On November 9, 1989, the game changed. Old, artificial divides between east and west became meaningless, and just as Ireland did in 1916, many nations called out their names freely for the first time. The Berlin Wall had fallen. East and West were no longer divided
The effects of this great fall were felt immediately across Europe, but for Berlin, the reunification of the city was the start of it’s growth into the world-class capital we know today. In the period after the wall came down, there was a distinct sense of possibility. That anyone could accomplish anything and that nothing would ever be as impossible as the idea of the wall coming down had been mere days previously.
The scars of the wall remain etched in the city today. A visit will quickly demonstrate that much of what was the wall has to a certain extent been preserved. The East Side Gallery, now thronged with tourists looking up at the artworks which adorn it, bears little resemblance to the death zone which marked it for decades.
Berlin has been reimagined. In many ways for the better, but with increasing pressure coming as a result of gentrification, those who made the city what it is today are feeling the squeeze Below is a selection of images, part of a larger series, which demonstrates the changes which have taken place in Berlin since 1989.
Scanning, research, photography, and editing by Seán O’Reilly. Above, an east German soldier guards the monument at Unter den Linden c.1989 set against the monument today.
