Fall of the Berlin Wall 25th Anniversary

Here's a little photo essay about the 25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin wall - the original event which happened, by mistake, on the evening of 9 November 1989.

One of the major things to mark the 25th was the art installation 'Lichtgrenze', which translated means 'Light Border'. For the event, 8,000 specially designed lights and balloons were installed along part of the old Berlin Wall border line. The balloons were filled with helium and were to be let free on the 9th November 2014 at around 7pm.

For our own personal commemoration of the event, we went to the Bornholmerstraße Bridge on Saturday afternoon to check it out in relative peace before the crowds of the official celebrations. Bornholmerstraße is significant because it was the first crossing point to be 'opened' when the wall fell.

In the evening I went to ride past the East Side Gallery, again so I could see the light installation in a relatively uncrowded atmosphere. It was much busier than I expected and I got waylaid light a moth to a flame as I followed the Lichtgrenze along the former wall line. This was quite an interesting experience, quite emotional for many reasons but also quite undefinable. I know my way around this part of Berlin pretty well, but I found myself going through streets (and a park) where I didn't realise the wall formerly was. I think this is like many Berlin residents...they know it was 'around here somewhere' but when you see the delineation for real it makes the whole thing so much more immediate.

On the 9th of November we went to the East Side Gallery and were part of a huge swarm of people heading there for 7pm celebrations and balloon release. It was incredible how many people were down there. We were going to take Barney, but just before we left we saw a reporter on TV say the area was 'Unglaublich Voll' (unbelievably busy) so we had to leave him at home.

We went through the crowd and watched a large screen that was simulcasting the Brandenburger Tor ceremony, with notable guests being Angela Merkel, Michael Gorbachev and Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit.

Just after 7pm, starting from Brandenburger Tor, they started to let the balloons go. One by one, a second apart, they released each one in sequence. Our atrocious maths couldn't work out how long it would take the conga line to reach us, but we eventually worked out it should take about an hour.

Quicker than our poor maths predicted, the release of balloons made its way to the East Side Gallery. It was nice to see the symbolism of freedom however overall I understand that many people were disappointed that the balloons didn't stay lit as they floated away (it wasn't possible as the lights would be an environmental issue, whereas the balloons are biodegradable). I thought it was cool, but maybe they should have released them all at once for dramatic effect :)