What happened that November evening?
Protests in the GDR and the departure of many people had put the SED leadership under pressure. On 9 November, Günter Schabowski announced new travel arrangements. His statement was understood as an immediate opening, and people went to the border crossings.
When the crossings opened, people could pass through the previously heavily guarded border. “Fall of the Wall” describes this political and practical breakthrough. It does not mean that the entire structure disappeared that night.
The other three answers
Only one of the four years matches the opening of the border crossings.
1987
1987 is too early. The Berlin Wall still divided the city then; the decisive evening of its opening came in November 1989.
1992
1992 comes after both the Wall’s opening and reunification. The continued presence of traces of the border does not move the fall of the Wall to that year.
1995
1995 is also too late. The question asks when the opening began, not for a later year when the border could already be crossed freely.
“Open” does not mean “immediately removed in full”.
The catalogue’s wording “open to everyone” sums up the break with the previous border closure. Events unfolded differently at individual crossings; the physical structures and border administration did not vanish in one moment.
The GDR initially continued to exist after 9 November. Reunification was a further political and legal step the following year. Always distinguish the Wall’s construction, its opening and German unity.
Fall of the Wall · House of History ↗Wall open: 9 November 1989.
Link “open” with 1989. German unity belongs to 3 October 1990.
Three words for this question
- der Mauerfallfall of the Wall
- The term for the opening of the Berlin Wall in November 1989.
- der Grenzübergangborder crossing
- A place where a border can be crossed.
- der Abbaudismantling
- The gradual removal of an installation or structure.