The Collapse

The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall

By: Mary Elise Sarotte

Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers

The Berlin Wall was erected in 1961 to end all traffic between the city’s two halves: the democratic west and the communist east. The iconic symbol of a divided Europe, the Wall became a focus of western political pressure on East Germany; as Ronald Reagan’s famously said in a 1987 speech in Berlin, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” But as award-winning historian Mary Sarotte shows in The Collapse , the opening of the Wall on November 9, 1989 was not, as is commonly believed, the East German government’s deliberate concession to outside influence. It was an accident. A carelessly worded memo written by mid-level bureaucrats, a bumbling press conference given by an inept member of the East German Politburo, the negligence of government leaders, the bravery of ordinary people in East and West Berlin - these combined to bring about the end of nearly 40 years of oppression, fear, and enmity in divided Berlin. When the news broke, Washington and Moscow could only stand by and watch as Tom Brokaw and other journalists narrated the televised broadcast of this critical moment in the thawing of the cold war. Sarotte opens her story in the months leading up to that fateful day. Following East German dissidents, she shows how their efforts coalesced around opposition to the regime’s restrictions on foreign travel. The city of Leipzig, close to the border with Czechoslovakia, became a hothouse of activism, and protests there quickly grew into massive demonstrations. The East German Politburo hoped to limit its citizens’ knowledge of these marches, but two daring dissidents, East Berliners Aram Radomski and Siegbert Schefke, managed to evade the Stasi and film the largest of them from a church tower.

Download the accompanying reference guide.©2014 Mary Elise Sarotte (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Great Historical narrative

A wonderfully developed theme, often forgotten, about how the Wall came down. I view the subject of this book as being, finally, the end of WWII. Seldom have I better seen the vast contrast between the prosperity of a free-market democracy and an evil communist system.

NON VIOLENCE WINS

I was born shortly after V-E day and by 1989 I had grown used to the permanence of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Empire.

When the wall suddenly fell I was surprised and confused and aware that this was huge. My son was 9 years old and just beginning to pay attention to current events. The following Easter Break we flew to Paris, rented a car and drove to Berlin. The crossing from West Germany to East Germany produced a sullen border guard and then a drive through the no-man's-land between two fences with now empty guard towers. There were still lots of chunks of the wall available for sale in Berlin and I bought a small piece that sits on my book shelf to this day. I wanted my son to see Checkpoint Charlie and learn about the power of individuals, banding together, to effect change.

This book has cleared my confusion of why and how the wall came down when it did. Also, my conviction that the great lesson of the 20th century is that great, and lasting, social change was only successful through non-violent means. I am now adding the fall of the Berlin wall to India's independence, the end of apartheid in South Africa and the Civil Rights movement in the US.

My other take away is that history is also caused by incompetent leaders and I think we can all see that our invasion of Iraq, on a false premise, removed a dictatorial, but constraining force, that has led to the rise of ISIS. Thus history is formed by governmental incompetence either in East Berlin or DC. On a positive note, Bush the elder handled the fall of the Berlin Wall very well, it's too bad his son wasn't as wise.

Bravery of E Germans and Bungling of E German Regime

A fantastic telling of the small, unexpected, sometimes unnoticed actions and decisions tied to fall of Berlin wall and E German regime. Avoids the pitfalls of "great men doing big things" history telling. Finds the individual E Germans who were crucial to changing their own lives and took the risk to make that change. Highly recommended to all who want to understand history from the street level were people did the deeds.

Superb

A stirring account of an historic event. I learned much that I did not know.

A series of fortunate events?

Any additional comments?

The Fall of the Berlin Wall is one of those events that are burned into my memory. I was a child of the Cold War and hoped, but never believed, I would see in my life time the fall of the Berlin Wall and the break up on the Soviet Union. After the crack down and blood shed of the Tienanmen demonstrations, the seemingly unexpected and peaceful opening of the Wall was just too good to be true. Interestingly I never really understood how it all came about and how regular East Germans where the catalyst, particularly Christian ministers, in setting the ball of discontent in motion. The well researched and written book was surprisingly moving. I would recommend this to anyone who likes a good story.

Not what you’re taught in history class

The Collapse is a great story about an event in modern history. How even in such a short time a narrative has been constructed and disseminated to the masses. When in fact the true story, or the more detailed is much more interesting. Anyone interested in the Cold War should read/listen to this book

A really interesting history of how the wall fell

This book is perhaps not as slickly written as it might be, but it is a fantastic read nonetheless - because the story itself is so interesting - a story that is a such a fantastic series of screw ups by the East German government that if this was fiction you would find it hard to believe!

Even if you aren't into history or politics this is still an interesting read/listen.

Great blow-by-blow description of what happened

The Good: The fall of the wall was not easy to understand from the news accounts at the time. We all knew *what* was happening, but not *why*. This book explains the big political picture and gives an exciting account of who did what, when and why in November 1989. I found the audiobook as hard to put down as a well-written thriller. And it was fascinating to see how easily things could have gone differently.

The Bad: Hard to find anything bad to say about the book. The narration was competent and clear, but it didn't knock my socks off, so I gave it four stars instead of five.

A thriller where you least expect it!

The story of the fall of the Berlin Wall has been told many times but not like this! The amount of research that has gone into writing this is staggering and is amazingly matched by the storytelling - at many points it was like watching an episode of 24 with edge of the seat action ( even though the ending is known!) told from multiple perspectives. And so many lessons to learn from this historic moment, not least the fact that revolutions happen because of the little things.

Very good

Engaging story well told. Detailed account of events generally unknown to most people. Account probably discounts the macro political effects while focusing on the details.