The night the Berlin Wall fellon November 91989people from East and West cheered as they climbed the Wall at the Brandenburg Gate. They fell into each others arms and even hammered pieces out of the concrete Wall: emotional images that will be remembered.

As a journalist for the West German tabloid BildPeter Brinkmann experienced the events on site.

“Then they used water cannons. The Brandenburg Gate had been stormed from the West. People from the West jumped over the Wall. That was the great difference. There was no wall like the one at the Brandenburg Gate. At the Brandenburg Gatethe Wall was first of all lowerso that one could climb onto itand it was broader. The people from the West just climbed onto it and then jumped into the Eastinto this forecourt of the Wall. And when the people from the East arrived and saw thatit filled up from both sidesand they fraternized. But then the guards came. They went right in there. They pushed people back. I experienced thatI was there. You can also see that in some of the television images. The guards pushed us back towards the East. The people who were on the West side of the Brandenburg Gatein that roundabout of the Wallthey were pushed away with the water cannons.”

Marlene Matakas was a teacher in West Berlin. When she learned about the fall of the Wall on television on November 91989tears came to her eyes. She recalls driving straight to the Wall to join the celebration.

"We went to the Brandenburg Gate. We tucked several bottles of champagne under our arms andI don’t know whybut we thought this was worthy to have some drinks. And then we went off and we even found each other in the crowd. My friend immediately climbed the Wall. You cannot imagine how emotional this was. Complete strangers fell into each other’s arms. As if the entire population had been replaced.”

Bärbel Reinke from East Berlin dreamed of walking through the Brandenburg Gate to West Berlin just once. She talks about how she couldn’t make it to the West on the night the Wall fell.

"In front of me was a line of soldiersshoulder to shoulder! A wallborder soldiers. This cannot be true I thought. Bärbelthis cannot be true. You want to go through here now. You have to go through here. Your husband is on the other side. What are you doing now? You have to go through herethere’s no other possibility! He is over there and that’s the only way! I want to go through here now. All of you can do what you want tobut I want to go through here now.”