The Fall of the Wall 2009
Twenty years ago, on 9 November, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. The event not only changed Germany and Europe, but reverberated around the whole world.
The wall came down at the end of the peaceful struggle of the citizens of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) for freedom and against a totalitarian state.
Twenty years later the Goethe-Institut Südafrika tore down the wall surrounding its premises in Johannesburg. A cultural institute should be an open, inviting and friendly environment. During a competition, student architects at the Faculty for Arts and Design at the University of Johannesburg revised the architecture and created new ways of achieving security without walls and high-voltage electrical fences. The winning design will in 2010 replace the wall which used to surround the institute.
The wall fell on 9 November 2009 to the sound of the Alexander field band and the St. Mary´s school choir and with many friends of the Goethe-Institut participating. After the German ambassador to South Africa, Dieter Haller, had made the start in tearing down the wall, the visitors walked through the hole of what was originally built to restrict entrance to the site. The event was followed by Berlin Wall music clips, DJ'ing, video installations and a photographic exhibition of the building of the Berlin Wall by Jürgen Schadeberg, which can be seen until 22 January.
Press articles and photos of the 2009 Fall of the Wall are listed below. Information on past events of the series Cracking Walls can be found through the links in the navigation bar.
The National: Post-apartheid wall comes tumbling down
Special report on the Fall of the Wall by Mail&Guardian
SAPA: Wall comes tumbling down (PDF, 127KB)
To find something, one has not looked for: A piece of oneself 
The author Ulrich Woelk, who visited Johannesburg for the anniversary of the Fall of the Wall in 2009, writes about his experiences. As author in residence of the Goethe-Institut, he spent three weeks in South Africa.
