This article explores both the events that led to the fall of the Berlin wall and some of its most important consequences, including those pertaining to German reunification in 1990. We rely largely on primary sources that have been obtained from the Ministry of Foreign Relations' Historical Archives - after several years of legal protection. Secondary sources are also used - that is, specialized literature on this theme published in Brazil and abroad. Analytically speaking, we verify the transcendental relevance of the fall of the Berlin wall and subsequent events, both within Germany and in Europe and the rest of the world. In this direction, we allude to the political and economic collapse of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), to the most important actors involved in the crumbling of the wall, to domestic, Inter-German, European and global factors that were incisive in the processes of reunification of the German nation and to the specific dilemmas of the city of Berlin within the general context of Germanic reunification. We include a post-data from November of 2009, with some brief comments on the 20th anniversary commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Democratic Republic of Germany; Berlin; Cold War; German reunification; Federal German Republic