relay wall -- berlin wall. it is here at the newseum. we are taking your phone calls regionally. mark is next out of shelbyville, indiana. good morning. caller: good morning. i lived in berlin from's 1979 to 1985. i was a bartender not far from where you are now. i loved that city. a tragedy inen for my family, i would never have left. when i visit, it's hard to leave. to me, there are a lot of things to talk about, but what i remember, besides being upset i wasn't there, was the substance of it. the people that had lived there, i never thought i would have saw the wall fall in my lifetime, and is kind of the way history turns. i'm sure there were things leading up to it, but the actual event itself was sudden and a little shocking to me. host: mark, think for the call. hope harrison. guest: the actual event was not supposed to happen. it was a mistake by a senior east german official who didn't read his notes carefully. suddenly, he announced the wall was open, which it wasn't supposed to be. then, the border

relay wall berlin wall. it is here at the newseum. we are taking your phone calls regionally. mark is next out of shelbyville, indiana. good morning. >> good morning. i lived in berlin from 1979 to 1985. i was a bartender not far from where you are now. i loved that city. had it not been for a tragedy in my family, i would never have left. when i visit, it's hard to leave. to me, there are a lot of things to talk about, but what i remember, besides being upset i wasn't there, was the substance of it. the people that had lived there, i never thought i would have saw the wall fall in my lifetime, and is kind of the way history turns. i'm sure there were things leading up to it, but the actual event itself was sudden and a little shocking to me. >> mark, thanks for the call. hope harrison. >> the actual event was not supposed to happen. it was a mistake by a senior east german official who didn't read his notes carefully. suddenly, he announced the wall was open, which it wasn't supposed to be. then, the border

do you know where the wall ran. back there behind the gate there's a line on the ground the lady in your good living will be sort of i've been there i like it where are we now in east or west berlin. i mean here. in the west in the east yes the east or. do you know what the brandenburg gate stands for no no i just got here it's my 1st time here i actually do not know. a couple start it's a symbol of germany's reunification. exactly i'm very good. now it's not about my travel experiences but about yours send in your holiday videos and they might end up as a female here on the show this week's video is by settlement hour from philadelphia seth has been on a tricking trip to norway fantastic picture of your mountains and waterfalls. 'd now on my tour along the berlin wall trail i for right stock lots here you can see a couple of sections of the original berlin wall during germany's division the area was a vast empty field now it's one of the busiest squares in europe. after the fall of the berlin wall everyone wanted t

so the wall is a symbol, just like we have a wall today, wrongs wall, and it is so , so wrong to divide people in know?y, you we have too much of that in our world. we need to come together and just love one another. host: bernadine this morning out of maine, thank you for sharing your memories this morning. i want to turn to our phone line now, to berlin, we are joined by aomas spero on the phone, correspondent covering what is happening in berlin today. thomas spero, thank you so much for your time on a very busy day. can you describe where you are in berlin and what you have been covering today on this 30th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall? guest: i am actually in one of the most important berlin wall memorials, right in the center of berlin, the berlin wall ran across this street, just in front of buildings where people used to live. has become a powerful symbol not only of division and what that division meant for so many families and friends, but also how that division was overcome. where aal for people, lot of tourists come on a daily basis to try and understand both th

now this wall is in the u.s. how do you hope if this makes it to the white house i mean maybe a tall order how do you hope the president might respond i mean hopefully he'll receive the letter and the president that would be great that would be a great sign also from the sides and the grades. side so hopefully he will accept it that's all i hope do you think you have a chance of changing his mind when it comes to walls of course he's been campaigning on building a wall right there on the border with mexico no i don't think he will change and that's not the goal of this this project to make this clear it's a symbol and it's also fun of course but also we want to we want to like communicate to this to the of the u.s. to citizens not only to donald trump it is also like a present we we give to the people in us and maybe ideally this this piece of wall if it will not accept it we want to give it to someone else in the u.s. maybe make a competition out of it what relationship do you think berliners and germans overall

in for traces of the berlin wall. next d w. i'm not laughing at the germans because sometimes i am amazed that nothing with the time and i don't think deep into the german culture . you don't seem to think that his grandmother yeah to you it's all about who you know i'm rachel join me for me to get funky to host. a park in berlin it doesn't look all that special berliners have lots of green space to choose from but this isn't just any party after the fall of the berlin wall in 1990 this brought sectional moments land was turned into a retreat from the area the park that takes us to this week's topic and to the starting point of my tour. i'll be following the berlin wall trail right through the heart of the city. today i ride along before my border between east and west berlin on this bike following the line of the berlin wall i would like to see what remains of the history of the division of the europe germany and berlin so i'm starting here in moa park going through the brandenburg gate and then all the way to the east side ga

it was not far away from here where the wall actually stood on the wall that by the way stood right in front of many buildings that dividing families dividing friends on a such today is a very powerful symbol not only of division but also of that division that was later overcome when the burden wall fell 3 decades ago and we're standing now actually you know places where people after the official ceremony they could actually come here leave a rose as you can actually see there's music behind me and people are attending that sort of improvised concert so this on the one hand was obviously a very political event with chancellor angela merkel with german president fun part of my with the leaders of poland hungary czech republic on. but now after those events finished it is also a commemoration for berlin as for locals for tourists to come here and express their feelings about what the burning wall meant and what the fall of the berlin wall so meant 3 decades ago. now john m. as thomas just mentioned among the guests present at the commemoration of bens this morning where the leaders of

the others out of the wall. no one thought the east germans would be able to cross over. we looked over and all of a sudden several hundred east germans started running by those who were firing wire continents -- water cannons and they would not stop. they ran up to the wall. they started pulling them up by the hundreds. and many of them are here now. tom: and we are told that east berlin and west berlin authorities have worked it out so they can cross both ways. the question is, what will this mean for the east german communist party? it offer this conjecture in an effort it is serious about reform, but will it be the undoing of the party? that will play out in the next several weeks, months, maybe as long as a year. garrick: tomorrow morning, does anyone have any idea of the numbers that might be coming through that wall? are west berliners prepared? tom: frankly, this whole thing is being handled moment by moment. i don't think anyone is prepared for that at all. one of the leaders of the reform movement on t

helped us with overcoming walls tearing down this wall said ronald reagan in the eighty's george bush helped us getting rid of the wall and john f. kennedy was in berlin saying it's benign bellino showing solidarity with berlin sit ins ins so this is a long tradition and we want to remind president on this great tradition now of course the berlin wall as we know it was built to keep its own citizens in writing and trumps a border wall is really meant to keep people out i mean so does your does this symbol really hold and i mean you're absolutely right and we know that this is not 100 percent coherent but it's really the general idea of walls like do walls fit into a democracy and there was say no you shouldn't have walls of course you need bardas etc but that was dia to give us a signal to show us sign a big sign and yeah but you're absolutely right it doesn't fit totally the comparison. how did you get this piece of the ball i mean it's there's only a few bits left in berlin a lot of it was was cleared away pretty much immediately where do you find now these days a piece of the berli

gorbachev, tear down this wall. [cheers] [applause] host: back in the berlin wall gallery in washington, d.c., we welcome angela spence, professor of eurasian, russian and eastern european studies at georgetown university. 9, 1989 -- november what was the story of that day that led to the images that people around the world saw on their televisions that night? guest: it is great to be on your show. this was not planned by the east german government. more and more at this point as the revolutions are going on and east germans are fed up, more and more them, 100,000 of them in the summer months were taking refuge in west german emphases in czechoslovakia, hungary and other places. they were trying to go to west germany. the country was hemorrhaging. at some point the leadership decided we have to let people travel. --this point anyone between if you are under six or over 70 may be you could travel to the west. most young adults could not travel. they decided to have a meeting and some new laws allowing east germans to

in truth the berlin wall was not , just one wall, it was two walls. with a strip in the middle known as death strip. which could be guarded guard dogs, watchtowers, and so on. we actually had one wall, a death strip, and another wall. that was anss extremely difficult feat. people came up with amazingly creative ways to get across that wall. we have a few examples, two families that build hot air balloons and able to float across into west germany. they made the balloon part out of sheets and other pieces of material, which they stitched together. two were able to make that trip. we have another extraordinary story. each three brothers, who managed to cross the border in different ways. one brother floated across the river in an air masters. another brother was able to zipline across the border. he took some fishing line, cableted it to a steel and shot it across the border using a bow and arrow and used it to zip across to freedom. the third brother was act fully able to slide across with a -- fly across with a small light airplane. his other brother

they ran up to the wall. they started pulling them up by the hundreds. -- tom: and we are told they can move through all of the checkpoints very easily. the question is, what will this mean for the east german ?ommunist party will it be the undoing of the party? that will play out in the next several weeks, months, maybe as long as a year. do you have any idea of the numbers that might be coming through that wall? are west berliners prepared? tom: frankly, this whole thing handled moment by moment. i don't think anyone is prepared for that at all. they may lose as many as a million people in east germany, but many of them will come back and there will be a chance to revive the country. there could be an enormous outpouring from east germany out curiosity of nothing else. the city will be besieged. one young man said earlier tonight, i just want to take -- a walk across and see what it is like. guardwas an east german who said, this is not good for us. we could lose our jobs. they were still having to check th

what changed when the wall went up -- 1961, before the wall went up.hat changed when the wall went up? guest: berlin was the capital of espionage in the world. you have people across, east and west, they could carry information, meet with -- in a safe house with their cia handlers, and vice versa. at one point, along with vienna, to a lesser extent, where you had all four of the powers, the bridget's -- british, soviets, and americans together. they were behind the iron curtain, and this was the one place where we had a window view into the soviet union and satellites. the tunnel was one of the ways they came up to get that information -- came up with to get that information. you had, by some estimates, as many as 10,000 people involved in espionage operations and berlin. he couldn't walk down the street properly without running into someone. that all depended on the free access, taking -- access. one of the problems the east germans had was that they were losing so many people. only refugees were coming into the west, in other words, taking the transp

he wanted to smash the berlin wall long before it finally found. a lazy off issued a new york state you know linda bags actually better known as a v.b. legend of german rock music. let's find out more about his amaze.

the berlin wall was not just one wall, it was two walls. with a strip in the middle known as cap -- known as death strip. we actually had one wall, a death strip, and another wall. we have a few examples, two families that build hot air balloons and able to float across into west germany. they made the balloon part out of sheets and other pieces of material, which they stitched together. another extraordinary story. one brother floated across the river in an air masters. another brother was able to zipline across the border. he took some fishing line, connect did it to steel cables and shot it across the border. a third brother was act fully able to slide across with a small light airplane. his other brothers mess among the other side. these stories are stories of success. there were many stories that ended in tragedy. >> at least 140 people were killed trying to cross the berlin wall. tried to climb the wall, they tried to cross the river, they approached the wall. some of the most tragic stories are about people who tried to cross the wal

after 28 years a chink in the wall and suddenly immeasurable freedom. when i'm with my mother and my father over there can i go over there and see my parents yes. good luck. with. that bus and no one dreams this could be possible in their lifetime and the sushi it is too good to be true and in new york millions have waited for this moment. so you've never been to the west no never with sort of feeling is it brilliant indescribable the atmosphere in the joy you can't believe it it's crazy. logs an. 11 30 pm at berlin's bornholmer strasse a transit point the borders 1st began to open here freedom had finally won. now it's off to west berlin. destination the glittering came down from a not. just and we just walked right through without being stopped it was fantastic i thought we were i mean i just went over with my id i asked if it was free yes they asked what are you going to pay with. and what did you do here in western and no f. no left no i just went over stood there had my feet on the ground that's violent that's not just to see if it's not student be

next "the wall," a 1962 u.s. information agency short film that takes us back to witness the shock of berliners and the crisis caused by the walls construction in august of 1961. [video clip] [children yelling] ♪ narrator: we have lived in the shadow of the wall for more than a year. it cuts through the heart of berlin. we have learned to live with it. ♪ narrator: we refuse to think that it will always be this way. ♪ narrator: in the beginning, we waved across the wall to our families in east berlin. ♪ narrator: it didn't matter who watched us. but later, the communist policeman came and stopped our families from waving. ♪ >> [speaking foreign language] narrator: my mother lives over there. they will move her away if she dares to wave. it's forbidden. i speak to my children in east berlin with hand signals, making certain the guards are not watching. i don't want them to harm my family. we have become good with our signals. ♪ narrator: at dusk, the communists have a hard time tracking us down, but we take chances

the fall of the berlin wall next. spokesmanr 9, 1989, a for east berlin's communist party announced that for the first time since the dawn of the cold war, citizens were free to cross the border. this series of nbc special reports covers the breaking culminates in a 20-minute special summarizing wallistory of the berlin and historic events of that day. >> we interrupt this program for an nbc news special report. here is garrick utley. >> good afternoon. a late and truly sensational report coming in from east germany. which endednference just a few minutes ago in east berlin, government officials announced that communist east germany has now declared their border open with west germany. statement is that east german citizens have the right to cross directly from west germany.nto up to now, as you know, the thousands, tens of thousands of going west have had to pass through other communist throughc nations, most czech. czechoslovakia. have theht now they right to go directly through west germany. our correspondent has b

gorbachev, tear down this wall, that the wall opened?i got that question so many time is realized that it was not a one-off question, that it was a deeply held belief here. there's actually a cartoon in the new yorker about it. it has a man reading a fairy taleto his daughter, and it con 'tis of the falling, tear down this one, one king said to the other, and don't came, and they all lived happily ever after. you know when something earned it's own new yorker cartoon it's a cultural phenomenon. i thought for the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall there should be a good book in english about this topic. i read german. i lived in germany for a number of years, and i thought if i didn't read german, what would i read in english? the more i looked, i realized there was not one good book on the opening of the wall in english. then the more i thought about it i realized this lack of a good book, this lack of an accurate account was more than just a historical interest. the belief that the united states single handedly opened the wall has

of the wall gave us our freedom.in reality, it was the other way around. we fought for our freedom and then because of that, the wall fell. thank you for your attention i'm happy to take a few questions . [applause] >> because it's on television, if you can wait until the microphone comes over. and if you can identify yourself and speak toward the microphone, that would be great. >> - - i'm wondering what happened, i think it was a man who as you said, botched the announcement. was there anything that happened to him? what became of him? >> 's name was - - this man sitting here. his name is, he's still alive. he's still alive and i hear he has dementia so i was not able to interview him. his name is - - he was a member of the ruling party and he was responsible for media affairs. despite that title be being a member of - - you didn't have incentive to develop media skills. when you have a regime that can censor the newspapers and in east germany, they just write the headlines. so sometimes the exact story would appea

they ran up to the wall. the west germans saw them and they started pulling them up by the hundreds. tom: and we are told they can move through all of the checkpoints very easily. the question is, what will this mean for the east german communist party? it offered that gesture in an effort to show that it is serious about reform. will it be the undoing of the party? that will play out in the next several weeks, months, maybe as long as a year. tomorrow morning does anybody have any idea of the numbers of people who might be coming through that wall? are west berliners prepared? tom: frankly, this whole thing is being handled moment by moment. i don't think anyone is prepared for that at all. one of the leaders of the reform movement on the other side of the wall in east germany said they may lose as many as a million people in east germany, but many of them will come back and there will be a chance to revive the country. we could have once the floodgates open an enormous outpouring from east germany out of cu

this is deja vu news while i go from berlin tonight remembering when the wall became just a wall in our special coverage of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall we'll take you to the world famous east side gallery where art is turned a symbol of division into a canvas for hopes and dreams also coming up. in iraq the protesters say security forces are shooting at them with lines bullets it's a brutal crackdown as the battle of the bridges in baghdad continues and scientists declare a climate of urgency as the u.s. begins leaving the paris climate agreement and agreement that france and china say must be irreversible. i'm burnt off it's good to have you with us so that november week when everything changed the german capital was marking 30 years since the fall of the berlin wall on the night of nov 9th 1989 east germany's communist regime reopened the border the announcement allowed citizens to safely cross to the west for the 1st time in 30 years it turned the he did and did leave border into just a wall of this week as well as remembering the people who died trying to cro

the berlin wall fell. remember very well when the berlin wall fell. i know that increasingly, visitors to the museum do not remember the berlin wall or east berlin. they do not remember the cold war. at the museum, we have this exhibit on cold war berlin, which too many visitors will be learning about something that they do not know anything about at all. it is important to remember that period of history when physical barriers divided people from the same country into different societies and to remember the differences between those societies. east germany is an example of a surveillance state. we often talk about that balance between security and freedom. whereermany is an example the emphasis was on security over freedom. forhink it is important people to remember when a state like that was like, what it might have felt like. they are giving people a taste of what it might have been like to live in a state like east germany. a tastejust given you of cold war berlin. we hope that it will come to washington dc, visit and see our international on espi

first of all, the berlin wall, that wall of concrete and barbed wire and minefields still stands, but as of right now, it appears to be nothing more than a symbol of the old iron curtain because east germans, east berliners will now have the right to leave through the wall directly into west berlin itself. the government announced instead that east germans will have to have visas to go out but that an order was given today to the police authority along the border to issue those visas to anyone who wants to leave and to issue them quickly. so, to wrap up again, the east german government has bowed to the increasing pressure from its own citizenry, the 60 million east germans demanding greater freedom, including freedom to travel. as of right now, they have that right, that freedom to leave their country legally to come to the west. we will have more information as it comes to us throughout the afternoon from east berlin and this evening tom brokaw will be reporting directly from east berlin on nbc nightly news. that is it for now. i'm garrick utley, nbc news, new york. announcer: this

from berlin marking a milestone in history 30 years on germany commemorates the fall of the berlin wall a special ceremony is held at one of the few sites where the wall is still intact chancer uncle america honors the memory of those killed trying to flee communism and also has a special message about freedom today. also on the program india's top court gives the contested bullycide to buy yoga to do it's hope to google and the decades old dispute between hindus and muslims over who controls the site but many fear it will raise tensions between the communities. i'm married to evanston it's good to have you with us germany is marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall events are taking place across the capital german chancellor angela merkel and other european leaders took part in a ceremony at the site of where the wall once stood the german leader told europeans not to take their freedom for granted. ceremonies in the heart of berlin commemorate the 30th anniversary of what's called the peaceful revolution. today this section of the wall is a memorial site but 3 decad

gorbachev, tear down this wall, that the wall opened? i got that question so many that itat i realized was not a one-off question, that it was a deeply held belief here. there's actually a cartoon that appeared in the new yorker about it. cartoon, itorker has a man reading a fairy tale to his daughter. following. of the tear down this wall, one king said to the other, and down it happilyd they all lived ever after. so you know when something has own new yorker cartoon, that it's clearly a cultural phenomenon. for the 25th anniversary for the fall of the wall, there should be a good thisin english about topic. i lived in germany for a number of years. more i looked, the more i realized, there was not one good book on the opening of the wall in english. and i then, the more that i thought about it, i realized lack of a good book, this lack of an accurate account more than just of historical interest. the belief that the united single-handedly opened the wall has effects on u.s. day.gn policy to this it has the effect of making the that itt

spoke and a poem about the wall he said when we created the wall the wall he couldn't imagine how high it was inside us we got used to it horizons we got used to it when shadow and its wind châteaux we cast no shadows now we stand naked of any excuse and this is true for all of us in the east and in the west we are naked of any excuse and it is down to us to do what we can for freedom and democracy thank you. and of her german chancellor and going to moscow rocking the 50th anniversary of the fall off the ballet war we're expecting a musical interlude now. get out of sydney of stores. that are to share both for. the. good of sushi i'm all for. sawyer they go i'll sing a. song where they can all sing. some would probably the way you made by got a look so they could all sedation soria they see. somebody . that really is. but you should. be as. but hold on sawyer but when you. saw in the movie. doll sure will be achieved with the. silly and they. saw in a. doll should be a huge. bush style you pull. in the bus good. stuff it will. be the best goodall. so you made this journey she. saw it

the wall survived is down to the efforts of a group of artists. the east time gallery was started in february $990.00. were invited to paint and original potion of the wool but then the initiative was designed to help east german tastes he would suddenly been left without an income but in those exciting days of the full mccomas state opening up came from the life of the world. when berlin was divided it was common for people on the western side to draw graffiti on the wall but on the eastern side people approached at their peril the wall became more and more fortified with heavily armed guards tripwires searchlights and lookout towers border guards ordered to shoot to kill anyone who tried to escape and more than 100 people were killed trying to cross the border in berlin alone just a few months after those instruments of oppression were dismantled the east side gallery turned the symbol of terror into a canvas for free expression some of the artworks have become famous around the world because the gallery is exposed to the weather the images have

tonight remembering when the wall became just a wall in our special coverage of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall we'll take you to the world famous east side gallery where artists turned a symbol of division into a canvas for hopes and dreams also coming up tonight. on one of them with that. in iraq protesters say that they are being shot adds with bullets it's.

east side gallery the berlin wall this stretch of the berlin wall that had been a symbol of division turning into a symbol of of unity and of berlin as an open and cosmopolitan city that it is today and even though it's dark and it's raining and the people are running for shelter i really feel that you can you can feel history here even now 30 years later yes i think that's a very good point it's impossible to escape it even if you are getting drenched our very own david love itself there braving the elements at eastside gallery david thank you. well tonight i'm joined here at the big table by a man who needs no introduction quentin peel spent much of his career as a journalist reporting on the east west conflict during and after the berlin wall he's now a fellow at the much review chatham house think tank in london when it's good to have you on the day where were you that 1st week of november 1909 and what were you planning to report. on i was sitting in moscow as i had been for a couple of years at that stage reporting in the extraordinary revolution that was happening in the sovie

good evening, live from the berlin wall, on this wall' is most historic night in history. the berlin wall was part of our lives, such a physically imposing barricade. it was so much uglier and so much more oppressive than people realize from just seeing it on television. when you went to it personally, it was appalling. and ronald reagan had gone there. >> mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall! [cheering] tom: john kennedy had gone there. >> ich bin ein berliner! [cheering] tom: even with all the turmoil, it seemed unlikely that that wall, such as solid image of oppression, would come down. then, in a heartbeat, it did. i was the only journalist on the air the night the berlin wall came down. i owned that story, and that was the end of the soviet empire. and we got lucky. i'd like to tell you that i knew the wall was coming down. unfortunately, i cannot. i didn't know. but it did come down on my watch, and i will never forget it. east germany remains a country in turmoil tonight. i arrived in berlin two days before the wall came down. there was so much going on in the eastern

about the fall of the wall.ave this brief personal, i want to thank the panel before us, who filled us in on the list before the wall came down. he gave us a good background to consider what happened during that afternoon. i would just see that inside of the white house, there were no sirens and no announcements of change. except for the relentless taking of the wire service machine that they've maintained in the national security council room in the mc staff, that the first notice of everything they reported that the writers had a story coming out from berlin about the wall. and then a kawhi of it to my deputy roman, and he came rushing into my office and said we have a story can be a better take look at it. i did immediately horse. in the national security council staff and stabbed confidential on the top of it. i said i can this be. it's going to every radio station newspaper in the world and only an american when we stamp that confidential. but in any case i said immediately i'm going to go to the oval offic

welcome we begin the day with the bridges that were supposed to replace the walls when the berlin wall crumbled 30 years ago the peaceful revolution that followed gave much of the world a reason to hope for a different future the reunification of germany the expansion of the european union and even the enlargement of nato these were significant events that looked like progress but progress for whom not for the post soviet wild west russia of the one $990.00 s. that diminished great power that would eventually demand respect again with vladimir putin in charge tonight one of the authors a journalist who reported on that time he wrote the rough draft of post wall history will join me to talk about the lessons of 1989 that we thought we learned but maybe we did but 1st how did we get here let's remind you of exactly what happened 30 years ago when the berlin wall fell on the night of november 9th 1989 east germany's communist regime reopened the border for the 1st time in 30 years east germans could safely cross to the west now it turned the hated and deadly border wall into simply a wall