30 Years since the Fall of the Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall, breached at the centre, being crossed by doves — symbols of international reconciliation — and a jubilant crowd. The left fragment bears the inscription '30 JAHRE MAUERFALL' in German only. On the right fragment, a section of the painting 'Wir sind ein Volk' by Schamil Gimajev. The Brandenburg Gate is visible in the background. Along the lower edge: the mint mark ('A', 'D', 'F', 'G' or 'J'), the year '2019' and the country code 'D'.

9 November 1989 marks one of the most consequential turning points in German post-war history. When the East German leadership, under the pressure of weeks of mass protests, opened the borders, hundreds of thousands of people streamed through the Berlin Wall - a structure that since 1961 had divided not only a city but two political worlds. The Wall had run for 155 kilometres across Berlin, and around 100 people died attempting to flee across it. With the fall of the Iron Curtain, the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic accelerated; less than a year later, on 3 October 1990, German reunification took place.

The events of 1989 were not a sudden occurrence but the result of years of civic movement within the GDR - from the Monday demonstrations in Leipzig to the refugee trains via Hungary and the West German embassies in Prague and Warsaw. For Germany, the fall of the Wall has since stood as a symbol of the peaceful overcoming of division, achieved without violence. The Federal Republic of Germany honours this historic moment with a 2-euro commemorative coin from 2019, marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall.