Picture of the Day: The Fall of the Berlin Wall 2

Berlin November 1989 - Brandenburger Tor

Souvenir hunters or people trying to demolish the wall?

Berlin November 1989 - Reichstag

Berlin November 1989 - Brandenburger Tor

Berlin November 1989 - Reichstag

Berlin November 1989 - Reichstag

Picture of the Day: The Fall of the Berlin Wall 1

On November 9 1989 East-Germans were free to travel to the West. A few days later I happened to be in Berlin. The Wall was open. There was a ‘hole’ on the Potsdammer Platz. A long row of people was waiting in the big open empty space. 

The Wall had opened, but the  infrastructure that kept East-Germans inside was still there. The guards, the towers, the barbwire, the mines, the ‘no man’s land zone’, the spooky and unrealistic atmosphere of separation and repression. On the west side people were attacking The Wall to get memorabilia, tearing it down with hammers and chisles. There was the anticipation of change, everybody (including the press at the Brandenburger Tor) was waiting for The Big Opening. People selling t-shirts, buttons.

During those days I shot some pictures. It is kind of nice to post them here in remembrance of that period, when the world really changed. They art taken near Checkpoint Charlie (from the scafolding overlooking the old wall) and near the Brandenburger Tor.

Berlin November 1989 - Checkpoint Charlie

Berlin November 1989 - Brandenburger Tor

Berlin November 1989 - Brandenburger Tor