Remembering the Fall of the Berlin Wall 25 Years Later
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iStock/Thinkstock(BERLIN) — Twenty five years ago, on a freezing cold German night, a physical symbol of the Cold War and the divisive split between East and West Germany toppled, fading into the folds of history.
Katharina Von Munster was just 13 when the Berlin Wall fell. “It was a dream we never dared to dream,” she told ABC News’ John Donvan.
Von Munster grew up just feet from one of the checkpoint towers in East Berlin, a constant reminder that the watchful eyes of the communist government were never far away. She said her first visit to West Berlin, land of Levi’s and Coca Cola, was like going to “a planet far, far away.”
Today pieces of that iconic symbol of division are scattered across the world, from the Newseum in Washington, D.C., to the lawn of the Taiwan Center for Democracy in Taipei. When it finally crumbled, the world came to watch.
“It was just a big party that was going on, excitement everywhere, people all along the wall,” Congressman Joe Crowley told ABC News. Crowley was an assemblyman traveling through Europe back in 1989, and flew straight to Berlin soon after hearing about those first cracks in the wall.
The memory of the stark difference between lively West Berlin and the subdued East have stayed with Crowley, who says “it was almost like color and black and white.”
All these years later, he still can’t believe how lucky he was to have witnessed that singular moment in history.
“I don’t think I was able really to fully really be cognizant of the magnitude of it all.”
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