More than 100,000 people celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Monday evening, as world leaders gathered in the German capital for emotional commemorations marking the spread of freedom across Europe.
Twenty years after the fall of the Wall, how much has Berlin changed? The Local walks the length of the Cold War barrier to look at five significant locations then and now.
The fall of the Berlin Wall sparked celebration, but also chaos in both halves of the city. <b>David Wroe</b> speaks with former West Berlin Mayor <b>Walter Momper</b> about how dicey November 9, 1989 really was.
The scars caused by the Berlin Wall are slowly healing. <b>Anna Croall</b> speaks with <b>Pastor Manfred Fischer</b>, whose Chapel of Reconciliation was built in the German capital’s former death strip.
Now the symbol of German reunification, the Brandenburg Gate is among Berlin's most famous sights. Images of revellers atop the Wall in 1989 evoke strong memories even 20 years later.
The Glienicke Bridge crossing near Potsdam gained its mysterious image with the 1961 exchange of a Russian agent for famous US pilot Francis Gary Powers. The checkpoint kept the name “Bridge of Spies” after two more spy exchanges in the 1980s.
The train station at Friedrichstrasse was one of only two checkpoints for foreign visitors to Berlin, and home to the "Palace of Tears" - a pavilion nicknamed after from the many sad goodbyes said there. After the wall came down, this "palace" became a disco, but is currently being redeveloped into a museum.
The Bornholmer Strasse checkpoint was active throughout the division of Berlin as the city's northernmost crossing point. On November 9, 1989, its guards were the first breach the Wall and let East Germans cross into the West.
Few locations came to symbolise divided Berlin like the Allied border crossing Checkpoint Charlie. Despite its important role in the Cold War years, nothing of the original structure remains in place and the downtown site is now overrun by the tourist trade.
Forget the magic of history and Helmut Kohl’s illusory “blossoming landscapes” – 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall eastern Germany has become a beautifully ordinary place, writes The Local’s Marc Young.
Berlin warmed up Sunday for the 20th anniversary of the Wall's fall with celebrations throughout the city, as crowds gathered to relive the ecstatic scenes that heralded the demise of European communism.
On November 9th 1989, Harald Jäger wanted his night shift at the East Berlin border crossing at Bornholmer Strasse to go quietly. Instead, Jäger opened the first crack in the Berlin Wall and helped make history.
There’s no question East Germany persecuted its citizens, but have the communist regime’s henchmen been wronged since reunification? <b>David Wroe</b> investigates.
As thousands of East Germans surged past the Berlin Wall to taste freedom for the first time 20 years ago, Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the sauna and had a beer.
Two minutes have bestowed a title on Sarah Klier for life. She came into the world on October 2, 1990 in Leipzig – two minutes before midnight – making her the last child born in communist East Germany.
The collapse of the Berlin Wall rectified East Germany’s biggest crime. But as <b>David Wroe</b> reports, many of the communist regime’s victims are still seeking justice for other misdeeds two decades later.
Confirming the popular notion that there is still a “Wall in the mind,” a poll revealed Thursday that most Germans believe there is a gulf between the East and West, even though they overwhelmingly support reunification.
Daily life in Germany’s formerly communist eastern half has changed dramatically in the 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. David Sharp turns back the clock in Eisenhüttenstadt.
The Local’s <b>German media roundup</b> surveys the overwhelmingly positive response to Chancellor Angela Merkel's historic address to a joint session of the US Congress on Tuesday.
As thousands of people celebrated the opening of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, Victor Grossman feared he might be arrested. <b>Brett Neely</b> meets the American defector who fled to communist East Germany after deserting from the US Army.
China’s government has blocked its citizens from logging onto a German website celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall because Chinese bloggers were using it to voice civil rights concerns in their own country, the site announced on Thursday.
As the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall approaches, workers at Berlin’s Bernauer Straße memorial are restoring a long-gone watchtower, daily <i>Der Tagesspiegel</i> reported on Tuesday.
The shelves of Berlin's souvenir shops are filled with small, spray-painted pieces of concrete mounted in Plexiglas. But are they real chunks of the Wall or just a scam for tourists? <b>Ben Knight</b> investigates.
A new website launched on Wednesday offers users an interactive way to discover over 1,000 remaining bits of the Berlin Wall some 20 years after it fell.
David Wroe and photographer Penny Bradfield take in the spectacle of giant marionettes walking the streets of Berlin to celebrate German reunification this weekend.
