When the first residents flocked from the east to the west in Berlin on the evening of 9 November 1989, it was clear that nothing would be the same in the future. It is now 29 years since people who did not know each other celebrated the wall's overcoming. In the literal and figurative sense. The fall of the Wall marked the end of the Cold War.

Nobody had planned the events of that evening. Günter Schabowski, the newly appointed Secretary for Information, announced at a press conference to Western journalists shortly before 6 pm that GDR citizens would now be able to travel abroad "without any prerequisites". Insecure and reading directly from his notes, followed followed up a reporters question, “when? with: “this applies immediately, immediately". After the news was quickly spread by unbelieving TV anchors, East Berlin gathered in their hundreds at the border crossings. At 11.30pm, the first barrier opened at Bornholmer Bridge, after midnight all Berlin border crossings were open.

The scenes of that pale Berlin November night, when strangers lay in each others arms, cheering and celebrating - if there is an event that has shaped an entire generation, then its the fall of the Wall. For those who had grown up in the GDR, their lives followed not always an easy time.

A new political system, new money and new freedoms, came along with job loss, many had to reschedule their lives. For Berlin, reunification meant radical change. And between demolition and new construction, major construction sites and traffic chaos, sometimes it was almost forgotten how rapidly Berlin changed and continues to change today.