Daily Quiz for July 1, 2008

Egon Krenz. The leader of the German Democratic Republic on November 9, 1989, when the Berlin Wall was opened between East and West, was Egon Krenz. A hard-line communist, Krenz had recently been installed by the communist Socialist Unity Party in place of longtime leader Erich Honecker. On November 9, 1989, East Germany announced new travel regulations to enable those who wished to travel to the West to do so directly from East Germany with official permission. This announcement was widely misinterpreted as a decision to open the Berlin Wall. As crowds demanded to pass into West Berlin, unprepared border guards let them go. In mid-November Krenz was replaced by a reform-minded communist, Hans Modrow, who promised free, multiparty elections. In March 1990 elections, the communists were defeated by the eastern Christian Democratic Union and Lothar de Maiziere headed the new East German government, which ratified reunification with West Germany in September. Formal reunification of Germany took place on October 3, 1990.