The 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 will be commemorated throughout Europe, but especially in Central and Eastern Europe.
The historic breaching of the Berlin Wall, one of the most powerful and sinister symbols of the Cold War, would never have happened without dramatic changes elsewhere in Europe in 1989, such as Poland holding its partially free elections and Hungary dismantling the Iron Curtain’s barbed wire.
The EBRD is itself a child of that year, established as it was later to help our region embrace the principles of democracy and the market economy. Now, 25 years on, the EBRD is looking back at the events leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and what happened next and reflecting on where our countries in Central and Eastern Europe are today.
Re-energising transition 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall
Hungary’s 1989 negotiated regime change
Poland 1989: “An overwhelming feeling”
Central and Eastern Europe 25 years on
Joining the Berlin wall “woodpeckers” in 1989
Czechoslovakia 1989: anything was possible
