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One man speaks of crossing to the West in search of opportunity, choosing to leave his family behind and deciding to send back what money he could. The coming down of the wall means that this man will be reunited with his family after so many years away, a moment of joy. Another reveler tells the story of being whisked away by their parents at a young age right after the end of the war, in a desperate attempt to reach West Germany. It was seen, even at the beginning, that the Soviet Union would be a far more rigid determinant in the post-war era as opposed to the lenient west. All across Europe, it would appear as though big political change is on its way. The scars left behind from World War II are now, forty years later, being healed, and it is unforeseen what will happen to the Soviet Union in the future, now that its power in Eastern Europe is waning.

For many viewers at home who fought in World War II, or who have been directly affected by the war, which surely is the vast majority of the viewing world, the tearing down of the Berlin Wall has a special significance. It signifies victory for the West, and the ideals of Freedom and Democracy, and the magnetic pull of the highly efficient free market. Ultimately it was economics which befell East Germany, as the planned economy tumbled to a halt as innovation and inspiration led to a difficult decade. Now West Germany has the responsibility of tending care to the fragile Eastern economy, forcing billions of dollars of spending by the German Parliament as well as from European and American allies. There is another symbol of the fall of the Berlin Wall, however, and that is the belief that meaningful peace in the world can be accomplished by humanity within a generation after the end of World War II, and it only takes discussion and diplomacy to resolve world issues before another devastating war breaks out somewhere else in the world.

November 9th, 1989 will be remembered forever as the day that East Germany decided to reunify with the West, and here at the Berlin Wall, we see that the German people could not be happier. The ever depressing conditions of the East Berliners compared to their Western counterparts has been visible for years, but this repressed feeling has finally brought change to the nation as a whole.