This past Sunday, November 9th, the city of Berlin celebrated the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The wall, which was rapidly constructed in August of 1961, divided capitalist West Germany from communist East Germany. In total, the wall was approximately ninety-six miles long and prevented individuals from escaping East Germany for the West.

The wall divided the German capital until 1989. That year, during a November 9th press conference, at exactly 6:57 p.m. local time, East German politician Günter Schabowski informed reporters that the Communist state was to open its borders immediately. In response, crowds of Berlin citizens rushed to the Berlin Wall and either began to destroy the wall itself or breached border crossings such as Checkpoint Charlie. It is estimated that while the Berlin Wall was standing approximately one hundred and thirty-eight individuals died trying to flee East Germany.

That historic evening occurred exactly twenty-five years previous to this past Sunday. To commemorate, tens of thousands of people gathered in Berlin for a day of celebration which was held at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. The location of the festivities was symbolic as Brandenburg Gate had at one time been circumvented by the wall.

Early in the day, German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave a speech to the crowd. Merkel grew up in the former East Germany and was thirty-five years old on the evening of its fall. In her speech, Ms. Merkel said that the fall of the Berlin Wall twenty-five years prior was proof that dreams could come true and the entire ordeal offered hope for progress in human rights around the world.

The day passed with musical performances from both the Berlin State Orchestra and Peter Gabriel as well as speeches from German political officers including both the mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel as previously mentioned. There was also a fireworks display over the Brandenburg Gate.

However, the real celebration took place at exactly 6:57 p.m. that evening to coincide with the announcement of the border opening twenty-five years earlier. Eight thousand white helium balloons had been installed along a nine-mile stretch of where the wall used to be. One by one, the balloons were released into the evening sky to symbolize the actual fall of the Berlin Wall at the hands of the rejoicing Berlin citizens all those years ago.