When the wall fell

The fall of the Berlin Wall seemed to mark a turning point, but did history really change?

On November 16, 1989 shows young West Berliners remove a piece of the Berlin Wall. (Patrick Hertzog / AFP)

There is always a temptation to see major historic events as representing a clean break between the past and the future. The fall of the Berlin Wall, which occurred 25 years ago today, is just such an event, signifying the end of the Cold War and seen as ending the division in Europe between East and West.

And in terms of the Big Historical Moment it certainly has, but history with a lower case is still working its way out. Over in the Ukraine, for example, secessionist battles in the eastern province involving Russian-backed separatist, and the annexation of the Crimea by Russia, show that the east-west divide persists, even if many Eastern Bloc countries have integrated fully into western Europe.

And other major events in 1989 are false portents of change. A few months before, hundreds and maybe thousands of Chinese student protesters were killed in Tiananmen Square. In this and other cases, one might argue that history is still working itself out.