'Chisels were sold out across Berlin': Euronews remembers the night the wall fell

People climb the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate after the opening of the East German border November 9, 1989.
People climb the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate after the opening of the East German border November 9, 1989. Copyright REUTERS/Herbert KnosowskiReuters
By Naira Davlashyan
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'Chisels were sold out across Berlin': Euronews journalists remember the fall of the wall

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Thirty years ago, the Berlin Wall - which had divided the city, the country, and Europe for decades - collapsed.

Euronews recalls November 9, 1989 and the importance that the reunification of Berlin had for the continent.

Across Berlin, chisels were sold out as people went to take a little piece of the wall, says Sigrid Ulrich, a Euronews journalist in Germany.

"The Easterners, they also came with their hammers," she remembers, "they had big hammers and they just worked out their aggression against this wall."

"If you once heard it once, you would never forget it," she says.

Elena Karaeva, a Euronews journalist in Russia, explains that few Russians were expecting such a dramatic turn of events.

"We realised, something was about to happen, but we couldn’t even imagine it would be the fall of the wall, that’s how unwavering it seemed," she says.

"We had no idea about anything. We didn’t know that West Berlin was under blockade in the 40s, we didn’t know Kennedy arrived there and said 'I am a Berliner'."

Video editor • Naira Davlashyan

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