The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall

by Mary Elise Sarotte

Overview

On the night of November 9, 1989, massive crowds surged toward the Berlin Wall, drawn by an announcement that caught the world by surprise: East Germans could now move freely to the West. The Wall — infamous symbol of divided Cold War Europe — seemed to be falling. But the opening of the gates that night was not planned by the East German ruling regime — nor was it the result of a bargain between either Ronald Reagan or George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

It was an accident.

In The Collapse, prize-winning historian Mary Elise Sarotte reveals how a perfect storm of decisions made by daring underground revolutionaries, disgruntled Stasi officers, and dictatorial party bosses sparked an unexpected series of events culminating in the chaotic fall of the Wall. With a novelist's eye for character and detail, she brings to vivid life a story that sweeps across Budapest, Prague, Dresden, and Leipzig and up to the armed checkpoints in Berlin.

We meet the revolutionaries Roland Jahn, Aram Radomski, and Siggi Schefke, risking it all to smuggle the truth across the Iron Curtain; the hapless Politburo member Günter Schabowski, mistakenly suggesting that the Wall is open to a press conference full of foreign journalists, including NBC's Tom Brokaw; and Stasi officer Harald Jäger, holding the fort at the crucial border crossing that night. Soon, Brokaw starts broadcasting live from Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, where the crowds are exulting in the euphoria of newfound freedom — and the dictators are plotting to restore control.

Drawing on new archival sources and dozens of interviews, The Collapse offers the definitive account of the night that brought down the Berlin Wall.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465049905
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	09/29/2015
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	667,794
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Mary E. Sarotte is Dean's Professor of History at the University of Southern California. A former White House Fellow, Humboldt Scholar, and journalist, she is the author of the prize-winning 1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe, a Financial Times book of the year.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Discovering the Causes of the Collapse

PART I: THE STRUGGLE WITHIN THE SOVIET BLOC AND SAXONY
Chapter 1. A Brutal Status Quo
Chapter 2. Marginal to Massive
Chapter 3. The Fight for the Ring

Part II: THE COMPETITION FOR CONTROL IN EAST BERLIN
Chapter 4. The Revolution Advances, the Regime Plays for Time
Chapter 5. Failure to Communicate on November 9, 1989

Part III: THE CONTEST OF WILLS AT THE WALL
Chapter 6. The Revolution, Televised
Chapter 7. Damage Control?
Epilogue. Violence and Victory, Trust and Triumphalism

Editorial Reviews

"This is easily the best book on the fall of the Berlin Wall."—Fareed Zakaria, CNN GPS Book of the Week

"Sarotte is a superb historian. She's ferociously intelligent, but what really separates her from her colleagues is her acute sensitivity to human drama."—Washington Post

"A blow-by-blow account of the birth of modern Germany on November 9th 1989, when, at an otherwise dull press conference in East Berlin, a government spokesman said that a new law permitting East Germans more freedom to travel would go into effect immediately. It changed Europe forever."—Economist Best Books of2014

"This is history writing at its very best, full of drama and pathos, yet immaculately researched and elegantly written."—BBC History Magazine 2014 Books of the Year

"The Collapse challenges our narrative of the Soviet Union's collapse, 25 years after the Wall's fall. Sarotte deftly balances individual human agency and contingency with larger political forces to show that the Berlin Wall coming down was neither inevitable nor the result of global power shifts alone."—Zócalo Public Square 10 Best Books of 2014

"Sarotte has produced a skillful, scrupulously documented, nuanced reconstruction of how a series of mistakes by East German leaders and officials...turned what was meant to be a carefully managed process of controlled opening...into the world's most celebrated festival of popular liberation."—Guardian (UK)

"A fast-paced, fascinating account of the final weeks, days and hours of the wall."—Telegraph (UK)

"Sarotte's lively and engaging book scrupulously details the events of November 9, 1989, when the world watched in shock as the Berlin Wall came down."—Foreign Affairs

"[A]n authoritative and fast-moving account of the events that led up to the collapse of East Germany."—FinancialTimes, Best Books of2014: History

"Brief, intense, and gripping.... Sarotte's effort is magnificent.... This is history at its best."—Winnipeg Free Press

"The book that will haunt Vladimir Putin as long as he's in power."—Washington Post's Post Everything Blog

"Sarotte's wonderfully written book—backed up with reams of research and interviews—explains the factors that led to one of the most important moments in the twentieth century."—H-Diplo

"An inspiring and often thrilling account."—Booklist, starred review

"This gripping, important account of a long-misinterpreted event is one of the most surprising books about the Cold War."—Publishers Weekly

"A rigorous sifting of evidence surrounding the final toppling of the sclerotic East German state. With extensive use of Stasi files, Sarotte finds that accident, rather than planning, caused the collapse of the Berlin Wall.... [T]his account amply conveys the universal amazement and excitement of the time."—Kirkus

"The Collapse is a riveting and important account of the political chaos in East Germany that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Mary Elise Sarotte is a distinguished historian with a playwright's eye who gives us fresh insights and telling anecdotes about one of the most important nights of the late twentieth century."—Tom Brokaw

"Sarotte runs a fine-tooth comb through the archives and gathers an impressive range of stories from the ordinary people at the heart of these extraordinary events. She is keen to dispel the kind of convenient 'hindsight bias' which claims that the peaceful fall of the Wall was inevitable or engineered by bigger forces than human beings who wanted a different life."—Wall Street Journal

"The most definitive account to date of the events that led to the demise of the German Democratic Republic, the reunification of Germany, and the end of the Cold War."—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

From the Publisher

08/25/2014
The Soviet Union suffered the most significant symbolic defeat in the Cold War with the fall of the Berlin Wall, but Sarotte, professor of government and history at Harvard University, thinks that is only half of the story. What emerges from this detailed account is that, contrary to popular belief, neither secret plans by German officials nor behind-the-scenes agreements between U.S. President Reagan and Soviet leader Gorbachev caused the barrier between East and West Berlin to crumble; the political breech occurred via a series of miscues by short-sighted Communist-bloc authorities. With growing mass protests in East Germany, an inept statement delivered at a press conference by a functionary from SED (the country’s ruling party) on Nov. 9, 1989, sparked a battle between dissidents and East German security forces that led the Wall to come down much sooner than expected by either side. Sarotte carefully etches his narrative of the momentous shattering of the Wall, coloring it with social, political, and personal details, including anecdotes about the death of young Chris Gueffroy, the last East German shot before the barrier came down, and about Harald Jager, the senior officer giving the order to open a key crossing. This gripping, important account of a long-misinterpreted event is one of the most surprising books about the Cold War. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

10/15/2014
Sarotte's (history, international relations, Univ. of Southern California; 1989: The Struggle To Create Post-Cold War Europe) latest work discusses the fall of the Berlin Wall from a mostly West German perspective, examining the myriad intertwined political and social elements that resulted in the opening of the wall in November 1989. This deeply complex event is widely discussed and analyzed in its own right as one of the factors leading to the fall of the Soviet Union. The author uses primary sources, such as personal memoirs, interviews, and public broadcasts to shine a spotlight on the public and private figures whose actions, inactions, decisions, or errors led to the falling of the wall. She utilizes international reactions, publications, and interviews to highlight or offset her main narrative and in doing so creates a cohesive picture of a tumultuous nation whose oppressed yet hopeful citizenry sought the freedom they had been denied. VERDICT Amply researched and emotive, this work shares the full narrative of events leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall in a way that both academics and lay readers will appreciate. Those already familiar with the subjects and time frames involved will definitely benefit from the author's extensive research and emphasis on personal narratives.—Elizabeth Zeitz, Otterbein Univ. Lib., Westerville, OH

Library Journal

2014-07-30
A rigorous sifting of evidence surrounding the final toppling of the sclerotic East German state.With extensive use of Stasi files, Sarotte (History/Univ. of Southern California; 1989: The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe, 2009) finds that accident, rather than planning, caused the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Although the author acknowledges the importance of certain external factors—Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's four-year "new thinking" reforms, President Ronald Reagan's famous call for tearing down the wall in 1987—she unearths evidence of the key roles of provincial players, rather than politicians, in the crisis culminating on Nov. 9, 1989. The German Democratic Republic, under the aging iron grip of Erich Honecker, was losing its control over the border crossings as a result of the effects of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe, which eased East Germans' ability to leave the country; moreover, the shoot-to-kill policy of the border police had grown muddied due to international humanitarian outcry. Meanwhile, the Stasi somewhat tolerated certain religious groups, and St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig had managed to turn itself into a substantial hub for nonviolent protest movements. Also, cooperation among Soviet bloc members began to break down in 1989: Hungarian Prime Minister Miklós Németh and colleagues decided to ease Hungary's border restrictions, creating a mass exodus by GDR holidaygoers in the spring and summer, encouraged and welcomed by West German leader Helmut Kohl. Sarotte follows the countdown to collapse, from the growth of a massive civil disobedience demonstration in Leipzig on Oct. 9, to the confused international press conference given by East German Politburo member Günter Schabowski announcing apparent new possibilities to emigrate, to Bornholmer Street border officer Harald Jäger's beleaguered decision to fling open the gates. More systematic than suspenseful, this account amply conveys the universal amazement and excitement of the time.

Kirkus Reviews