Berlin Wall youngsters. Another border crossing to the south may have been opened earlier. An account by Heinz Schäfer indicates that he also acted independently and ordered the opening of the gate at Waltersdorf-Rudow a couple of hours earlier. This may explain reports of East Berliners appearing in West Berlin earlier than the opening of the Bornholmer Straße border crossing. The fall of the Berlin Wall () began the evening of 9 November 1989 and continued over the following days and weeks, with people nicknamed (wall woodpeckers) using various tools to chip off souvenirs, demolishing lengthy parts in the process, and creating
Berlin Customs Wall thus turning Berlin into a central transport hub for Prussia and the German Customs Union. With the rise of Berlin, new suburbs were built outside the Customs Wall, which increasingly became a hindrance to the continued development of the city. In 1860 the Customs Wall was removed and on 1 January 1861 Berlin amalgamated its suburbs resulting in a doubling of the city's population. The remaining walls were demolished for the most part between 1867 and 1870 - including most of the gates. Only some imposing gates were kept, the Brandenburg Gate being the only one to be rebuilt after