Bornholmer Straße hosted the first Berlin Wall crossing to open after Günter Schabowski’s press conference.
On the evening of 9 November 1989, East German spokesman Günter Schabowski announced new travel regulations and mistakenly suggested that they took effect immediately. Crowds quickly gathered at Berlin’s crossing points, including the Bornholmer Straße bridge in the north of the city.
The guards at Bornholmer Straße had no clear instructions for handling the rapidly growing crowd. After hours of pressure, the crossing was opened shortly before midnight. People from East Berlin streamed into West Berlin, and other checkpoints soon followed.
The event is often described as the opening of the Berlin Wall, although the border was not dismantled that night. Demolition began afterward, while several crossings remained in operation during the transition. Bornholmer Straße is therefore associated with the first breakthrough in the wall’s control system.