November 9, 1989: The Berlin Wall Comes Down

November 9, 1989, 25 years ago: After several weeks of civil unrest, the government of the German Democratic Republic (a.k.a. East Germany) announces that its citizens could visit the Federal Republic of Germany (a.k.a. West Germany) and West Berlin.

This renders the Berlin Wall, the 11-foot-9-inch high, 96-mile long concrete barrier surrounding West Berlin and symbolizing the "Iron Curtain" that had separated Communist Eastern Europe from capitalist Western Europe since its erection began on August 13, 1961, unenforceable and irrelevant. Crowds of East Germans climb over the wall, and through the various checkpoints between East and West Berlin, while the world watches on television.

Although some of the demonstrators had already taken chisels and sledgehammers to the wall, the official demolition began on June 13, 1990, and was officially completed in 1994. there are still pieces left in Berlin, and other pieces were bought and put on display as museum pieces. Some of America's Presidential Libraries, particularly those of Presidents who served during the Cold War, have pieces on display.

The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way from German reunification, which was formalized on October 3, 1990. The East still hasn't fully caught up with the West, but it's closer now.

Ironically, from a sports perspective, reunification hasn't helped the nation's combined sports teams all that much. While both West Germany and East Germany did very well at the Olympics, the combined team hasn't won more medals than the two separate countries' previous combined totals. Thought that may be due to the East Germans no longer having access to Communist-administered steroids.

And the German national soccer team, while still successful, hasn't been more successful. West Germany won the World Cup in 1954, 1974 and 1990. The combined nation took until this year to win it, and it did so with a single player born and trained in East Germany: Toni Kroos. Given that a child born in East Germany on the morning of October 3, 1990 would be 28 years old when the 2018 World Cup gets underway, Kroos is likely to be the only East German who ever wins it.