minutes later in the evening of November 9^th, 1989 was a flood of thousands of East Germans showing up along the Berlin Wall’s checkpoints to gain freedom and thousands of West German shouting welcoming words to their estranged countrymen. For dozens and dozens of tension-filled minutes, the armed guards patrolling the wall frantically called headquarters for instructions but thankfully, no one was willing to give the order to use lethal force. With a lack of communist damage control and with the guards simply standing aside, the next 24 hours saw the passing of tens if not hundreds of thousands of Germans from East to West. With songs of joy celebrating reunification and the downfall of communist tyranny, they took up sledgehammers and steadily destroyed the Berlin Wall. Built by oppression and destroyed by the people.

Political, economic, social and cultural reunification of Germany was to officially occur on a prolonged timeframe over the next decade but West German chancellor Helmut Kohl agilely engineered a new German state rid of WW2 and Cold War stigma (to the greatest extent possible for the time) and in less than a year, the two Germanies were one. A simple Hungarian policy change led to a defining moment in European history, and soon a defining moment for the future of all international relations.

Indeed, one year after the German “lovefest”, USSR secretary Mikhail Gorbachev conceded the defeat of his empty and bankrupt empire and dissolved the Soviet Union, ending the Cold War.

The saying goes “all that it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”; the opposite was proven to be equally true in 1989.

End.

1989 - With barbed wire torn down and armed sentries standing down, Germany broke down into unapologetic "lovefest".