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Where were you when the Berlin Wall came down?

World leaders joined thousands of people on Monday to mark 20 years since the Berlin Wall's fall, an event that paved the way for the end of the Cold War. What did it mean to you?

Celebrations at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate - the symbol of German reunification in 1990 – included the toppling of giant dominoes to show how Communist governments fell one after another in 1989.

Communist East Germany built the 155km (96-mile) wall around West Berlin in 1961, to stop East Germans fleeing to the capitalist enclave. It was finally opened on 09 November 1989, after unprecedented mass rallies.

Did the world learn anything from the events of 1961 and 1989? How has the world changed as a result? Could it happen again?

Read the full story

Where is the Berlin Wall now?

A bit of the Berlin Wall in Kent

Published: Monday, 9 November, 2009, 09:12 GMT 09:12 UK

All comments as they come in

Added: Wednesday, 11 November, 2009, 09:25 GMT 09:25 UK

I was at 9 years old and in November 1989 we had moved from north Turkey to west Turkey.I was studying my lesson as i was just at 4th class,i had heard the news about falling of the BErlin wall.At that age i couldnt imagine what was it about but by the time i grow up and lived 6 years abroad now i am 29 i fully agree that it was something needed for the change of the world.i certainly agree to the idea of "no borders "in the world...thanks for this opportunity .hacer/izmir/Turkey

hacer, izmir turkey

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Added: Wednesday, 11 November, 2009, 09:19 GMT 09:19 UK

I was in Romania, I was 14. Communism censorship was so strong at that time that I had no idea that the Berlin wall fell until our Revolution, at the end of December 1989.

Stingo, Amsterdam

Hi Stingo, and what a bad mistake it was to let countries such as Bulgaria and Romania into the EU. Communism was far better and the world was more balanced with the wall. People in Romania did not have to know anything - they had everyhting they needed at home.

Olga, Bucharest

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Added: Wednesday, 11 November, 2009, 09:06 GMT 09:06 UK

To be honest I can't remember where I was. But I remember seeing it at home on TV that evening. It was a very moving and joyful event after the years of the cold war.

[RosieInLondon], London, United Kingdom

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Added: Wednesday, 11 November, 2009, 09:01 GMT 09:01 UK

What a shame that the hope for the world after the wall came down turned to ashes.

Paul Atreides

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Added: Wednesday, 11 November, 2009, 08:59 GMT 08:59 UK

I was in the Army in West Germany at the time, 26 Engineer Regiment, RAOC Stores Section, Corunna Barracks, Iserlohn. Whilst collecting stores as duty driver from around BAOR, there suddenly appeared these little cars with pea shooters for exhaust pipes. They were over loaded with people and possessions. I used to race them on the autobahn between Iserlohn and FOD Dulmen. It's amazing how fast a diesel landrover can go when there's national pride at stake.

paul bean, durham

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Added: Wednesday, 11 November, 2009, 08:39 GMT 08:39 UK

I was hanging out some washing, and it gave me quite a turn.

Roger Stewart, Perth, Australia

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Added: Wednesday, 11 November, 2009, 08:35 GMT 08:35 UK

Sleeping

Adnan Malik

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Added: Wednesday, 11 November, 2009, 08:26 GMT 08:26 UK

I was a wee baby; when I actually grew up I used to get the Berlin Wall confused with Hadrian's Wall. I don't remember how many people I told that I was born the year Hadrian's Wall came down.

Andy Tunstall, Leeds, United Kingdom

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Added: Wednesday, 11 November, 2009, 08:25 GMT 08:25 UK

Well im only 19 coming 20 in January, so I was in my mums womb at the time, I imagin that was comfy :)

I have never got the significance of the Berlin wall as I havent lived during it and was never taught about it during school.
Why was the Berlin wall there? Why did it come down? Whats the big deal?
All questions I have that the labour government didnt provide answers for in my education.
We should stop learning about 1066 and more about events such as this.

Courtney, Belfast

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Added: Wednesday, 11 November, 2009, 08:21 GMT 08:21 UK

I was in London working at the BBC. It came out of the blue. The first reports showed soldiers on top of the wall surrounded by scenes of total confusion and very few people really knew what was going on. Like in the case of many other great events, we are left guessing. Something similar happened in September 2001. I was sitting in my office doing some work for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office when I saw reports about an airplane crashing onto one of the Twin Towers in New York.

Carlos Cortiglia, London, United Kingdom

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Added: Wednesday, 11 November, 2009, 08:20 GMT 08:20 UK

Who cares about the Berlin wall. There are still walls in Belfast. When are they coming down?

[Gort58]

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Added: Wednesday, 11 November, 2009, 08:17 GMT 08:17 UK

In Germany as I had been for years. There were plus points about the DDR, a cooperativeness a sustainability but when the West took over it was a buy out following years of West German support. And the distastful aspect was how normal people spied on their friends an families and denounced them just as happened during the Third Reich. Of course the irony was that I know that the same thing happened in West Germany where politcal movements were spied on by the West Germans: unpalitable fact.

Bryan Hemming

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Added: Wednesday, 11 November, 2009, 07:56 GMT 07:56 UK

I was in school in southern Sweden. There were car ferries to both East and West Germany from our town. For a generation the East Germans had only seen the ferries leave and all of a sudden they could get on. They arrived in droves, easily identified by their clothes, hair, and big eyes as they saw the shop windows in the run up to Christmas. They had no western currency, but the local shopkeepers got together and gave them all vouchers that they could use for a few small purchases.

C.

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Added: Wednesday, 11 November, 2009, 07:37 GMT 07:37 UK

Life is full of walls. The reality of life denotes reality of social, economic and health wellbeing, these problems can be with us all. Richer or pooer. But economic realities are ignored by the real selfish people. Governments. Not as Cameron puts it. Society. He can't say people who walk down my highstreet are selfish. No ! The walls of life are when Governments create poverty by cutting benefits and creating taxes. It's reality. Not an ideal Eton lesson of life!

Nick Donaldson, South Shields

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Added: Wednesday, 11 November, 2009, 07:22 GMT 07:22 UK

I hate to break it to you folks, more than half the world doesn't care or know about the wall. At least not now, after 20 years anyways. Most people in Asia/Africa wouldn't have even heard of Berlin or the Berlin Wall...

Aval, India

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