Focus

1989 - Europe's Annus Mirabilis

Institutions - 06-11-2009 - 13:09

Hundreds of people demonstrate in the streets of Warsaw during a May Day rally organised by Solidarity 1 May 1989.©Belga/D Wojteic

The two decades that have passed since Europe's revolutions of 1989 have only served to highlight the importance of those events. The Solidarity victory in Poland, people standing on the Berlin Wall and huge crowds on Prague's Wenceslas square, such images seemed impossible in the spring of that year. The end of the Soviet Empire in Central and Eastern Europe heralded the end of the Cold War and opened the door to Germany's unification and the uniting of independent states in a European Union.

Here we look at some of the events of that climatic year and speak to some people who experienced them first hand. From the symbolic cutting of the Iron Curtain in Hungary to the sight of millions of people holding hands across the Baltic States in protest at their annexation, the year saw millions of people seize their freedom through non-violent demonstrations.

Table of contents of the Focus :

REF. : 20091030FCS63488

Navigation in this Focus :

Next .

Features - all