For decades the Berlin Wall stood as a very real separator, both physically and symbolically between the East – Communist Russia, and West – Democratic U.S. and Europe. But over time, chinks in the wall developed, growing ever larger until the whole structure finally came down.
On this day October 3rd, in 1990, Germany is reunified after 43 years of being divided between East & West Germany. The Berlin Wall had been up since the summer of 1961, and it came down November 9, 1989. A year after Berlin was made whole again, with the Soviet Union dissolved, Germany itself unified.
Today is celebrated as German Unity Day. The day could be celebrated on the 9th of November, but many felt it inappropriate as that was the day that started the Holocaust, Kristallnacht. For economic reasons, there was a large debate to switch it to the first Sunday of October, much like Mother’s Day & Father’s Day in the United States, but the idea was rejected. The day is a national holiday and a very important one, for it reconnected the millions of Germans that had been forcibly separated.