Pictures of the fall of the Berlin Wall
- Published
9 November 1989: On this night, 30 years ago, thousands of East Germans rushed to the Berlin Wall and crossed into West Berlin for the first time in almost 30 years. This photo was taken on the night that the border opened and shows people celebrating around the wall. Berlin's famous Brandenburg Gate in the background.
10 November 1989: When the wall came down, many people were reunited with friends and family who they had not been able to see for almost 30 years. The fall of the Berlin Wall was the start of a process that led to East and West Germany being reunited to become Germany as we know it today, on 3 October 1990.
10 November 1989: There were great celebrations, with crowds gathering, climbing across the wall and dancing on top of it. When thousands of people flocked to the wall to demand to be allowed to cross it, East German border guards could not control the rush of people, and had to step back and watch. This photo shows soldiers looking on as the people of Berlin celebrated the end of their city's division.
12 November 1989: The world remembers 9 November as the date when the Berlin Wall came down, but it wasn't immediately destroyed. This date is remembered symbolically as it is when the border was first opened up again. Over the following weeks and months, the wall was gradually destroyed. This photo shows a young boy chipping away at a section of it. Some parts of the wall have been left standing to this day, so that people can visit it and remember what happened.
14 November 1989: After the events of the night of 9 November 1989, life was very different for people living in Berlin. This photo shows West German schoolchildren on their way to school talking to East German border guards at a crossing point, after the border had been opened.
4 November 2019: While sections of the wall may still be standing to this day, they do not divide the city like they once did. This photo shows a stretch of the wall that forms part of something called the East Side Gallery, which is an open-air gallery in Berlin visited by many tourists and local people every single year. It is made up of sections of the original Berlin Wall painted with murals.