The Berlin Wall: Where are they now?

The Berlin Wall

The "peckers" who chipped away at the Wall with hammers were followed in June 1990 by the East German army, which completed the process of removing the remaining segments. Today, only three sections remain in Berlin. Large parts can be seen in the Reagan Presidential Library in California, the Microsoft HQ, a US casino, and a BMW dealership in Cape Town, South Africa.

Erich Mielke

As head of the much feared Stasi secret police he was placed in pre-trial detention in December 1989. In October 1993 he was sentenced to six years for the murder of two Berlin police captains during a communist rally. He was released on parole in August 1995, and by March 2000 was living in a retirement home in Berlin. Mielke died of cardiac arrest on 21 May 2000.

Erich Honecker

After the fall of the Wall, Honecker evaded German prosecutors seeking him over the killings of East German escapees. On 11 December 1991, he and his wife sought refuge in the Chilean embassy in Moscow, but were deported from Russia to Germany in July 1992 to face trial. He was released from German custody on compassionate grounds and moved to Chile, where he died of liver cancer in 1994.

Günter Schabowski

One of the few surviving members of the DDR politburo, in August 1997 he was found guilty with Krenz and Günther Kleiber of murdering those who attempted to flee the East. He denounced the DDR, and his three-year sentence was commuted. He walked free in December 2002.