CBC Archives: Berlin Wall Falls, 1989

[DalekTV]

that's odd in my geography class my teacher says this happened in 1990. I guess he is wrong.

[grimmerMD]

This seems like the last good piece of international news up until today.

[shakysyxx]

the countrys tough travel laws were no more cause the citizens knew this was the end of communism and so did the soldiers and police...so they said fuck it,open up the "borders"..i say "borders" cause i dont believe borders by city in ONE country...Germany is whole...and one day...Korea will be whole also :)

[Saartjuh1993]

i looked this up becuase my history tacher was talking about it today since the subject we're working on is the cold war. and my history teacher said he saw this on TV and was acting all smug and it was very funny so it made me wanna see this too since i wasnt even born when it happened. But I still feel very ahppy watchin

[jamesetaylor89]

danidee83 the sucide rates in the east would have far made up for any increase in well being. only hungary had a higher sucide rate. the drug abuse was also a lot higher in the east and for that reason many artists liked it there.

And Mitchtickler the life expectancy today is 77.4 for males and 81.6 for women compared to the life expectancy of the time which was at it's highest 68.3 years. and im not even going to go into global warming.

[abqwriter]

I was 10 years old when this happened. I didn't understand why my mom and dad jumped up and down when they saw this on American TV but now it brings a smile to my face!

[DukeAlba]

A great day... 1989 was a great year.

[kondurperusix]

Cuban press did not mention nothing about the XX aniversay of the fall of the wall,I expected to find fidel articles taking shit about gorbachev or something like that............

[mizzoulibertarian]

when this happened I thought it was a great thing. but considering the chaos that came afterword such as the Balkans I don't know. Some people need a firm hand. CHina is liberlizing at a more controlled pace.

[big78900]

The Balkans would have happened anyway!! With or without the fall of the wall. The wall fell because the Soviet Union would'nt send the tanks in. Thank god there is no Soviet Union making people's life sit

[danidee83]

After Die Berliner Mauer fall down. The West German believed that East Germans are unhealthy & Sicker then People from the West. In Fact the East German people are healthy, Stronger & have a lower health problems like Asthma & Heart Diseases & lower drug addiction. It all changes now, we have them same health issues as the west. Maybe McDonald's & to much different cleaning products kills the Immune system? But, we have the choices now, Ja! let's all purchase products made in China.

[ichliebeesherr]

Happy birthday!! :E BERLIN!!!!

[sicilianbeddu123]

cold hard evidence that people prefer democracy over communsim

[mitchtickler]

Very True That... But do people Prefer Capitalism? And is Capitalism the correct system for our Planets future? These are the New challenges the Children born in 1989 face unfortunately...

[jneilson42]

People didn't start fleeing the USSR because they couldn't vote - they fled because of the shortages and poverty that spread across the USSR with the near-elimination of capitalism.

Totalitarianism was needed to keep people trapped in an economic system - one where the government owns the means of production and is the sole distributor of the benefits - that simply doesn't work.

[mitchtickler]

They are very valid arguments you make & I am not disputing them at all, I am simply putting forward the question that in this Day & Age is Capitalism & Consumerism destroying our planet & on a personal level our Health? We all fill our homes with products we don't need. Marketing machines have us Brainwashed in a similar fashion to the Soviets, 3000 ads per day. Think about it: Economic growth = Global warming. In Russia under communism the average life span was 75y/o & now it's 65 for a Man.

[Xantheus07]

@mitchtickler So you think humans are automatons and dont have free will? People buy stuff because they want it not because they need it. I bet you don't buy 80% of the stuff you see commercialized. The real problem is people want stuff cheap and fast. Capitalism has nothing to do with it. It does not force people to buy. Who cares what the average life span was in communist Russia i would rather live 20 years in capitalism then an eternity in communism.

[mitchtickler]

Of coarse I don't think humans are 'automatons' ... I am not a communist or am I advocating that Communism is better the Capitalism. I was simply commenting on 'danidee83's' comment. how some aspects under communism were better then in the west. The U.S propaganda would have you believe otherwise.

My main point was not about life spans under communism but the real threat of global warming...

Give it another few years and you'll get your wish, the average life span of Americans will be 20.

[Xantheus07]

At what cost was it better, the cost of self expression? Was it worth it? So despite Communist Propaganda the rest of the world knows how terrible it is to live in a communist society. Any 1 who overlooks the fact you need a wall to make sure people stay to enjoy the few things communist did better then Capitalistic is being asinine.

[rangergxi]

@Xantheus07 Russia was awful before communism, they have had a history of cruelty since the days of Mongol rule.

[rangergxi]

@mitchtickler ... Umm... With better Medicine and more technology they will have worse lifespans?

[rangergxi]

@Xantheus07  Really?

[zaino1975]

maken same on border usa and mexico. put fuck in dawn the wall. stupid idea to american goberment.asshoole...fredom on mex

[THUNDERCRUSHER]

Freedom to Venezuela!!

Libertad, libertad!!

[maryam6384]

happy anniversary for whole world, and I hope freedom in my country Iran, free of theocratic dictatorship

[Zorn27]

jesus, how long has Peter MAnsbridge been doing CBC?

[theedge76]

forever man.

[zippidog]

3 words..."GROUP HUG EVERYONE"

[imre420]

I remember watching this 20 years ago. Seem like yesterday.

[Zahnfee477]

Dankeschön!

[Sealsealdk]

Happy aniversary!

[Zahnfee477]

@Sealsealdk

Dankeschön!

[jamarsano]

This is great - mostly because of the various errors of fact and perception that were going on at the time and which are present in this report..

It is wonderful to get a glimpse of the information that people were getting at the time - without hindsight - in the wonderful confusion of the moment.

Just 2 examples: the announcement of the opening was a mistake by a tired civil servant. The people whose passports were being stamped were actually being "marked" for punishment later.

[uluuluululu]

not exactly right: the announcement wasn't a mistake at all, schabowski only forgot to mention the holdback period which was hand written on the document and which stated that the new regulation would be effective from 4.00am on. the reason for that was that egon krenz gave him the paper only minutes before the press conference

[Ferdinand1012]

I was 1 year when I watch those documents. Well, I don't remeber but my father told me that.

[schwixol]

north korea makes stalin look like clinton. seriously, look it up, the videos here are insane. brainwashing galore. the cold war may have ended, abuse of power is eternal sadly.

[sultankinkari]

You can't be serious. North Korea is a terrible place, but Stalin killed 50 million people.

[acpren]

Amazing to revisit this. 20 years, and I rember how in no time flat, entrepreneurs were chopping it up and selling pieces of the wall. It was such a juge symbol. So g;ad the Stalinistic era is behind us.

[colbertLOTR91]

not really, North korea is still living in the Stalinistic era.

[Sean175]

Same here, Gruß aus dem Rheinland

[capitaincuster]

is this copyrighted?

[zookeeper216]

I was so happy when this happened.