On 9 November 1989 the Berlin Wall is opened, and the East German state, with the other European party-states, collapses within the year. For Marxism the event is the century's verdict argued ever since: its defenders distinguish the doctrine from the regimes; its critics read the fall as the doctrine's own result.
Tagged: Marxism
The Event
- Date
- 1989 (exact)
- Era
- Crisis and After; Standard periodization of Marxist history
- Location
- Berlin; today Berlin, Germany
- Traditions
- Marxism
- Streams
- Marxism
Primary Sources
- The broadcasts and border records of 9 November 1989, Berlin.
Secondary Sources
- Anderson, Perry. Considerations on Western Marxism. London: New Left Books, 1976.
- Kolakowski, Leszek. Main Currents of Marxism. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978.
- McLellan, David. Karl Marx: A Biography. London: Palgrave Macmillan, fourth edition, 2006.
Provenance: HIST-1467; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.
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World View
Marxism
Marxism explains history as the struggle of classes over material production, and aims at a classless society in which exploitation and alienation are ended.