1989 was a year that changed the face of Europe. Communism collapsed in Eastern European countries and the Iron Curtain was dismantled.

In Poland, the largest Communist country apart from the Soviet Union, the free trade union Solidarity got more and more support from the population. In the June 1989 national elections Solidarity won the majority of seats in the Senate. As a result, Poland became the first Soviet satellite state to have a non-communist Prime Minister. A year later Solidarity leader Lech Walesa was elected Poland's first democratic President.

In 1988 Communist Hungary started making it easier for its own citizens to travel to the west. In May 1989 it started to tear down its barbed wire and metal fences along the border to Austria. East Germans, who were allowed to travel to Communist countries but not to the west, took advantage of Hungary’s move. In the summer of 1989 thousands of East Germans traveled to Hungary for their holidays. They never went back and escaped to West Germany through Austria.

In September Hungary's Foreign Minister declared that it would not stop the thousands of East Germans who were going to Austria. 

At the beginning of October Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachew visited Berlin for East Germany’s 40th anniversary. During these celebrations East German citizens demonstrated on the streets of Berlin and other cities. They demonstrated for freedom and the right to leave Communist Germany. Gorbachew warned the Communist leaders not to ignore the rights of the population.